PALAFOX'S CONDUCT TO THE VICEROY. 



199 



not only of the whole church, in the estimation of these friars, but 

 of the special sect or brotherhood which happened to obtain the 

 first hold on a tribe or nation by its missionary residence among 

 its people. Palafox requested the Duke of Escalona to deprive the 

 monkish orders of this monopoly ; a desire to which the viceroy 

 at once acceded, inasmuch as he was anxious to serve the bishop 

 in all matters pertaining to his religious functions. 



The kindly feeling of the viceroy does not appear to have been 

 appreciated, or sincerely responded to by Palafox. This personage 

 was removed in 1642, to the archiepiscopal see of Mexico, and 

 under the pretext of installation in his new office and opening his 

 tribunals, he visited the capital with the actual design of occupying 

 the viceroyal throne to which he had been appointed ! This was 

 a sudden and altogether unexpected blow to the worthy duke, 

 who was so unceremoniously supplanted. No one seems to have 

 whispered to him even a suspicion of the approaching calamity, 

 until the crafty Palafox assembled the oidores at midnight on the 

 eve of Pentecost, and read to them the royal despatches containing 

 his commission. His conduct to the jovial hearted duke, who was 

 no match, in all probability, for the wily churchman, was not only 

 insincere but .unmannerly, for, immediately after the assumption of 

 his power at dead of night, he commanded a strong guard to 

 surround the palace at dawn, and required the Oidor Lugo, to read 

 the royal cedula to the duke even before he left his bed. The 

 deposed viceroy immediately departed for the convent at Churu- 

 busco, outside the city walls on the road to San Agustin de las 

 Cuevas. All his property was sequestrated, and his money and 

 jewels were secured within the treasury. 



The reader will naturally seek for an explanation of this political 

 enigma, or base intrigue, and its solution is again eminently char- 

 acteristic of the reign in which it occurred. It will be remembered 

 that the Duke of Braganza had been declared King of Portugal, 

 which kingdom had separated itself from the Spanish domination, 

 causing no small degree of animosity among the Castilians against 

 the Portuguese and all who favored them. The Duke of Escalona, 

 unfortunately, was related to the house of Braganza, and the credu- 

 lous Philip having heard that his viceroy exhibited some evidences 

 of attachment to the Portuguese, resolved to supercede him by Pala- 

 fox. Besides this, the Duke committed the impolitic act of ap- 

 pointing a Portuguese, to the post of Castellan of St. Juan de Ulua; 

 and, upon a certain occasion, when two horses had been presented 

 to him by Don Pedro de Castilla, and Don Cristobal de Portugal, 



