Page:Letters of Cortes to Emperor Charles V - Vol 1.djvu/91

Rh Mexico at that time, assisted at the temporary hiding away of the remains under the steps of the altar. The bust and arms of gilded bronze were sent to the Duke of Terranova in Palermo, and the dismantled monument remained in the chapel until 1833, when it also disappeared (Alaman Dissertazioni sulla Storia del Messico Dissert. V., Italian translation by Pelaez, 1859).

Thus far Señor Alaman is as explicit as possible, but concerning the final resting place of the body he says nothing whatever on his own account, closing the subject by introducing a quotation from Dr. Mora (who, he says, was the first to publish these facts), which states that "afterwards the remains were sent to his family."

In the collaborated work published under the special direction of Don Vincente Riva Palacio, entitled Mexico a Traves los Siglos, it is stated in a note on page 353 of the second volume, that Cortes's body was sent to the Duke of Monteleone in Italy in 1823. ("fueren rimitidos a Italia a la casa de los Duques de Monteleone"). In the chapters of the fourth volume, which chronicle the events of the year 1823, no mention is made of this occurrence, which it would surely seem was of sufficient importance to merit notice. Neither Mr. Prescott nor Sir Arthur Helps, nor any other as far as I can discover, has left a record of any attempts to clear up this mystery.

If the remains of the conqueror were taken to Palermo or consigned to the family of the Dukes of Monteleone, there is no record of the transaction, nor is any tradition of it known, even by hearsay, to the present members of the family, or to the keepers of the family archives.

Not the least of the glories of the Pignatelli family, which has kept its place among the foremost of Sicily and Naples, is their descent from the Spanish conqueror of Mexico, and it seems inadmissible that the body of this illustrious ancestor should arrive at Palermo as recently as 1823, be buried nobody knows where, and no