Their Conduct, However Secretly Pursued, Being Known Among Many, Came At
Length To The Knowledge Of Some Friends Of The Marquis, Who Endeavoured To
Put Him On His Guard Against The Machinations Of His Enemies.
But he,
confiding in his honour and good faith, judged of others by himself, and
refused to listen to
This advice; saying that it was proper to leave these
unfortunate men in peace, who were already sufficiently punished by the
shame of their defeat, the public hatred, and the poverty to which they
were reduced. So much were the Almagrians encouraged by the patient
indulgence of the marquis, that their chiefs used even to pass him in
public without saluting him or giving him any token of respect; and one
night some of them had the audacity to affix three ropes to the gibbet,
one of which was stretched towards the palace of the marquis, another
towards the house of his lieutenant, and the third to that of his
secretary. Even this insolence was forgiven by the marquis, in
consideration of their misery and the unhappy situation of their affairs.
Profiting by this indulgence, the Almagrians assembled together almost
openly, several of their party who were wandering about the country
without property or employment, coming to Lima from the distance even of
two hundred leagues. They resolved upon putting the marquis to death; yet
waited to hear from Spain what judgment might be given in the case of
Ferdinand Pizarro, who was there thrown into prison as accused, of the
murder of Don Diego Almagro; and to prosecute whom Captain Diego Alvarado
had gone home and was actively engaged in soliciting his trial and
punishment. When the conspirators learnt that his majesty had appointed
the licentiate Vaca de Castro to proceed to Peru, on purpose to examine
into all the past disorders, but without orders to prosecute the death of
Almagro with that rigorous severity which they wished and expected, they
resolved upon the execution of their long concerted enterprize. They were
anxious, however, to learn exactly the intentions of Vaca de Castro, as
the intended assassination of the marquis was by no means universally
approved among the Almagrians. Several of the gentlemen belonging to the
party, although much incensed at the death of Almagro, were anxious only
for redress by legal means, and in a manner that might be conformable with
the pleasure and service of the sovereign. The chiefs of this conspiracy
who were now assembled in Lima, were Juan de Saavedra, Alfonso de
Montemayor, Juan de Gusman controller, Manuel de Espinar treasurer, Nugnez
de Mercado agent, Christoval Ponce de Leon, Juan de Herrada, Pero Lopez de
Ayala, and some others. In this assemblage, Don Alfonso de Montemayor was
deputed to wait upon Vaca de Castro; and accordingly set out with letters
of credence and dispatches to meet Vaca de Castro at the beginning of
April 1541. After his arrival at the place where Vaca de Castro then was,
and before he proposed to return to his employers, news was brought of the
assassination of the marquis.
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