Moreover, to you,
if she can be saved, I will give in marriage her whom you love. Think
before you refuse. I know not whence you come, but this I know: that you
can return thither no more, unless, indeed, you are a spirit. Here your
lot is cast till death. Therefore make it glorious. Perchance you might
fly to the Inca and there become a marvel and a show, furnished with
gold and palaces and lands, but always you would be a servant, while I
offer to you a crown and the rule of a people great and free."
"I care nothing for crowns," I answered, sighing. "Still, such was
Quilla's prayer, perchance the last that ever she will make to me.
Therefore I accept and will serve you and your cause, that seems noble,
faithfully to the end, O Huaracha."
Then I stretched out my hand to him and so our compact was sealed.
On the very next day my work began. Huaracha made me known to his
captains, commanding them to obey me in all things, which, looking on me
as half divine, they did readily enough.
Now, of soldiering I knew little who was a seaman bred, yet as I had
learned, a man of the English race in however strange a country he finds
himself can make a path there to his ends.
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