be branded; ay, as well that as another name, for so are great ends often brought to pass by small means. Unpleasant as it may be, the survivors may as well bear in mind that it will be less difficult another time.
So the conspirators are promptly seized and sentenced, Escudero and Cermeño to be hanged, Umbría to lose his feet, and others to receive each two hundred lashes.[1] Under cover of his cloth Padre Diaz, the ringleader and most guilty of them all, escapes with a reprimand. As for the rest, though among them were some equally guilty, they were treated with such dissembling courtesy and prudence as either to render them harmless or to convert thenm into friends. "Happy the man who cannot write, if it save him from such business as this!" exclaimed the commander, as he affixed his name to the death-warrants. For notwithstanding his inexorable resolve he was troubled, and would not see his comrades die though they would have sacrificed him. On the morning of the day of execution he set off at breakneck speed for Cempoala, after ordering two hundred soldiers to follow with the horses and join a similar force which had left three days before under Alvarado.[2]
Cortés' brain was in a whirl during that ride. It was a horrible thing, this hanging of Spaniards, cutting off feet, and flogging. Viewed in one light it was but a common piece of military discipline; from another stand-point it was the act of an outlaw. The greater part of the little army was with the commander; to this full extent the men believed in him, that on his
- ↑ Thus Cortés had his revenge on the alguacil. 'Y no le valiò el ser su Compadre,' says Vetancvrt, with a hasty assumption which is not uncommon with him. Teatro Mex., pt. iii. 119. Gomara mentions no mutilation. 'Parece claro ser aquestas obras, . . . . propias de averiguado tirano,' says Las Casas, Hist. Ind., iv. 496, which may be regarded as a singularly mild expression for the bishop. Herrera dwells upon Cermeño's extraordinary skill with the leaping-pole; he could also smell land fifteen leagues off the coast. dec. ii. lib. v. cap. xiv. 'Coria, vezino que fue despues de Chiapa.' Bernal Diaz, Hist. Verdad., 39.
- ↑ Embiado . . . . por los pueblos de la sierra, porque tuuiessen que comer; porque en nuestra Villa passauamos mucha necessidad de bastimentos.' Id. This seems unlikely, since the Totonacs were not only willing, but bound, to provide supplies.
