ABSTRACT
NOW this was the time when the funeral obsequies of the old Marquis ought to have been celebrated, but rather was it signalised by the commencement of the shedding of the blood of those who had spilled so much of his that his life ebbed away. The youthful Governor began to taste the bitter draughts which tyranny carries in its toils, for with it neither does friend prove loyal nor enemy merciful. Better had it been for him and his accomplices to await the Judge’s coming and not have put the Marquis to death in that atrocious way. Even after his death no honour was shown him, as the reader has seen. On the contrary, the body was thrust into the bowels of the earth as if it had been that of a vile and contemptible man. With reference to this I would quote that speech of the Constable of Castille, Grand Master of Santiago, Don Alvaro de Luna. Seeing that there was a large hook placed where he was to be put to death, he asked the executioner what it was there for. The executioner said that it was to hang his head on after he was dead. Don Alvaro replied, snapping his fingers, “After I am dead do what ye will with the 148body and head,” meaning that at the moment of decapitation his soul would pass to where his deeds during this life had merited that it should.
