HIS ARREST EXECUTION OF HIS FRIENDS. 155 



announced to him that he was a prisoner, in the name of the king. 

 "For what?" eagerly demanded the Marques. " As a traitor 

 to his Majesty!" was the foul reply. " You lie!" exclaimed 

 Cortez, springing from his seat, and grasping the hilt of his dag- 

 ger ; — " I am no traitor to my king, — nor are there traitors 

 among any of my lineage ! " 



The natural excitement of the loyal nobleman subsided after a 

 moment's reflection. He had been entrapped into the hands of the 

 Audiencia, and finding himself completely, though unjustly, in 

 their power, he at once resolved to offer no childish opposition, 

 when resistance would be so utterly useless. With the manly 

 dignity of a chivalrous Spaniard, he immediately yielded up his 

 weapons and was taken prisoner to the apartments that had been 

 prepared for him. His half brother, Don Martin, was also appre- 

 hended, and orders were sent to the city of Tezcoco for the seizure 

 of Don Luis Cortez who resided there as justice or governor. In 

 Mexico, Alonso Avila Alvarado, and his brother Gil Gonzalez, 

 with many other distinguished men were incarcerated, and the 

 papers of all the prisoners were, of course, seized and eagerly 

 scrutinized by the sattelites who hoped to find in them a confirma- 

 tion of the imaginary conspiracy. 



Among the documents of Alonso de Avila a large number of 

 love letters were found ; but neither in his papers nor in those of 

 his brother, or of the many victims of these foul suspicions, who 

 languished in prison, did they discover a single line to justify their 

 arrest. Nevertheless, Don Alonso and his brother Don Gil Gon- 

 zalez, were singled out as victims and doomed to death. The 

 authorities dared not, probably, strike at a person so illustrious and 

 so popular as the Marques del Valle ; but they resolved to justify, 

 in the public eye, their inquisitorial investigation, by the sacrifice of 

 some one. The public would believe that there was in reality a 

 crime when the scaffold reeked with blood ; and, besides, the blow 

 would fall heaviest on the family of Cortez when it struck the 

 cherished companions of his home and heart. 



On the 7th of August, at seven in the evening, Alonso and Gil 

 Gonzalez were led forth to the place of execution in front of the Casa 

 de Cabildo. Their heads were struck off and stuck on spears on 

 the roof of the edifice ; whence they were finally taken, at the ear- 

 nest remonstrance of the Ayuntamiento, and buried with the bodies 

 of the victims in the church of San Agustin. Every effort had 

 been made to save the lives of these truly innocent young men. 

 But although the principal persons in the viceroyalty, united in the 



