Huaracha appeared, saying:
"Strike, White Lord! It is our hour! The heart is out of them."
The signal was given, and roaring like a hurricane, presently the
Chancas charged. Down the slope they went, I at the head of them with
Huaracha on one side and Kari on the other. The swift-footed Chancas
outran me who was hindered by my mail. We charged in three masses as we
had stood on the ridge, following those open lanes of ground up which
the foe had not come, because these were less cumbered with dead and
wounded. Presently I saw why those of Cuzco had left these lanes untrod,
for of a sudden some warriors, who had outstripped me, vanished. They
had fallen into a pit covered over with earth laid upon canes, of which
the bottom was set with sharp stakes. Others, who were running along
the lanes of open ground to right and left, also fell into pits of which
there were scores all carefully prepared against the day of battle.
With trouble the Chancas were halted, but not before we had lost some
hundreds of men. Then we advanced again across that ground over which
the Inca host had retreated.
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