Page:Gaston Leroux--The bride of the sun.djvu/95

Rh There was also a spectacle far less pleasing to the Spaniards. The lower mountain slopes disappeared under a cloud of white tents, covering an area of several miles. "We were amazed," wrote one of the conquerors, "to find the Indians holding so proud a position, and this sight threw confusion, and even fear, into the staunchest hearts. But it was too late to turn, or to show the slightest weakness, and after carefully exploring the ground, we put on the best faces that we could, and prepared to enter Caxamarxa."

Flowing over with such memories, and wild with excitement at finding himself in a land which he knew so well by hearsay, Uncle Francis stood up in his stirrups, and held forth interminably on the Cajamarca of his dreams. Instructed by Oviedo Runtu, he showed them the exact spot where Atahualpa and his 50,000 warriors had awaited Pizarro. Uncle Francis himself felt no fear of this huge army, massed in the hidden fastnesses of a continent discovered by Christopher Columbus just forty years before Pizarro's wild venture. He felt like a hero of antiquity, and was quite ready to give the order to charge.

There was nobody there to tell them, though, what were the feelings of the Peruvian monarchy when he saw the warlike band of Christians, banners flying, corselets and morions gleaming,