He would feel
contempt for their diminutive numbers. Their horses, their arms
and showy appointments, would be an attractive bait in the eye of
the barbaric monarch, and when conscious that he had the power to
crush their possessors, he would not be slow in finding a pretext
for it. A sufficient one had already occurred in the high-handed
measures of the Conquerors, on their march through his dominions.
But what reason had they to flatter themselves that the Inca
cherished such a disposition towards them? He was a crafty and
unscrupulous prince, and, if the accounts they had repeatedly
received on their march were true, had ever regarded the coming
of the Spaniards with an evil eye. It was scarcely possible he
should do otherwise. His soft messages had only been intended to
decoy them across the mountains, where, with the aid of his
warriors, he might readily overpower them. They were entangled
in the toils which the cunning monarch had spread for them.
Their only remedy, then, was to turn the Inca's arts against
himself; to take him, if possible, in his own snare. There was
no time to be lost; for any day might bring back the victorious
legions who had recently won his battles at the south, and thus
make the odds against the Spaniards far greater than now.
Yet to encounter Atahuallpa in the open field would be attended
with great hazard; and even if victorious, there would be little
probability that the person of the Inca, of so much importance,
would fall into the hands of the victors.
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