The inquisitor reflected that Saavedra was a man of great talent, and that he therefore should be treated with moderation; besides that, he had always conducted himself like a real judge, except that he only condemned the accused to pay fines. Saavedra declared that these reasons made the inquisitor-general wish to be personally acquainted with him; that he caused him to be brought before him, heard him with interest, and offered to protect him, promising to give him for a judge any one that he named: that he then expressed a wish to be judged by Doctor Arias, inquisitor at Llerena; this was granted, and caused great murmurs against the cardinal and the court at Madrid, where it was whispered that Tabera had appropriated the ninety thousand ducats which had been taken from Saavedra: that Doctor Arias condemned him to serve ten years in the king's galleys; that, after a detention of two years, the alcaldes of Madrid pronounced his definitive sentence, one of the principal parts of which was, that after having fulfilled the inquisitorial sentence, he could not be set at liberty, or quit the galleys without the permission of his majesty, on pain of death; that he was sent to the galleys in 1544; that in 1554, although the period of his punishment had expired, he could not obtain his liberty: then, persuaded that his affair depended more on the Inquisition than the alcaldes of the court, he endeavoured to interest the Pope in his fate, representing that he had done several things extremely useful to religion and the state, in the exercise of his false legation; that Paul IV. sent him a brief, which was addressed to the inquisitor-general Don Ferdinand Valdes, whom his holiness charged to obtain Saavedra's liberty; that he received this brief when the king's galleys were in the port of St. Mary; that he immediately forwarded it to the bishop coadjutor of Seville, and he sent it to the inquisitor-general, who was his archbishop. Valdes having communicated the affair to Philip II., that prince gave orders that Saavedra should be set at liberty, that he might immediately repair to court. Saavedra arrived there in 1562, after having passed nineteen years in the galleys. He was presented to the king, who desired to hear his history from his own lips, and to have it in writing; while Saavedra related it to the king, Antonio Perez wrote down the singular events of his life: lastly, Saavedra himself wrote it in 1567, for the inquisitor-general, Don Diego Espinosa.