Inca, freely offering their breasts to the Spanish
blades with the vain attempt to protect their monarch.

Atahualpa sat upon his reeling throne gazing upon the bloody scene in a
daze of surprise. Pizarro and the twenty chosen cut their way to the
litter and, striking down the helpless bearers thereof, precipitated
the Inca to the ground. The Spaniards were mad with carnage now, and
were striking indiscriminately at any Indian. Then could be heard
Pizarro's stern voice ringing above the melee, "Let no man who values
his life strike at the Inca!" Such was the fierceness of his soldiery,
however, that in his frenzied attempt to protect the monarch, Pizarro
was wounded in one of his hands by his own men. As the Inca fell, he
had been caught by Pizarro and supported, although a soldier named
Estete snatched the imperial _llauta_ from his head as he fell.

With the capture of the Inca, what little futile resistance the unarmed
host had been able to make ceased. The Indians, relentlessly pursued
by their bloody conquerors, fled in every direction, and, to anticipate
events, the army deprived of its monarch and its generals, dispersed
the next day without striking a blow. Indeed the army was helpless for
offence while the Spaniards held the Inca as a hostage.

The estimates of the numbers slain in one half-hour's fighting in the
square of Caxamarca vary from two to ten thousand. Whatever the
number, it was great and horrible enough. An unparalleled act of
treachery had been consummated, and Peru, in the space of thirty
minutes had been conquered and Pizarro held {85} it in the hollow of
his hand. Not a Spaniard had been wounded except Pizarro himself, and
his wound had been received from his own men while he tried to protect
Atahualpa from the Spaniards' fury.

V. The Ransom and Murder of the Inca

Pizarro treated the Inca well enough, although he held him in rigorous
captivity. Nobody else in Peru seemed to know what to do under the
circumstances, and the Spaniards soon lost all apprehension of
resistance. Quiz-Quiz and Chalcuchima still held Huascar a captive at
Xuaca, a fortress between Caxamarca and Cuzco. Atahualpa, realizing
how important such a man would be to the Spaniards, sent orders that he
be put to death and the unfortunate deposed Inca was therefore executed
by the two generals. Although he was captive, Atahualpa's orders were
as implicitly obeyed as if he had been free. He was still the Inc