If you'll recall, in the story, the dying Pizarro traces the Sign of the Cross on the floor in his own blood, kisses it, and says "Jesus!" before he dies. This is in strict accord with every history on the subject I could find.
But there is a legend to the effect that his last words were somewhat different. I searched the New York Public Library for days trying to find one single historian who would bear out the legend; I even went so far as to get a librarian who could read Spanish and another whose German is somewhat better than mine to translate articles in foreign historical journals for me. All in vain. But if I could have substantiated the legend, the final scene would have read something like this:
Clawing at his sword-torn throat, the fearless old soldier brought his hand away coated with the crimson of his own blood. Falling forward, he traced the Sign of the Cross on the stone floor in gleaming scarlet, kissed it, and then glared up at the men who surrounded him, his eyes hard with anger and hate.
"I'm going to Heaven," he said, his voice harsh and whispery. "And you, you bastards, can go to Hell!"
It would have made one hell of an ending—but it had to be sacrificed in the interests of Truth.
So I rest my case.
I will even go further than that; I defy anyone to point out a single out-and-out lie in the whole story. G'wan—I dare ya!
(SECRET ASIDE TO THE READER; J. W. C., Jr., PLEASE DO NOT READ!)
Ah, but wait! There is a villain in the piece!
I did not lie to you, no. But you were lied to, all the same.