"They do," he answered.

De Soto, who had been riding in the van, came back to the young cavalier as they neared Xauxa. "We will meet opposition soon," he said. "You can see great bodies of Indians like clouds in the valley below. They are concentrating some

where."

He was correct. They concentrated at Xauxa, where the invaders found the bridge destroyed, and were compelled to ford the stream. The enemy, in vast numbers, were drawn up on the other side to receive them. De Soto and Estevan led the cavalry at a charge, and, plunging into the water with their terrible battle-cry, waded and swam across the stream, so disconcerting the Indians that they fled.

Pizarro halted a few days at Xauxa, and sent De Soto with a detachment of sixty horse, including Estevan and Nicosia, to reconnoitre the country. Drawing near the Sierra of Vilcacauga, they were informed by their scouts that a large body of Indians lay in wait at a dangerous pass in the

mountains.

"What shall we do?" De Soto asked his officers, "wait for the infantry, or press on to Cuzco?"

"Press on to Cuzco," answered the impetuous Estevan, and every one agreed with him. They pushed on with their weary horses, and when they

were fairly entangled in the rocky defiles, a multitude of armed warriors, with terrific yells, seemed to start from every nook and corner of the mountains.

"Holy Virgin preserve us!" cried Nicosia in an undertone, yet loud enough to be heard by Estevan.

Santiago, and at them!" roared the steel-clad warriors of Castile, Like a mountain torrent the Indians rushed down upon the invaders, overturning men and horses in the fury of their assault, so that the foremost files rolled back on those below, spreading ruin and consternation in their ranks. De Soto in vain endeavored to restore order and charge the assailants. The horses were blinded and maddened by the missiles, while the desperate natives, clinging to their necks, heads, legs, and tails, tried to prevent their progress. Estevan cut down two who clung to his horse's head. Nicosia's steed stumbled and fell, and had not Estevan hurled himself between the fallen youth and his enemies, the former would have been run through with Indian spears.

De Soto saw that unless he gained the level ground which opened at some distance before him all would be lost. Cheering on his men with the old battle-cry, which always went to the heart of a Spaniard, De Soto struck his spurs deep into the sides of his maddened charger and shouted:

"Follow all who can!"

Like a thunderbolt he dashed upward, gallantly supported by his troops, and broke through the dark array of Peruvians, shaking them off to the right and left as a spaniel does the water from his sides, and finally succeeded in gaining the plateau. Here, as if by mutual consent, both parties paused.

"It has been a hard struggle," Estevan remarked. De Soto wiped away the blood which flowed from a trifling wound in his face and turned to his men. "Here is a stream of water; let your horses drink," he said.

The Peruvians are all about us," panted one of the almost exhausted officers.

"They will fight no more to-night," returned De Soto. "Darkness is almost on us, and they will wait until light of day to renew the conflict."

Both parties withdrew from the field, taking positions within bow-shot of each other.

"Have we lost many?" asked Estevan, who had been so busily engaged in rescuing Nicosia that he had forgotten to note how the battle was going.

"Several cavaliers were slain, as well as some horses," answered De Soto. "One poor fellow was struck down at my side with a Peruvian battle-axe which clove his skull to the chin.”

"Who directed this assault which came so near to being successful? It was no ordinary leader,