Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/415

Rh it was his duty, as the agent of a benign sovereign, to heed the clamors of a people then stricken by famine, misery, and disease. Be it as it may, the crown confirmed the viceroy's act; but at the same time added to the approval a reproof; for he was directed in future to abstain when possible from going out of the palace at such hours as prisoners were usually taken to the place of execution.

A certain distance had been heretofore maintained, as a matter of etiquette, between the ruler and the ruled. Very few could approach the viceroy with any degree of intimacy. Galvez ignored that practice, and from the moment of assuming the vicegerency of his sovereign in New Spain, established close relations with the chief families, without in any manner lowering by undue familiarity the decorum of his high position. His countess' attractions aided to awaken enthusiasm and to win affection, at the same time exalting the office. He caused his little son and heir Miguel to be enrolled in October 1785 as a private in the grenadier company of the Corona regiment, on which occasion the boy was bandied from hand to hand among his new comrades. The same day the father gave a banquet in the throne-room to the officers of the regiment and the grenadier company, and also entertained civilians on the flat roof of the palace.

Such acts at such a time, tending to unusual popularity, awakened at court suspicion of treasonable intent. Some authorities assert that the viceroy entertained the plan of setting up a throne for himself; that when certain of the affection of the Mexicans he began to feel his way, throwing out ambiguous remarks of double meaning, which could not compromise him. With his more intimate friends, they say, he would