Accustomed to danger Pizarro acts on the instant, directs his chief officer Francisco de Chaves to make fast the door, and steps into an adjoining room with his half-brother, Martinez de Alcántara, to arm himself. Chaves springs forward and closes the door, but instead of securing it he parleys with the assailants who are now at the top of the stairs. A sword thrust into the officer's breast cuts short the conference, and the body is flung below. Perceiving blood, most of the guests fly, climbing over a corridor and dropping to the ground; two or three who had come forward with Chaves are quickly despatched by the conspirators. Although his armor is ill-adjusted Pizarro springs forward sword in hand. "How now, villains! would you murder me?" cries this veteran of a hundred fights. Then to Alcántara, "Let us hold bravely against these traitors, for I swear to God we two are enough to slay them all." The men of Chile fall back before him, but only for a moment; again crowding forward one after another of the conspirators is stretched on the ground. The conquest however is too unequal to continue; yet after Alcántara, the two pages of the governor, and every person present except the chief lie dead upon the floor, Pizarro still fights on. At length Rada, exasperated, grasps one of his comrades, named Narvaez, and hurls him against Pizarro's sword. It is death to Narvaez, but it is victory for Almagro; for while the sword of Pizarro is sheathed in the body of the luckless conspirator, the weapon of another strikes him in the throat, and brings him to the floor. "Kill him! kill him!" cry the assailants as they close round the fallen chieftain, thrusting into his body their swords.[I‑35] True to his religious instincts, the expiring hero raises himself on his arm, traces with his own blood upon the floor the sacred emblem of his faith, sighing "Jesu Cristo!" then while he bows his head to kiss the cross which he had made, a blow more dastardly than all the rest terminates his eventful life. Thus perish in sanguinary brawl, each by the hand of the other, these renowned chieftains, whose persistent steadfastness of purpose and manly courage under difficulties were equalled only by their avarice, treachery, and infamous cruelty. The bloody work accomplished, the conspirators rush forward and cry, "Long live the king! The tyrant is dead! Long live our lawful governor Almagro!" The Almagroists continue in power till the latter part of 1542, when they are exterminated by Vaca de Castro, sent as commissioner by the crown to quiet the country. Almagro is executed, and the name becomes extinct. Juan Pizarro is killed by the Indians while capturing the fortress of Cuzco, and after the defeat of Vasco Nuñez Vela at Añaquito had been avenged by the execution of Gonzalo Pizarro at Xaquixaguana, the affairs of Peru lapse into the hands of the viceroys.[I‑36] CHAPTER II. CASTILLA DEL ORO. 1527-1537.