Dominic Sandbrook

What's he up to?

The emperor.

Or at least the would-be emperor.

He's been fighting his brother.

He has made camp about 300 miles away in the mountains near the town of Cayamaca.

His priority is not the Spanish.

It is the civil war.

So he's waiting for news from the south, where his commander, who has the excellent name of Kiskis, is leading the final assault on Cuzco.

So when he gets news that a load of blokes with beards have turned up on the coast, they've been looting villages, they've been behaving poorly in storehouses, helping themselves to the food, they've been very rude to some of the locals, he's perturbed.

You know, what's all this?

But he's not especially frightened.

Apu reports back and says the Spanish are in absolute shambles, actually.

Yeah.

He says they're kind of villains, aren't they?

Kind of indigents and robbers.

Yeah, exactly.

He says they're just an absolute bunch of rogues.

Apu actually says, I think we should let them come, kill them all, except for three, because three of them are worth something.

They've got a blacksmith who makes swords, amazing swords.

We should keep him.