Page:The Incas of Peru.djvu/337

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THE LAST OF THE INCAS
297

a noise such as would be caused by a vast multitude. He got up and looked out. To his utter amazement, the whole square was covered with a closely packed crowd, all kneeling, and all offering mucha or reverence to the Inca's head. He reported this surprising incident to the Viceroy, who promptly ordered the head to be buried with the body.

Thus ended the famous dynasty of the Incas. It formed a line of wise and capable sovereigns ruling a vast empire on such principles, and with such capacity and wisdom as the world has never seen before or since. Assuredly the story of their rise, their government, and their sorrowful end is worthy of study.

'The execrable regicide,' as Toledo is called on the Inca Pedigrees, was not yet satisfied. He had driven Carlos Inca from his property regardless of right or law. He now banished him to Lima without any suitable provision. With him were expelled his brother Felipe Inca, the clever pupil of Garcilasso's school days, and thirty-five more of the principal Incas. They all perished miserably and in poverty. Saddest of all was the fate of four poor little Inca children; neither their tender age nor their innocence saved them from Toledo's inhuman persecution. They were Quispi Titu, the son of the Inca Cusi Titu Yupanqui, little Martin, son of the murdered Inca Tupac Amaru, and his two daughters, Magdalena and Juana. The boys were received in the house of Don Martin Ampuero of Lima, son of Francisco Ampuero and his wife,