instigating these proceedings is free from all
bias or personal ill will; that you are animated therein solely by
anxiety for the public welfare, and that you will say no word save what
you, personally, know to be the truth."

"All this I swear!" answered Huanacocha, raising his right hand aloft.

"It is well," commented the High Priest. "Proceed now with your
charges."

"My Lord," answered Huanacocha, "my first and most serious charge
against the young man who sits there, and whom we have for these many
months past honoured and served as the re-incarnated Manco Capac, the
father and founder of our nation, is that he is an impostor, with no
right or title whatsoever to the service and reverence which we have
given him.

"My second charge," continued Huanacocha, "which, however, should be
preferred by you rather than by me, O Villac Vmu, is that this youth has
blasphemously forbidden us any longer to worship our Lord the Sun, our
Father and Benefactor, and the Giver of all good gifts, and has
commanded that we shall worship instead Pachacamac, whom he calls God,
of whom we know little or nothing, and whom we have never until now been
bidden to worship. I am strongly opposed to this change of religion--
for it amounts to nothing less--as is everybody else with whom I have
spoken on the subject. We all fear that such change will certainly
bring disaster and ruin upon the nation. There are other charges which
could be preferred against the prisoner," concluded Huanacocha; "but I
am content that the case against him shall rest upon those which I have
already enumerated."

"It is well," commented Xaxaguana. "My Lord Huanacocha, the gratitude
of the community is due to you for the public spirit which has prompted
you to come forward and perform what we all recognise to be an
exceedingly disagreeable task, and doubtless the public generally will
be careful to see that your disinterestedness is suitably rewarded. Is
there anyone present who desires to support the charges preferred
against the prisoner by my lord?"

There was. The ball of high treason once set rolling, everybody seemed
anxious to add to its momentum, and man after man came forward, either
to support the charges made by Huanacocha, or to ventilate some petty
grievance, real or imaginary, of his own, until at length so much time
had been consumed that Xaxaguana, growing impatient, refused to listen
to any further evidence. He then turned to Escombe