HOW WE TOOK THE CITY OF THE SUN
Although Hartness was a much taller and broader man than the Spaniard,
his long, loose overcoat fitted him well enough for the occasion, and
when he had put on his shako, and wrapped his scarf about his neck so as
to hide his fair beard, he was disguised enough to pass in the darkness
for one of the enemy. We now took the two soldiers who had been with the
officer and visited all the posts. We found four of the sentries who
could not return the password and were therefore enemies. These we
disarmed and bound instead of killing them, for I could see that what I
had done had pleased my friend but little, though he saw that in such a
desperate venture as ours it was necessary to use desperate measures.
When we had gone the rounds and made sure of all, we buried the two dead
men, and took our prisoners into one of the caves under the carved
stones. Then I posted my men so as to guard all the approaches from the
city to the Rodadero, and after that I went with Hartness to the hidden
hole by the Sayacusca, and showed him how the way to the Hall of Gold
was opened. I did this so that the secret might be in good and safe
hands if I should fall in battle, and so that he should be able to
properly protect the welfare of Ruth and Golden Star, and fulfil my
promises to himself and the professor.
When I had turned the stone and showed him the chain, I pulled it up and
supported it as I had done before, only this time I used the carbine
which had belonged to the sentry I had killed, and to the stock of this
I fastened a long rope which Tupac had hidden there by my orders. This
rope I stretched out along the ground, hiding it as well as I could, in
a straight line away from the Sayacusca. The end I led into the entrance
of one of the many passages or tunnels which ran under the carved
stones. By the time I had done this the water had all flowed away, and
Hartness said to me,--
'Are you going to leave the entrance to your treasure-house open like
that for His Excellency to walk into to-morrow?'
'Yes,' I said, 'but it is only half open. Unless the door below is open
too there is no way out or in save this and the channel through which
the waters flow, so that His Excellency will not find much down there.'
'I see,' he said, 'a trap, and not one that I should care to see a
friend of mine walk into. But you don't mean to drown them all like rats
in a hole, do you?'
'I cannot tell that yet,' I said. 'If we can take them alive we may do
so, but unless they yield to us they shall yield to the water. Now,
everything is ready, and we have only to wait. Come and sleep for a
little and I will keep watch, and then I will sleep and you shall watch.
It will not be daylight for six hours yet, and we can do nothing more
till then.'
We went to the cavern in which I had hidden the end of the rope, and he
lay down on the soft, clean sand, and, soldier-like, was fast asleep
almost as soon as he had lain down. I left him there, and made the round
of the guards and spoke with the men, telling them as much as it was
necessary for them to know of my plans for the next day, and allowed
half of them to take two or three hours' rest, with their arms ready at
hand, while the others watched, and then I went back to Hartness and
told him to wake me in three hours, and soon was fast asleep in his
place. He came and woke me at daylight and told me that everything was
still quiet and that the sentries were all in their places.
Then, when we had breakfasted on the food that we had brought with us
from the fortress, we called in all the sentries save the two by the
Gate of Sand, and hid them among the stones and bushes, all within an
easy rifle-shot of the entrance to the water-cavern. I bade the two I
had left by the gate tell the Governor that all was well, and, when he
had ridden by, to mix with the soldiers and tell those who were for me
to separate from the others as soon as they heard my signal-cry, and
then to wait for the English captain.
For nearly an hour we sat and watched for the coming of the enemy, and
then at last we saw a troop of horse come up out of the valley round the
end of the fortress. After them came some officers on horseback, with
the Governor riding at their head, and then another troop of horse, in
all about three hundred men. The first troop, led by the Governor and
his officers, came on towards the Sayacusca, and the others halted and
spread themselves out along the ridge that runs round it. When they saw
the empty hole and the steps leading down into the darkness, they all
crowded round, peering down into it. Then two lanterns were lighted and
some of them went down.
They had all dismounted from their horses and were indulging their
curiosity without suspicion. I waited till they were nearly all in my
trap, and then came the moment to close it. My long, wailing cry rang
out loud and shrill through the hollow, and was taken up by my men in
hiding, and in an instant all was confusion. I heard my name shouted
from one to the other, and saw more than half of the troopers in the
hollow leave their ranks and gallop away towards the plain. Then I took
aim at a trooper who was watching the officer's horses, and fired. The
bullet struck his horse, and it reared up and threw him, and then fell
and lay kicking on the ground. At this all the others took fright and
broke loose and galloped away in all directions. At the same instant the
rifles of my men began cracking all round, and saddle after saddle was
emptied as the bullets found their marks.
'I'm going to catch one of those horses,' said Hartness suddenly to me,
'then I'll ride out and bring those other fellows up and show them what
to do. That'll be more in my line than this sort of work. Good-bye; you
will see or hear of me again before long.'
