]
The Indian monarch, stunned and bewildered, saw his faithful
subjects falling round him without fully comprehending his
situation. The litter on which he rode heaved to and fro, as the
mighty press swayed backwards and forwards; and he gazed on the
overwhelming ruin, like some forlorn mariner, who, tossed about
in his bark by the furious elements, sees the lightning's flash
and hears the thunder bursting around him with the consciousness
that he can do nothing to avert his fate. At length, weary with
the work of destruction, the Spaniards, as the shades of evening
grew deeper, felt afraid that the royal prize might, after all,
elude them; and some of the cavaliers made a desperate attempt to
end the affray at once by taking Atahuallpa's life. But Pizarro,
who was nearest his person, called out with Stentorian voice,
"Let no one, who values his life, strike at the Inca"; *23 and,
stretching out his arm to shield him, received a wound on the
hand from one of his own men, - the only wound received by a
Spaniards in the action. *24
[Footnote 23: "El marquez dio bozes diciendo. Nadie hiera al
indio so pena de la vida." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms.]
[Footnote 24: Whatever discrepancy exists among the Castilian
accounts in other respects, all concur in this remarkable fact, -
that no Spaniard, except their general, received a wound on that
occasion. Pizarro saw in this a satisfactory argument for
regarding the Spaniards, this day, as under the especial
protection of Providence.
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