Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/89

Rh to the capital and bury it together with that of his last descendant in the Church of St. Francis.

An elaborate funeral procession was organised, which set forth from the Cortes palace headed by all the religious associations and confraternities, carrying their respective banners, after which followed the civil tribunals. Next came the Archbishop accompanied by the cathedral chapter in full canonicals. The body of Don Pedro Cortes was exposed to view in an open coffin carried by knights of the chapter of Santiago, while the coffin of his great ancestor covered with a black velvet pall was borne by the royal judges, escorted by standard bearers carrying a white banner on which were embroidered the figures of the Blessed Virgin and St. John; another displaying the royal arms of Spain and a third of black velvet showing the arms of the Marques del Valle. Members of the University followed, and the procession closed with the Viceroy and all his court with an escort of soldiers carrying arms reversed and banners trailing. This funeral pageant — probably the most magnificent ever seen in the new world — advanced to the accompaniment of muffled drums and solemn chantings, halting at six different places for brief religious rites.

During more than a century and a half the bones of Cortes were left undisturbed, until in 1794 they were moved once more, and this time to the hospital of Jesus of Nazareth, which he had founded and endowed, and in whose chapel a monument was prepared to receive the body, which was coffined in a crystal case riveted with silver bars. Would that this translation had been the last, and that the pilgrimages of this poor body had ended within the walls its owner's piety had built.

During the period of unrest which followed immediately upon the establishment of Mexican independence, a design was said to have been formed by some "patriots" to rifle the tomb, and scatter the conqueror's ashes to