The next moment he was gone, and I had not fired many more shots before
I saw him, mounted on one of the officers' horses, galloping through the
hollow towards the ridge. All this time none of my men had shown
themselves, and the constant stream of shots coming from all sides of
them had thrown the Governor's troops into utter confusion. The officers
were shouting orders which no one listened to, the horses were galloping
wildly about, rearing and plunging with the pain of their wounds, and
many of the soldiers had already taken to flight, believing, in their
panic, that the hollow was full of hidden enemies.
We kept up the fire from our hiding-places until we heard shouts and
cheers coming from the ridge, and I looked and saw Hartness with a drawn
sword in his hand, leading a body of some hundred and fifty troopers
down into the hollow.
Now I saw that we should be able to end the battle quickly, so I sent up
my signal-cry again and called for my own men to come out. Then I pulled
the rope and released the chain, and ran out towards my men, shouting to
them to close round the entrance to the water-cavern and shoot all who
tried to get out. Some three or four sought to escape and were shot, and
then the rest, seeing my men running at them with the bayonet, and the
other troopers coming up, led by a stranger, lost heart, and crowded
back into the cleft, firing their revolvers wildly as they went.
The next moment we heard cries of terror coming up out of the darkness,
mingled with the rushing of water, and the Governor, followed by about
six of his officers, came leaping up the steps to find a line of
bayonets drawn up across the mouth. With the waters surging up behind
them, and the bayonets in front of them, there was nothing for them but
surrender or death.
Hartness, who had now dismounted, ordered the men to fall back a pace,
and, as they did so, he went through the line with his sword in one hand
and a revolver in the other, and said to the Governor,--
'Señor, will you yield or go back down yonder?'
'We must yield,' said the Governor, 'since there is no choice. But who
are you, and what are you, an Englishman, doing here in arms against the
Government?'
'Who I am matters nothing just now,' he replied, 'and as for your
Government, it no longer exists. That must be enough for you. Now,
señores, give up your swords and revolvers quietly and no harm shall
come to you. You, Señor Prada, give your sword to this caballero here,
who is the Inca Vilcaroya and lawful ruler of this country.'
The Governor turned and stared at me, dumb with amazement at these
strange words, and all the others stared too, for, like him, they had
no doubt heard the legend of my strange fate. He drew his sword, and as
he did so I covered him with my revolver, and extended my hand to take
it. He held the hilt out to me with a trembling hand. I took it in
silence, and then I turned from him and said to my men,--
'Bring these Spaniards out and bind them safely, then follow me to the
Seat of the Incas.'
When they saw that the victory was with us, and that the Governor
himself was our prisoner, together with many of the chief of his
officers, those of the soldiers who had not been for me when they came
were glad enough now to secure themselves by shouting my name and
obeying my orders, and when I moved away towards the seat, they followed
me, laughing and cheering, well pleased to see their hated masters
prisoners in their midst.
The great carved rock which is called the Inca's Seat is, as I have
already said, a great rounded mass of stone rising up from the plain of
the Rodadero, and carved into many seats. On the top there are three
broad seats, the middle one higher than all the rest, and it was here
that my forefathers had sat to watch the building of the great fortress,
and sometimes to give audience to their people.
Now I sat on it, and the soldiers drew themselves up round the rock,
with the prisoners in the midst of them, and I spoke to them, and told
them freely of the strange things that had happened to me, and how I had
come back to the Land of the Four Regions to drive out their oppressors
and restore the just and gentle rule of my ancestors. Then I had the
Governor brought up and stood before me, and bade Francis Hartness come
and sit on my right hand and speak to him for me, and by his lips I told
him that unless the city was surrendered to me before evening he and all
his officers should die, and all the houses of the Spaniards in the city
should be given to the flames and no pity shown to any man, woman or
child of them, for as they had treated my people so I had sworn to treat
them unless they yielded.
You may think how troubled he was at hearing such words as these, since
he knew from what he had seen that there was conspiracy and treachery
among his own men, and he had no knowledge of how far this had gone, or
which of his men he could trust, and so this man, who but a few hours
before had been master of the whole valley, and had looked upon the
Indios, as he called them, as little better than slaves, now answered me
humbly enough and prayed me not to murder him when he was helpless in my
power. And to this I answered him that the blood of my people had been
crying out for many generations against his people, and that this was
the day not of mercy but of vengeance, and that I would do as I had said
unless the city were delivered to me.
Then I descended from the seat and mounted the Governor's horse, and
after I had sent a company of twelve men to ride quickly down to the
city and go through all the streets, shouting my name as a signal to
tell my people that all was well, and that the moment for them to rise
against their oppressors had come, I took my place beside Hartness at
the head of our little army, and with our prisoners well guarded close
behind us we set out on our way back to Cuzco.
