Maria de Pacheco, "the great widow," as a Spanish poet calls her, still held the town against the Imperial army. She was found praying at the foot of the cross when her servants brought her the news of Padilla's defeat and death. She rose, robed herself in black, and walked to the Alcázar between her husband's lieutenants, Davalos and Acuña, who bore a standard representing Padilla's execution. They named her captain of the insurgents, and found her implacable and violent, but still a sovereign commander. She took gold from the churches without any compunction, ordered the massacre of her enemies and their bodies to be flung over the castle walls, but could liberally admire gallantry in an enemy too. Pedro de Guzman, wounded, was carried into her presence. He had fought magnificently, and she ordered him to be treated well. When cured, she offered him the command of the _Comuneros_ which he indignantly refused, whereupon she gave him freedom and paid for his carriage, only asking him to free any Toledan who should fall into his hands. A generous if a ruthless enemy! Her influence over the town was extraordinary. The Imperialists and _Comuneros_ met in a violent clash upon the Zocodover. On one side shouts of _Viva el rey_; on the other, _Padilla y Commindad_. Too ill to walk, