Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/127

Rh “The learned always err.” Nevertheless a meeting was convoked, consisting of lawyers, friars, and other personages with little or no judgment on political affairs. Moreover disputes about etiquette prevented any definite action.

Comprehending at last the danger of greater delay, the viceroy issued a proclamation, ordering the Portuguese inhabitants to deliver up their fire-arms under pain of death. The Portuguese captain was dismissed, and Palafox, in order to manifest his conciliatory disposition, went to the palace to congratulate Escalona, but was discourteously treated by the viceroy. The ill-will of the latter increased when his request to the visitador to pardon a certain prisoner was denied, and the bishop in some skilful manner contrived to secure the people's sympathy for his conduct. The duke retaliated, vexing the bishop by petty annoyances and a lack of courtesy; he persecuted his friends, and forbade him to interfere with the despatch of the Philippine vessels, a matter which belonged to the jurisdiction of the visitador. Toward the end of 1641 Palafox was desirous of returning to his diocese, but was provoked by the sneering remarks of the duke to remain, only to experience new offence in the following year, when the corregidor of Vera Cruz imprisoned a Carmelite friar on whose person were found letters which caused him to be suspected of being an emissary of the bishop, and the latter's efforts in his behalf seemed to confirm it. Having failed to obtain from the viceroy the punishment of the corregidor, and the residencia of Cadereita being concluded, in February 1642 the bishop retired to Puebla to attend to his duties, and to await the result of his reports to the king, whom as a loyal subject and in duty bound he had informed of the suspicious behavior of the duke.

His patience was not put to a severe test. The king had always been aware of the viceroy's intimate relation with the Portuguese rebel, who had wrested