Almagro's personal followers were disgusted with the rude poverty they had found in Chile, and saw little chance of valuable spoil unless their leader should secure the fertile plateaux of Titicaca, Cuzco, and Arequipa. They urged him to seize by force what he believed to belong to him. After the flight of Manco his army reached Cuzco before the force which Pizarro was sending up had penetrated nearer than a hundred miles. Hernando Pizarro had two hundred men at Cuzco, but they were exhausted with long months of fighting against the Indian besiegers and could offer no effective resistance to the night attack by which Almagro surprised them. Hernando and his brother Gonzalo were captured and imprisoned, and Almagro advanced against the army from Lima and defeated it. "This," exclaimed Pizarro, when he heard the news, "is Almagro's return to me, after losing a beloved and gallant brother, and spending all I possess in pacifying the country. I mourn for the danger of my brothers, but still more that two friends in their old age should plunge into a civil war to the injury alike of the King's service and of Peru." From this moment all the powers of his great mind and the resources of his profound cunning were devoted to securing his brothers' safety first, and afterwards revenge upon Almagro. Willing to agree to anything rather than leave them in the hands of enemies whom he knew to be as coldly cruel as himself and far more bloodthirsty, he sent ambassadors to treat for the liberation of Hernando and Gonzalo. But Almagro thought he held the whip hand, and marched his victorious army across the Cordillera opposite Cuzco and up the coast nearly to Lima, declaring his intention of founding a capital for his government in the valley of Chincha, and announcing that he would be satisfied with nothing less than the cession of all Peru from Lima south. To obtain Hernando's release the governor was forced to consent that Almagro should remain in possession of the disputed territory pending the decision of the King, but Hernando was no sooner safe at Lima than Pizarro repudiated his promise. He declared war; his army, under the leadership of Hernando and Valdivia--afterwards famous as the conqueror of Chile--advanced down the coast. Futilely raging at Pizarro's treachery, the old man retreated, making his way toward Cuzco over one of the southern passes. His pursuers by a rapid march over a difficult and little used pass reached the neighbourhood of the Inca capital without resistance. Almagro was compelled to accept battle, or to shut himself up in Cuzco and let his enemies bring up artillery and batter him out at their leisure. His men outnumbered Pizarro's, and were assisted by a large contingent of natives, though inferior in discipline and arms. He chose the speedier alternative, but the flank attacks of his native auxiliaries made no impression on Hernando's carefully disposed infantry