The party soon came to a broad but shallow stream, which, winding through the meadow, formed a defence for the Inca's position. Across it was a wooden bridge; but the cavaliers, distrusting its strength, preferred to dash through the waters, and without difficulty gained the opposite bank. A battalion of Indian warriors was drawn up under arms on the farther side of the bridge, but they offered no molestation to the Spaniards; and these latter had strict orders from Pizarro - scarcely necessary in their present circumstances - to treat the natives with courtesy. One of the Indians pointed out the quarter occupied by the Inca. *15 [Footnote 15: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Carta de Hern Pizarro, Ms.] It was an open court-yard, with a light building or pleasure-house in the centre, having galleries running around it, and opening in the rear on a garden. The walls were covered with a shining plaster, both white and colored, and in the area before the edifice was seen a spacious tank or reservoir of stone, fed by aqueducts that supplied it with both warm and cold water. *16 A basin of hewn stone - it may be of a more recent construction - still bears, on the spot, the name of the "Inca's bath." *17 The court was filled with Indian nobles, dressed in gayly ornamented attire, in attendance on the monarch, and with women of the royal household. Amidst this assembly it was not difficult to distinguish the person of Atahuallpa, though his dress was simpler than that of his attendants. But he wore on his head the crimson borla or fringe, which, surrounding the forehead, hung down as low as the eyebrow. This was the well-known badge of Peruvian sovereignty, and had been assumed by the monarch only since the defeat of his brother Huascar. He was seated on a low stool or cushion, somewhat after the Morisco or Turkish fashion, and his nobles and principal officers stood around him, with great ceremony, holding the stations suited to their rank. *18 [Footnote 16: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia. tom. III. p. 202. "Y al estanque venian dos canos de agua, uno caliente y otro frio, y alli se templava la una con la otra, para quando el Senor se queria banar o sus mugeres que otra persona no osava entrar en el so pena de la vida." Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y. Conq., Ms.] [Footnote 17: Stevenson, Residence in South America, vol. II. p. 164.] [Footnote 18: Xerez, Conq. del Peru, ap. Barcia, tom. III. p. 196. - Carta de Hern. Pizarro, Ms.