One day, when some charitable souls were chaffing the King’s widow about the mediocre state in which she lived, the Coya, as she was derisively called, retorted that had she and her husband so wished, they could have been the wealthiest couple on earth. But the treasures of the Incas, she added, belonged to the gods and the dead, and none might touch them.
Asked if she had ever seen those treasures, the Coya asserted that her husband had shown them to her once, and she told fabulous stories of the riches hidden in the Temple of Death. * Naturally, nobody believed her.
* The anonymous author of the MS. “_Antiy y monumentos del Peru_” says:--
“It Is widely known, and generally admitted, that there exists in the ancient fortress of the Cuzco a secret room In which is hidden a vast treasure, consisting chiefly of golden statues of all the Incas. A lady who has been in this room is still living. This is Doña Maria de Esquivel, wife of the last Inca. I have heard her tell how she was taken there.
“Don Carlos, husband of this lady, did not live in a manner suited to his rank, and she often upbraided him, saying that she had been cozened into marrying a poor Indian under the pompous style of ‘Lord of the Incas.9 She said this so often that Don Carlos grew angry, and one day retorted: ‘Madam, I will show you whether I am rich or poor. Too will see that no lord, no monarch on this earth, has a greater treasure than I.’ Taking her to the ruined fortress, he bound her eyes, and led her only a few steps before removing the bandage again.
“She was in a great quadrangular hall, and ranged all about it were the statues of the Incas, each about the size of a twelve-year-old child, and all of massive gold. She saw also many vases of gold and silver, the whole making one of the most magnificent treasures in the world.”
Even so, none believed the soldiers of Pizarro when they said that in Peru their horses had been shod with silver!
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Bride of the Sun, by Gaston Leroux