l night long I dreamed of the unhappy
descendant of the Inca who was beneath our roof. Some of the incidents
of which I had read in Peruvian history were strongly mixed up in my
mind with the reality, with the indistinctness which generally occurs in
dreams.

I thought our guest was the mild and unfortunate Huascar, the rightful
Inca of Peru, who was a prisoner in the hands of his fierce brother
Atahualpa when the Spaniards attacked Peru with their small but
determined band of robber-warriors. I thought I was aiding Huascar to
escape from among his brother's army. We had passed the guards, who
were fast asleep, when we came to a broad river. We attempted to swim
across, when I felt my strength failing me. Huascar was bravely
buffeting the stream by my side. Suddenly the bank was lined with
troops. They shouted to us, and let fly a cloud of arrows at the Inca.
He stopped swimming. I endeavoured to drag him on; but as I grasped at
him he sank below the water. The shouts grew louder. I awoke. The
noise was real, for I heard the voices of some men calling in Spanish at
the court-yard gate, and desiring to be let in.

I trembled with alarm; for I at once suspected that the strangers must
be the emissaries of government come in search of our guest. I jumped
up and began to dress myself, intending to go out to inquire who they
were; but before I had left my room I heard Jose, the servant, hold a
parley with them at the gate.

"Who are you," he asked, "who come at this unreasonable hour to disturb
a quiet family?"

"Open in the king's name, and we will let you know," was the answer he
received.

"I must get my master's leave first, and he is fast asleep," he replied.

"We are government officers in search of a fugitive malefactor, and are
benighted on our road; so you must awake your master whoever he is, and
he will not refuse to give us shelter," they exclaimed.

I now went out to join Jose. He was afraid they were robbers; and I
suspected that they by some means knew that the fugitive was harboured
in the house, and only made this a pretext to gain an entrance.
Fortunately my father was not awakened by the noise, or he might have
had more difficulty than had the servant in answering the questions put
by the officers of justice. Opening a slide in the gate through which
he could look out, Jose let the light of the lantern fall on the
strangers, and the inspection convinced him that they were what they
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