Domingo, Cortés is chosen bearer of the complaints.[1] As he is about to embark on his perilous mission, to traverse in an open boat eighteen leagues of open ocean, the governor hears of it, seizes the envoy, and sends him in chains to the fortress. His partisans are likewise imprisoned, and active in preferring charges against them are Bermudez, the two Velazquez, Villegas, and Juan Suarez. Friends intercede and prevent immediate hanging.[2] Cortés resolves on escape. With some difficulty he extricates himself from his fetters, seizes the sword of the sleeping guard, forces the window, and dropping to the ground takes refuge in the church.[3] Velazquez, enraged at the escape, yet not daring to violate the privilege of sanctuary, resorts to artifice. Introducing some soldiers into the chapel through a small door in the rear, the blushing Catalina is stationed at a distance before the sacred edifice as a decoy. The lover sees her; the dear girl wishes to speak with him, but her maidenly modesty forbids her nearer approach. Cortés rushes forward to clasp her in his arms, only to be seized from behind, and placed under a strong guard in the hold of a vessel bound for Española, where, in company with the other conspirators, he is to undergo trial.[4]
- ↑ Gomara, Hist. Mex., 7, insists that Velazquez had no motive for anger except the refusal of Cortés to marry. The meeting of conspirators at his house gave plausibility to the charges of his enemies. By others it is even stated that at these meetings Cortés defended the governor against the charges of the conspirators and overruled their plots. De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 325-6. The preponderance of evidence, however, is against this supposition.
- ↑ Estando para se embarcar en una canoa de indios con sus papeles, fué Diego Velazquez avisado y hózolo prender y quísola ahorcar.' Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 11. He was cast in the fort prison, lest the army should proclaim him general. 'Timebat ne si quis,' etc. De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 325 and 326-7.
- ↑ In De Rebus Gestis Ferdinandi Cortesii, in Icazbalceta, Col. Doc., i. 326-7, it is related that Cortés broke the ropes holding him by means of a stick, and filed the padlock of the chains. Seizing a bludgeon he advanced on the sleeping jailer, resolved to break his head if he moved. But Cristóbal de Lagos either slept or pretended not to hear the noise as Cortés seized the sword and shield at his head. Swinging open a small window, Cortés slid down and hurried to the sanctuary, giving on the way a word of cheer and advice to the conspirators who were held within the prison.
- ↑ 'Cortés . . . . tuuo por cierto q͏̄ lo embiariă a santo Domingo o a España.'