As we approached the city we heard the sound of the church-bells being
rung wildly, and looking down, we could see the streets and squares full
of people, and as we got nearer still we heard the cracking of rifles
and the shouts and cries of men in conflict.
'There is either a fight or a riot going on down there,' said Hartness
to me, 'and if many of the soldiers remain faithful to the Government
there'll be some bloodshed before to-night. Have you any idea how many
there are?'
'There were more than two thousand soldiers in the city yesterday,' I
said, 'and out of these more than half have already taken my gold and
sworn faith to me. Of the rest many are wavering, and when they see we
have taken the Governor prisoner I think they will come over.'
'Very likely,' he said; 'but how about those machine-guns in the
barracks? There are three Gatlings and two Maxims, and if they keep
those and work them properly they'll just sweep the streets and squares
clear, you know.'
'I have promised fifty pounds' weight of gold for each of them,' I said;
'and, more than that, there should be no ammunition for them by this
time if what the sentries told us is true.'
'Yes,' he said, 'if we can get hold of that, or even the best part of
it, I don't think there will be much danger. However, as everything
depends on that, I think we had better go straight to the Cuartel first.
If we have that we have Cuzco.'
We entered the city by the street of El Triunfo, and made our way
straight to the great Plaza. As we rode along three abreast we were
greeted by joyful cries from the crowds of Indians who parted to leave a
way for us through the midst of them. Tupac and his comrades had done
their work well, and all night the people had been thronging into the
city from the surrounding country. All the shops and houses of the
Spaniards were already shut up, and although none knew the truth of what
was happening, all thought that the revolution had already broken out in
Cuzco and so had made themselves as safe as they could.
A little way from the entrance to the great square we came upon Tupac at
the head of some two hundred of the men of San Sebastian, armed with
knives and guns and pistols of all sorts which they had taken during the
night from the towns and villages around, where they had been doing the
work I had bidden them do. He told me that there were more than a
thousand soldiers in the city waiting only for me to show myself to kill
their officers and come over to us, and that the others would fight
without heart, if they fought at all, now that the Governor was
taken--for half of the people of Cuzco were for the Government and half
for the Revolution, and so the city would be divided against itself and
all would be confusion as soon as the fighting began.
He also told me that the official who is called the Sub-Prefect had
brought out two of the machine-guns and had planted them at each end of
the terrace in front of the cathedral, and made a proclamation that
unless everyone left the streets within an hour he would have them
cleared with bullets.
When I told this to Hartness he said,--
'Then we must have those two guns first. Tell Tupac to break his men up
into little bands of about half-a-dozen each and send them round into
all the streets leading to the square, and tell everyone that isn't
armed to keep out of the way if they don't want to get hurt. Then you
ride on with the prisoners and a guard of fifty men, and let them be
ready to shoot sharply. Tell them to aim at the knees and not to empty
their magazines too fast. I'll look after the guns. They won't fire on
you for fear of killing the Governor and the rest. Now, forward!'
I did as he said. Tupac's men broke up and disappeared as though by
magic. I took the reins of the horse on which the Governor was bound and
bade half-a-dozen of my men to do the same with the others. Then two and
two we trotted into the square, Tupac running along by my horse's head.
It was covered with groups of people all talking and looking and
pointing about them, and on the terrace before the cathedral there were
two companies of soldiers, one at each end, drawn up behind a
machine-gun.
As soon as the people saw me ride in with the Governor bound beside me a
great shout went up and many came running towards me, but I waved them
back and shouted to them to leave the square and guard all the streets
leading into it. I did this so that those who understood me, and were
therefore friends, might escape out of harm's way before the guns began
to fire.
Then I drew my revolver and put it to the Governor's head and bade Tupac
tell him to order the men away from the guns, and that if a shot was
fired he should be the first to die.
So, as there was no help for it, he did so, and called to the officers
to come down and speak with him, but instead of obeying they shouted
some orders to their men and I saw them making ready to fire the guns,
for, as we found out afterwards, they were men who would have joined the
revolution when it broke out.
But before the guns could be trained on us Hartness's troop swung round
into the square. The twenty foot soldiers sent a volley along the
terrace, firing low as he had told them, and killing and wounding nearly
half of the men at the guns. Then there came a rattling volley from the
cavalry and another from my own men, and then, with a great shout and a
clattering of hoofs, Hartness leapt his horse up the steps at the end
of the terrace, where the street slopes up nearly level with it at the
back by the cathedral, and charged down on the rear of the enemy just as
the gun was swung round.
As he did this I led my men round to the other end of the terrace, where
I saw that the men had begun fighting among themselves, and thus I knew
that some of them were our friends and were seeking to prevent the
others from training the gun on us. I halted, and ordered thirty of my
men to dismount and take the gun, which they did with very little
trouble, for the others, seeing how they were outnumbered, either threw
down their arms and ran away, or surrendered. Two of the officers were
killed and another one taken prisoner.
