Immediately after the recording of this stipulation by the notary, Atahualpa sent out in every direction messengers with instructions to gather and bring to Caxamalca with the least possible delay, the requisite articles for the ransom. The treasures of the inca were chiefly lodged in the royal palaces of Cuzco and Quito and in the temples of the sun throughout the empire. All governors and subalterns were urged to use the utmost alacrity in the execution of this order. Meanwhile the pirates were masters of the situation. Each beastly boor of them was a lord waited on by male and female attendants. They drank from vessels of gold and shod their horses with silver. Their captain was king of kings; one king his prisoner, another his prisoner's prisoner. One of the chroniclers states that shortly after his capture Atahualpa received intelligence of an important battle won by his army on the day of his fall. "Such are the mysteries of fate," exclaimed the unhappy monarch, "at the same moment conquered and a conqueror." Huascar who was at this time confined at Andamarca not far distant from Caxamalca hearing of the capture of Atahualpa and of the immense ransom offered for his release sent to Pizarro offering a much larger amount for his own liberation. Pizarro saw at once the advantage to be derived in acting the part of umpire between these rival claimants to the throne, and consequently the overtures of Huascar were encouraged. But Atahualpa although closely confined was kept fully informed of the events transpiring throughout the empire, and his word was yet law. Pizarro imprudently remarked to him one day, "I wait with impatience the arrival of your brother in order that I may judge between you and render justice where it may be due."[I‑26] Shortly afterward Huascar was secretly put to death; and Pizarro had the mortification of finding himself outwitted by a manacled barbarian. While waiting the gathering of the gold, Hernando Pizarro with twenty horsemen raided the country with rich results. Three soldiers, it is said, were sent by Pizarro under the inca's protection to Cuzco, where after desecrating the temples and violating the sacred virgins they returned to Caxamalca with two hundred _cargas_ of gold and twenty-five of silver, the transportation of which required no less than nine hundred Indians. [Sidenote: GATHERING THE GOLD.]