66 The Ravine of the Unhuried Dead. QJuLY^ 



of my purpose. It is moved again. If thy Hernando return in safety 

 from this expedition, he is thine. I give him to thee. Light of the 

 heavens ! / ask of thee a sign ? Not another vcord^ Ualla. The god of 

 thy father shine on thee in his mercy — and now farewell." He pressed 

 her wildly to his bosom for one instant, and then thrust her violently 

 from the apartment. Her foreign protector received her, and, struck by 

 the quivering lip and bloodless cheek of his young captive, demanded, 

 while he gently supported her trembling limbs, what in such brief part- 

 ing had thus wrought on her feelings ? Fearful of revealing her father's 

 strangeness of manner, lest by deferring the proposed expedition she 

 should expose him anew to the horrors of torture, yet afraid to conceal 

 her confused suspicions lest she should endanger the life of Hernando, 

 Ualla could only answer, " There is some busy voice within my bosom 

 which tells me that this shall be a day of wailing and woe ; which whis- 

 pers to me that I shall see my sire no more ; which warns me of — I 

 know not what — O, Hernando, go not with this expedition." " And 

 leave your sire, Ualla, the unprotected prey of Juan }" " Alas, surely 

 no." " What do you dread, gentle Ualla? I will be the protector of your 

 father ; and for me — though I would not exchange that kind look of 

 solicitude for the fair empire of your Incas — it were idle to entertain a 

 thought of fear ; your countrymen — " " It needs not to be told," inter- 

 rupted Ualla, with something of Peruvian feeling, " my countrymen 

 are fallen far too low to be dreaded. For two moons the bow hath lain 

 powerless in my native mountains, nor shall it be strung again. You 

 are masters of the land, nor do I dread that the hand of its servants shall 

 ever rise more against you. No dweller in Peru need be reminded that 

 you have known how to render your dominion sure and inevitable." 

 Hernando smiled, half amused, and half admiring. " And is your 

 father's patriotism so infectious, gentle Ualla ?" he said. " But what 

 then do you fear ?" " I cannot tell — I know not," answered she 

 anxiously. " Deride me not, noble Hernando, for my dark misgivings. 

 Withdraw from me that soldier's smile — you are too brave to know fear 

 yourself, but too generous to deride it in a feeble woman. My father's 

 eye wore a keen and strange look this morning, but — no — I reck not 

 what I say — 'twas nothing — 'twas my own idle imagining. Tell it not to 

 that fearful Juan. Look ! there stands the frightful instrument of anguish 

 still ! My soul is dark this morning. They come — they come to bear 

 my father hence. O, Hernando, farewell — fai'ewell. Let your generous 

 arm protect my father's grey hairs, and look to your own dark locks. 

 The god who made you my enlightener, the god who holdeth all hearts 

 and all hands in his keeping, watch over you — farewell." 



The western mountains were still sleeping in the alternate light and 

 shadow of a sinking moon, when the impatient Spanish chief, accom- 

 panied by a body of military followers, reached the exterior of the gaol- 

 converted palace of Cazique Alpahula. Dreading the escape of so 

 important a prisoner, in any of the dark mountain-holds and recesses, 

 with which he was so well acquainted, and where the necessary separa- 

 tion of the parties, from the narrowness of the passes, might render 

 escape practicable and pursuit impossible, the Spanish general ordered 

 six slaves to be chained to the fetters of the fallen chief. Fernando 

 generously remonstrated against this indignity ; but the cazique, far 

 from receiving this interference with gratitude, only answered, " Young 



