the square, to keep from getting his feet wet in a puddle of
muddy water which had overflowed from one of the conduits.

"You shrink," cried De Rada, in contempt, "from wetting your feet, who
are about to wade in the blood of the governor! Go back, we will have
none of you."

He had not permitted Perez to take part in the assassination. This
Perez, after the final defeat of the Almagrists, fled to the mountains
where Manco still exercised a fugitive sway over such of his people
{112} as could escape the Spaniards. He was afterward pardoned and
used as a medium of communication between Gasca and the Inca. The
priest viceroy was anxious to be at peace with the Inca, but Manco
refused to trust himself to the Spaniards.

Perez and he were playing bowls one day in the mountains. Perez either
cheated, or in some way incensed the unfortunate Inca, who peremptorily
reproved him, whereupon the Spaniard, in a fit of passion, hurled his
heavy stone bowl at the last of the Incas, and killed him. That was
the end of Perez, also, for the attendants of the young Inca stabbed
him to death.

Thus all those who had borne a prominent part in the great adventures
had gone to receive such certain reward as they merited; which reward
was not counted out to them in the form of gold and silver, or stones
of price. The sway in the new land of the king over the sea was
absolute at last, and there was peace, such as it was, in Peru.

[1] "What is this, Francisco Pizarro?" Balboa asked, in great
astonishment, of his former lieutenant and comrade, meeting him and his
soldiers on the way with the order of arrest. "You were not wont to
come out in this fashion to receive me!"

[2] Magellan had crossed it from the south five years before.

[3] Prescott, to whose remarkable accuracy, considering the time in
which he wrote, the authorities at his command, and the disabilities
under which he labored, I am glad to testify, in view of the prevalent
opinion that his books are literature and not history, says thirteen;
Helps says fifteen, while Markham and Fiske say sixteen. Kirk verifies
Prescott's conclusion with a good argument. One thing there is to
which no one but Prescott seems to have called attention or explained.
Everybody says Ruiz, the old pilot, was the first to follow Pizarro
across the line. If so, he must have stepped back again, probably at
Pizarro's request, for six months later we find him leaving Panama in
charge o