It was not so easy to persuade his companion, General Sebastian Rayo, who, as a man of ability in these matters, knew that the royal person resided in his court and not in the usurper. The latter, in order to trample on any opposition to his plans, committed the greatest iniquity than man's imagination can conceive; this was to avail himself of his intimate friend the commissary of the Holy Office, to take General Rayo under pretext of [a requisition from] the Inquisition from the Society's house. The commissary, carried away by his own personal aims and his ignorance and taking advantage of the peace and quiet prevailing among the people (which, he hinted, was [the result of] his own religious zeal), gave orders, as commissary of the holy tribunal, to Don Geronimo de Leiva, commissary in the province of Ylocos, and to Captain Don Luis de Monrroy, notary of the Holy Office, to go with their badges displayed and in behalf of the Inquisition. They summoned the said alcalde, Sebastian Rayo, who as a Catholic Christian immediately obeyed--much to his cost; for the usurper, annoyed that he had to employ the holy tribunal in order to secure the general, availed himself of the suit that Don Diego de Salcedo had brought against him, and kept him a long time prisoner in his house under the guard of soldiers. The city council being thus broken up, the royal court still remained entire, which gave the usurper no little anxiety in plotting the means most suitable for securing the object of his longing. For this purpose he sent a message to the auditors that they must within a very limited time hold their sessions at the palace, under penalty of death if they did not obey, since they were causing disturbances and were violating the peace; and he declared that he would aim the artillery at the college of the fathers. In these and other unheard-of evil acts the usurper and his counselors continued; and the auditors went on issuing writs to the more prominent citizens commanding that they should, under penalties of death and being considered traitors to his Majesty, render obedience to the auditors, since the royal person resided only in his court. These efforts were useless, for the guards posted by the usurper permitted no person to leave or enter the house; but the auditors spent two days and a night in these occupations without descending from their tribunal for a moment--with courage enough to render up their souls in the service of his Catholic Majesty.