Meanwhile Hartness had cleared the other end of the terrace, and taken
the other gun after killing nearly every man who had defended it. But
scarcely had this been done than we heard the rattle of drums and the
sound of bugles, and saw two columns of men marching at the double out
of the Plaza Del Cabildo, where the barracks are, and the other past the
Church of the Jesuits, which is at the other end of the square.
'Are those friends or enemies, or both?' Hartness asked me, when he had
ordered the two guns to be trained, one on each of the columns, and sat
down behind one of them himself.
'If there are friends among them,' I said, 'they know what to do, and
when they have done it you can fire.'
Even as I spoke the two columns seemed to break up. Scores of men broke
out of the ranks, shouting my name and cheering, and these all ran
together towards the fountain in the middle of the square. The rest
stopped in wonder and confusion, their officers shouting furiously at
them, and ordering them to fire on the deserters. Some obeyed, others,
when they saw the guns trained on them, ran away and hid themselves in
doorways, and then Hartness gave the order to fire.
Instantly every sound was drowned by the terrible voices of the
machine-guns. Hartness glanced once along the barrel of his, and then
sent a torrent of bullets full into the middle of the broken column that
had come down from the Plaza Del Cabildo. Then he moved it a little from
side to side, and then stopped. When the smoke had drifted away I saw
that there was not a living being in that corner of the square, only
huddled heaps of corpses and bodies of animals. Then he turned the gun
on the other corner into which the other gun was firing, and soon not a
man or an animal was left alive there also.
When the firing ceased there were none left in the square but those who
had declared for us. Hartness immediately formed these into two columns.
He led one of them, with one gun at the head, into the street past the
Church of the Jesuits, and I led the other with the second gun into the
other street leading to the Cuartel, and up these two streets we fought
our way into the Plaza Del Cabildo, in which we could hear more fighting
already going on.
When we at last gained the square we found a furious fight going on in
front of the Cuartel between one body of men who were defending the
building and another that was attacking it, but which of these were
friends or foes we did not know until Tupac, heedless of the flying
bullets, ran out shouting in Quichua that Vilcaroya had come. Shouts and
cheers from the Cuartel soon told us that our friends had got possession
of it, and after the city was won I learned that when the two columns
had started, leaving a third drawn up in the square before the Cuartel,
those who were for us, remembering what I had said about the gold that I
would give for the machine-guns and the ammunition, had broken their
ranks and made a rush for the doors to secure the three guns which were
in the courtyard, and so the fight had begun, they seeking to hold the
Cuartel against the others until help came.
As soon as I knew which were our enemies, by their bullets coming
singing about our ears, I had the gun trained on them, and gave the word
to fire. But no sooner had it begun to rain its tempest of death than we
heard the other one speak from the other end of the square, and such a
storm of bullets swept across the Plaza that before many moments had
passed there was not a man or beast left alive in it.
Then, when the firing ceased again, those who had held the Cuartel, and
had taken shelter in it as soon as the machine-guns began to play, threw
open the doors to us and came out to welcome us, and Francis Hartness
and I clasped hands as victors, and for the time being, at least,
masters of the ancient City of the Sun, for with the Cuartel we had
taken all the arms and ammunition stored up in Cuzco, including the
three Gatling guns and the two Maxims; and more than this, the whole of
the native population of the valley was in our favour.
The fighting was now over, save for conflicts that were going on in
different parts of the city between the Spaniards and the Indians, and I
at once had the Governor brought before me in the Cuartel and told him
by the lips of Hartness to write a proclamation surrendering the city to
us and ordering all the officials to come in and make their submission
before sundown, threatening fire and sack to every Spanish house if it
was not done. This he did, knowing well what would befall him if he
refused. At the same time Hartness made a proclamation in my name in
English and Spanish promising perfect freedom and security to all
foreign merchants in the region that was under our command.
It was then about mid-day, and when I had given Francis Hartness full
authority to act in my name as Governor of the city, which, speaking
fluent Spanish as he did, he could do better than I, I took a guard of
fifty men and went with Tupac back to the Rodadero, and took ten of the
men into the Hall of Gold and bade them carry out as much as they could,
so that I might keep my promise to the soldiers who had been faithful to
me, and while they were doing this I went with Tupac to Djama's cell and
found him wailing and crying like a little child, and beating his hands
on the golden wall of his prison and praying most piteously for a sight
of the daylight and a breath of the fresh air of heaven.
The Spaniard, when he heard us coming, began to shriek and scream, and I
bade Tupac tell him that I would gag him for a day and a night if he did
not cease his cries. But to Djama I told what had happened, and how
Cuzco was already mine, and promised I would let him out for a little
while the next day if he would keep silence for half-an-hour, and
hearing this, he ceased his cries, and I went on to the throne-room to
take the news of our victory to Ruth and Golden Star.