Page:Vol 3 History of Mexico by H H Bancroft.djvu/479

459 The king in council, wishing to reward his efficiency and rectitude, directed that, after his surrender of the viceregal office and its appendages to his successor, there should be continued to him the address of Excelentísimo é Ilustrísimo Señor, and the honors of a captain-general, the viceroy's guard paying him during the rest of his life the same honors as when he held the office of viceroy. And this was done, although his successor was churlish enough to make objection. Not content with that, the king conferred on him the grand cross of the royal and distinguished order of Cárlos III. The seat in the royal council must have been given him at a much earlier date.

The archbishop's course and exemplary life throughout his twenty-eight years of service had made him highly esteemed at court, as was evident in upward of one hundred and ten royal cédulas, letters, and other writings, from the king's ministers and council, which conveyed the approval of some act, and the appreciation of his merits. After a year's painful illness the prelate died on the 26th of May, 1800, at the age of seventy years, an event that caused the deepest sorrow throughout all classes. He was the