Yet these, in turn, at length rallied, cheered on by the cries
and desperate efforts of their officers. The lances were
shivered, and they fought hand to hand with swords and
battle-axes mingled together in wild confusion. But the struggle
was of no long duration; for, though the numbers were nearly
equal, the viceroy's cavalry, jaded by the severe march of the
previous night, *24 were no match for their antagonists. The
ground was strewn with the wreck of their bodies; and horses and
riders, the dead and the dying, lay heaped on one another.
Cabrera, the brave lieutenant of Benalcazar, was slain, and that
commander was thrown under his horse's feet, covered with wounds,
and left for dead on the field. Alvarez, the judge, was mortally
wounded. Both he and his colleague Cepeda were in the action,
though ranged on opposite sides, fighting as if they had been
bred to arms, not to the peaceful profession of the law.
[Footnote 24: Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 5, cap. 35.]
Yet Blasco Nunez and his companions maintained a brave struggle
on the right of the field. The viceroy had kept his word by
being the first to break his lance against the enemy, and by a
well-directed blow had borne a cavalier, named Alonso de
Montalvo, clean out of his saddle. But he was at length
overwhelmed by numbers, and, as his companions, one after
another, fell by his side, he was left nearly unprotected. He
was already wounded, when a blow on the head from the battle-axe
of a soldier struck him from his horse, and he fell stunned on
the ground.
Pages:
877
878
879
880
881
882
883
884
885
886
887
888
889
890
891
892
893
894
895
896
897
898
899
900
901