Page:Vol 1 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/731

Rh a "remedy, since, besides the scandal, it was evident that all the Spaniards must perish if once they turned one against the other; and to this end not only declared foes but allies would join."

Attended by Sandoval and others, Cortés hastened to the house of the accused and found several persons assembled. Some were secured as they sought escape. Villafañe found time to take a paper from his breast and tear it in pieces, but Cortés gathered and arranged them, and was grieved to read the names of quite a number of promising persons whom he had honored and regarded as friends. Villafañe confessed the details of the plot, which had been forming since the Tepeaca campaign. A court-martial was held, presided over by Cortés himself, and there being no doubt of his guilt, the accused was condemned to death and promptly hanged from the window of his dwelling.

Cortés had probably no doubt regarding the guilt of the persons named on the list, but the prosecution of so many notable men might not be prudent, and would only widen the breach between himself and the malcontents and gain them sympathy. The day following the execution the general called a meeting. Many were the consciences that pricked their possessors to trembling on that occasion. But the sage Cortés preferred the traitors should risk their necks in winning for him Mexico, rather than himself to break them with a rope.