Herrada came to Peru with Pedro de Alvarado as a common soldier of mature years. Deserting Alvarado he entered the service of the elder Almagro, remained with him until his death, and then attended his young half-caste son to Lima, obtaining unbounded influence over him. He originated the plot for the murder of Pizarro, and was the ringleader in that atrocious crime. None of Almagro's old captains, except Chaves, and no man of honour, would have anything to do with it. Herrada had force of character, but neither prudence nor ability. By inducing young Almagro to make him his General above the heads of better men, he affronted and estranged the old captains and friends of the young half-caste's late father. His murders of Pizarro's secretary, of Francisco de Chaves and others, were acts of folly which no able conspirator would have perpetrated. The murder of Pizarro may have been partly to avenge the death of his old master, but he and his accomplices were far more influenced by anger at not being provided for. Herrada's last advice to appoint two Generals showed his incapacity. For young Almagro the death of this ruffian was nought but a good riddance. CHAPTER LII _How the captain Alonso de Alvarado, on getting the news of Pero Alvarez Holguin, sent another messenger to Vaca de Castro urging him to come to where the camp was with all possible speed._ It was very fortunate for Vaca de Castro that he should have found so much loyalty in the Realm; and that now that Don Diego had usurped the government of the provinces, his Majesty the King our Lord should have had vassals of a kind who would not countenance so weighty an offence, nor allow any one to occupy the Realm against his royal pleasure. Although his Majesty has pronounced the battle that was fought at Chupas to have been just, I will not, in my book, term Don Diego and his followers traitors, for two reasons; as to which, if they are not evident, I submit to correction by those wise and learned men who understand these things better than I do. I say then, that the principal reason is that Vaca de Castro brought no mandate or commission to fight a battle. The second is that Don Diego and his followers would have supported Vaca de Castro if the latter had not joined with Pero Alvarez; and further, because the object of the Chile party, at first, was to avenge the death of the Adelantado by murdering the Marquis,[97] and if the King should not think fit to pardon them, to retire into the most remote interior. It may be true that they committed a great mistake in that, at the time that they murdered the Marquis, they took the wands of Office from the _Alcaldes_ of Lima, and gave them to men of their own choice: an ill-judged action.