ads, a
gaily ornamented litter or covered palanquin, in which sat a person
richly dressed with the regal border or red fringe of the Incas on his
head. We learnt that he was intended to represent Atahualpa. On
pressed the crowd with shouts and songs towards a large square before
us; there they halted, when from some buildings in which they had been
concealed, appeared another party dressed in armour with guns in their
hands, and one or two small pieces of cannon following them. They all
wore masks, and were intended to represent Spaniards. One more hideous
than the rest was evidently Pizarro, and by his side stood the priest
Vicente de Yalverde. They approached the litter, and the monk addressed
the Inca in a long harangue. Atahualpa replied, when a terrific shriek
was heard; the litter was overthrown, and the Inca was dragged among the
Spaniards. A mock combat took place, but the Indians were driven back;
and then arose the most melancholy cries and groans ever heard. It was
no imitated grief, for to such a pitch had they worked up their
imaginations, that they really fancied that their Inca was again torn
from them. At last they retired, and a new scene in the drama
commenced.

A number of Spaniards came forth from the building to which they had
carried off the Inca, and seated themselves as if holding a council.
Atahualpa was next brought out. He stood, with downcast looks and hands
bound, before his judges, waiting his doom. One man only pleaded his
cause, the others brought forth numberless arguments for his
condemnation--a good satire on those by which the real Inca was judged
to be worthy of death. At length one standing up, pronounced the
representative Atahualpa guilty, ordering him to immediate execution.
No sooner were the words uttered, than there arose from the crowd such
shrieks and cries, that I could scarcely believe them to be feigned.
Amid them the Inca was led to the place of execution, already prepared,
where stood a man with ferocious aspect with an axe uplifted in his
hands. The axe fell, and while the cries and groans increased, as I saw
a bloody head lifted up before me, I thought for an instant that the man
had really been killed. I soon, however, saw that the bloody head was
merely a block of wood, while a piece of cloth was thrown over the
person who had represented the Inca to conceal him from view. The
Indians, however, appeared to be as deeply affected with grief as if
they