As I did so I looked back. The battle still raged but it seemed to me
with less fury than before. It was as though both sides were weary of
slaughter, their leaders being fallen. The litter was borne forward,
till at length the noise of shouting and tumult grew low. Twisting
myself round I peered through the back curtains and saw that the Inca
host and that of the Chancas were separating sullenly, neither of them
broken since they carried their wounded away with them. It was plain
that the battle remained drawn for there was no rout and no triumph.
I saw, too, that I was entering the great city of Cuzco, where women
and children stood at the doors of the houses gazing, and some of them
wringing their hands with tears upon their faces.
Passing down long streets and across a bridge, I came to a vast square
round which stood mighty buildings, low, massive, and constructed of
huge stones. At the door of one of these the litter halted and I was
helped to descend. Men beautifully clad in broidered linen led me
through a gateway and across a garden where I noted a marvellous thing,
namely: that all the plants therein were fashioned of solid gold with
silver flowers, or sometimes of silver with golden flowers.
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