And now we see the stage set for the tragic sequel. Bare rocky floor. Grim eyeless blocks of building. An illimitable sky, grey and pitiless. On one side a horde of fierce barbarians consumed by primeval passion to resist the entry of an alien force. On the other, a handful of white soldiers, who though armed can make no concerted defence because they have foolishly drawn apart from one another. There is no path of escape, no possible signal for help to those below. Suddenly a hideous war-cry rends the air, and every Spaniard is assailed by mad savages with war-clubs or is pierced with arrows. From house-tops huge stones are hurled. Brave and alert, the Spaniards sell their lives dearly in a terrible hand-to-hand struggle. Don Juan and Zutucapán meet in mortal combat and the valiant officer falls beneath the blow of a massive war-club. Swift and short we may believe the onset, till, breathless, the few Spaniards still alive succeed in getting together. Wounded, but not beyond effort, Captain Tobar and four of the soldiers, pushing and being pushed, finally reach the edge of the abrupt cliffs at the same moment. With a last desperate effort, and we may think by common though unspoken consent, they determine to die by throwing themselves over the precipice, since to die seems all that is left them. By what even then was deemed a miracle, only one of the five was killed in that fearful jump of one hundred and fifty feet. It is supposed that they must have landed on the sand that is heaped at certain places against the base of the cliffs. At all events, the other four were rescued by their companions below, and, probably because of the fear still felt by the Indians for horses, the camp was left unmolested by the victorious savages long enough for the Spaniards to regain some strength; being under the overhanging rocks they were safe from missiles thrown from above. [Illustration: THE FORTRESS HOUSE OF ÁCOMA _Fr. O’Sullivan_] But fear lest this treachery of the Ácomas was only the prelude to a general uprising of all the pueblos made the Spaniards decide to break camp at once. Separating into small bands of three or four men, they went by different routes, some to warn Oñate of his peril, and others over the arid miles to San Juan, to provide such defence as was possible there for the women and children. The scheme succeeded, and by the end of the year 1598 all the Spaniards in New Mexico were assembled at San Juan. Oñate, waiting at Zuñi for Zaldívar, had become anxious, and had retraced his path so far as a camp called El Agua de la Peña. There he was met by Bernabé de las Casas,[59] “who with six companions had come with the sad news of the occurrence at Ácoma, and of the death of Don Juan de Zaldívar with other captains and soldiers.”[60]