But Blasco Nunez could not
bring his soldiers to the charge. They had fled so long before
their enemy, that the mere sight of him filled their hearts with
panic, and they would have no more thought of turning against him
than the hare would turn against the hound that pursues her.
Their safety, they felt, was to fly, not to fight, and they
profited by the exhaustion of their pursuers only to quicken
their retreat.
[Footnote 14: Some of these omens recorded by the historian - as
the howling of dogs - were certainly no miracles. "En esta
lamentable, i angustiosa partida, muchos afirmaron, haver visto
por el Aire muchos Cometas, i que quadrillas de Perros andaban
por las Calles, dando grandes i temerosos ahullidos, i los
Hombres andaban asombrados, i fuera de si." Herrera Hist.
General, dec. 7, lib. 10, cap. 4.]
[Footnote 15: Ibid., ubi supra.]
Gonzalo Pizarro continued the chase some leagues beyond Pastos;
when, finding himself carried farther than he desired into the
territories of Benalcazar, and not caring to encounter this
formidable captain at disadvantage, he came to a halt, and,
notwithstanding his magnificent vaunt about the North Sea,
ordered a retreat, and made a rapid countermarch on Quito. Here
he found occupation in repairing the wasted spirits of his
troops, and in strengthening himself with fresh reinforcements,
which much increased his numbers; though these were again
diminished by a body that he detached under Carbajal to suppress
an insurrection, which he now learned had broken out in the
south.
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