Page:Vol 2 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/239

Rh pardon me for saying in my agony that he had taken them away; it is not true." Unable to walk he was carried to the square on an ass, and hanged. What a fall was this of the haughty leader of a faction which but a few weeks before controlled the destinies of an empire! How far removed were such proceedings from those of savages? It is a singular coincidence that the representative of Cortés should have suffered the same torture for the same end as Quauhtemotzin, and have been hanged about the same time as this prince, under a similar pretext.

Pedro, the brother of Paz, was seized to please Albornoz, but he escaped from prison and took refuge in the sanctuary of San Francisco, followed by a number of adherents of Cortés, such as Jorge de Alvarado and Andrés de Tapia, for none knew where the tyrants would stop, or whom they had marked for their next victim. The desire was now paramount to find Cortés if peradventure he still lived, as the only one who could save them and the country. Aware of this feeling, the governors ordered the sails of vessels at the gulf ports to be removed, so that none might go without their knowledge. Efforts were made, however, to send intelligence through Guatemala, and Pedro de Alvarado was urged to come to the rescue and assume the government. The proposition fell on no heedless ears, for this leader was only too willing to figure as the savior of a country he had assisted