scandalized by the indignity offered to the sacred
volume, stayed only to pick it up, and, hastening to Pizarro, informed
him of what had been done, exclaiming at the same time: "Do you not see
that, while we stand here wasting our breath in talking with this dog,
full of pride as he is, the fields are filling with Indians? Set on at
once! I absolve you." Pizarro saw that the hour had come. He waved a
white scarf in the air, the appointed signal. The fatal gun was fired
from the fortress. Then, springing into the square, the Spanish captain
and his followers shouted the old war-cry of "St. Iago and at them!"

It was answered by the battle-cry of every Spaniard in the city, as,
rushing from the avenues of the great halls in which they were
concealed, they poured into the plaza, horse and foot, each in his own
dark column, and threw themselves into the midst of the Indian crowd.
The latter, taken by surprise, stunned by the report of artillery and
muskets, the echoes of which reverberated like thunder from the
surrounding buildings, and blinded by the smoke which rolled in
sulphurous volumes along the square, were seized with a panic. They knew
not whither to fly for refuge from the coming ruin. Nobles and
commoners, all were trampled down under the fierce charge of the
cavalry, who dealt their blows right and left without sparing; while
their swords, flashing through the thick gloom, carried dismay into the
hearts of the wretched natives, who now, for the first time, saw the
horse and his rider in all their terrors.

They made no resistance, as, indeed, they had no weapons with which to
make it. Every avenue to escape was closed, for the entrance to the
square was choked up with the dead bodies of men who had perished in
vain efforts to fly; and such was the agony of the survivors under the
terrible pressure of their assailants that a large body of Indians, by
their convulsive struggles, burst through the wall of stone and dried
clay which formed part of the boundary of the plaza! It fell, leaving an
opening of more than a hundred paces, through which multitudes now found
their way into the country, still hotly pursued by the cavalry, who,
leaping the fallen rubbish, hung on the rear of the fugitives, striking
them down in all directions.

Meanwhile the fight, or rather massacre, continued hot around the Inca,
whose person was the great object of the assault. His faithful nobles,
rallying about him, threw themselves i