The bodies were removed between 11 and 12 o'clock at night by a priest and the two Velascos to the church of Saint Augustine, where they were subsequently buried, the first men of the city being present at the funeral ceremony. The heads were discovered next morning on poles upon the top of the city council's building. This drew a protest from the council, coupled with a demand for their removal,[1] which was complied with, and the heads were then nailed to the pillory as a warning.
Alonso de Ávila's house was demolished, according to the usage of the age in Latin countries; the ground was sown with salt, and a pillar erected there bearing an inscription commemorative of the crime for which the late proprietor had suffered death.[2] The better class of the community declared the sentence unjust. The provincial of the Santo Evangelio, for himself and the council of the Franciscans in that province, in a long letter: of August 8, 1566, to the king, pronounces the charges frivolous.[3] The audiencia was generally
- ↑ Torquemada, followed by others, asserts that the council threatened to remove them by force if its demand was not forthwith attended to, as the city was not traitorous. Orozco, however, throws the entire responsibility on the first named for these details, the protest alluded to not appearing on the council's hooks. Torguemada, i. 632; Cavo, Tres Siglos, i. 181; Orozco y Berra, Not. Con., 51.
- ↑ It was on Reloj street, corner of Santa Teresa. Alaman, Disert., ii. 142.
'Por ignominia les aran
Y de esteril sal las siembran
●●●●●●
Del cincel en une piedra
Padron afrentoso erige.'Zapata, Rel. fúnebre, in Orozco y Berra, Not. Conj, 501-2.
- ↑ Todo debia de ser palabras de Moços livianos, y mal recatados, en su hablar, y todo sin fundamento, y sin medios ningunos, para poner nada en obra.' Torquemada, i. 632-4.
de Ávila in his cell, positively claims that both brothers made confession of their guilt, and implicated the marquis, 'y condenaron al marqués y á otros, como consta por sus confisiones.' This author, as he says, was among the men who under Francisco de Velasco guarded the square, and his horse's head almost touched the scaffold; he saw and heard all that passed; the unskilful executioner severed the heads only after several strokes, and thus made the prisoners suffer greatly. As to the words uttered by the friar, Domingo de Salazar, who later became bishop of the Philippines, he distinctly heard them to be: 'Señores, encomienden á Dios á estos caballeros, quellos dizen que mueren justamente, . . . y que lo que abian jurado en sus confisiones era verdad,' which Alonso, on bemg interrogated, confirmed then and there. The friar's words were purposely misrepresented by many; but the audiencia gave an authenticated copy of them to any one who desired it. Peralta, Not. Hist., 211-23, 227-8.
