As the soldiers in Cuzco were not well under control, their feeling
was that, provided it were not against military discipline or matters
relating to the war, there ought to be no punishment for any crime
they might commit. They therefore became very riotous when they heard
of the imprisonment of the Machines. Don Diego presently knew of the
arrest, but took no steps. García de Alvarado and Saucedo determined
each to go to Sotelo, and ask him to pardon those men that he had
under arrest. Saucedo being the first to call at the prison, admission
was refused him, nor would Sotelo do anything in response to the
request made to him. Then Saucedo shouted at him that he had better
take care what he was about, for the prisoners were his friends and he
was going to demand justice. Cristóbal de Sotelo was much enraged at
these words, and answered by telling Saucedo to go to his lodging; if
not, he would put him where he was soon going to put the prisoners.
Saucedo then went away and joined García de Alvarado, who, by this
time, was also near; but although he too knocked at the door, they
would not open it nor answer him. Sotelo, after holding an enquiry
into the affair for which the men had been arrested, sentenced one of
them to be hanged.
Now that the day was approaching when the field of Chupas and its
slopes would absorb much noble Spanish blood, and the party of the
Almagros would come to an end, it was meet, and necessary for its
destruction, and for the due commemoration of the Marquis's obsequies,
that envy and malice should bring about the death and removal of
the principal captains among the men of Chile, so that those of the
Pachacama party might encounter less resistance in completing the
triumph that was to be theirs. For Francisco de Chaves being already
dead, and Juan de Herrada having been poisoned (as they say) by Juan
Balsa, the only captains left to them were Cristóbal de Sotelo and
García de Alvarado. And so, that these should come to an end like the
others, it fell out in this wise.[106]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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