13.]
Others there were of his company, and among them a young cavalier
named Geronimo de Alvarado, who obstinately refused to quit the
field; and shouting out, - "We slew Pizarro! we killed the
tyrant!" they threw themselves on the lances of their conquerors,
preferring death on the battle-field to the ignominious doom of
the gibbet. *29
[Footnote 29: "Se arrojaron en los Enemigos, como desesperados,
hiriendo a todas partes, diciendo cada vno por su nombre: Yo soi
Fulano, que mate al Marques; i asi anduvieron hasta, que los
hicieron pedacos.' Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 19.]
It was nine o'clock when the battle ceased, though the firing was
heard at intervals over the field at a much later hour, as some
straggling party of fugitives were overtaken by their pursuers.
Yet many succeeded in escaping in the obscurity of night, while
some, it is said, contrived to elude pursuit in a more singular
way; tearing off the badges from the corpses of their enemies,
they assumed them for themselves, and, mingling in the ranks as
followers of Vaca de Castro, joined in the pursuit.
That commander, at length, fearing some untoward accident, and
that the fugitives, should they rally again under cover of the
darkness, might inflict some loss on their pursuers, caused his
trumpets to sound, and recalled his scattered forces under their
banners. All night they remained under arms on the field, which,
so lately the scene of noisy strife, was now hushed in silence,
broken only by the groans of the wounded and the dying.
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