Published October 5, 1907
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London, England
The University Press, Cambridge, U.S.A.
CONTENTS
Chapter
I [Booty from Peru]
II [The Señora Declares a Purpose]
III [Nipping a Conspiracy]
IV [The Inca's Encampment]
V [The Monarch and the Princess Rava]
VI [The Massacre]
VII [Cavalier and Cantinero]
VIII [An Arm of the Inquisition]
IX [Cristoval Meets the Princess]
X [A Royal Ransom]
XI [The Inca's Last Prayer]
XII [Vengeance Foiled]
XIII [Cristoval a Prisoner]
XIV [Pedro to the Rescue]
XV [The Flight]
XVI [Pedro in the Thumbscrews]
XVII [The Fugitives in the Wilderness]
XVIII [The Vale of Xilcala]
XIX [Hearts Perplexed]
XX [Hearts Revealed and Sundered]
XXI [The Señora Descends upon Pedro]
XXII [Rava in the Toils]
XXIII [Rogelio Finds Gall and Wormwood]
XXIV [Pedro Seeks Tidings of Cristoval]
XXV [A Glimpse of Cuzco]
XXVI [The Inca Manco]
XXVII [The Incarial Diadem on a Spanish Saddle-Bow]
XXVIII [Two Comrades Reunited]
XXIX [A March and Another Reunion]
XXX [An Encounter on the Plain of Chita]
XXXI [Inca and Conquistador]
XXXII [The Storm Breaks]
XXXIII [The Doomed City]
XXXIV [In the Burning Palace]
XXXV [The Lurking Morisco]
XXXVI [The Barricades]
XXXVII [A Night Attack and a Deliverance]
XXXVIII [A Tie of Mingled Blood]
XXXIX [Again the Señora Descends]
XL [Glory and Peace]
FOREWORD
This tale is to be of days when the green forest-aisles and mountain trails of America saw the glint of the steel of men in armor. It will have to do with times when the aborigine looked upon the sparkle of lance, the flutter of pennon, the gleam of corselet, helm, and morion, and felt his primeval turf tremble beneath the hoofs of steeds in full panoply. It will tell of plumed and plated cavaliers, "In brave pursuit of chivalrous emprise," who found in the wilderness of the New World adventures no less hardy, and near as strange, as any fabled one encountered by knight of old.
It is easily half forgotten that our continent has its chronicles which link us with the age of chivalry; that its soil once sustained the march of men armed cap-a-pie, as bold of heart, greedy for renown, and thirsty for blood, as ever a crusader. They came, proof-valiant against all peril; of a fire-eating, eager courage surpassed alone by their truculence and cruelty; of a courage to meet not only dangers real, but a myriad direful ones born of fancy. For they were, withal, men of imagination and fine, wide credulity. They peopled the West with Amazons, giants, dragons, and legions of beings of varied and curious monstrosity. They were prepared in mind not only to fight battles, but to encounter sorcerers, witches, and the Fiend himself; to undergo all manner of spells, charms, enchantments, and kindred grisly experiences and phenomena. They sought earnestly, conscientiously, and with diligence, for golden Manoa and its emperor, El Dorado, and for the Fountain of Perpetual Youth. If they failed to come upon these, and did no preternatural deeds, they were none the less heroes, animated by the spirit of knight-errantry, which with them took its final leave of earth.
THE CRIMSON CONQUEST