Napoleon, who in national warfare could open with his sword the veins of the people until there poured forth torrents of blood, shrank in horror from blood shed in civil broils. It was policy with Cortés, however. So, after finishing his narration of the conspiracy, he coolly informed them that Villafañe had refused to reveal his accomplices, and he could not therefore name the guilty. There were no doubt men amongst them with real or fancied grievances which may have induced them to harbor resentment; but let them frankly state their wrongs and he would seek to right them. If he had erred, let the error be named. The conclusion of the affair created general satisfaction. Thankful for their escape, the guilty sought both by words and deeds to prove their devotion, and although Cortés kept his eye upon them, there was no indication that he suspected any. He rather sought to win them back with favors.[1] So impressed were his intimate followers by the risk to which so valuable a life had been exposed that they insisted on his accepting a body-guard of twelve select men, under the command of Antonio de Quiñones, an hidalgo of Zamora,[2] who watched over him day and night.
- ↑ Bernal Diaz states that he frightened many by having them arrested and threatened with trial; probably those seized with Villafañe. Oviedo, iii. 515, mentions Escudero as executed for plotting; but this is doubtful. As for Verdugo, he became regidor of Mexico, and in 1529 alcalde. He afterward joined Guzman's expedition and settled at Tonalá in Jalisco. Razon, in Cortés, Residencia, i. 363.
- ↑ This was Cortés' own idea, says Bernal Diaz, and he appealed to us to guard him. Hist. Verdad., 137. Quiñones was succeeded by Francisco de Tenesas [Terrazas]. Ixtlilxochitl, Hist. Chich., 313.
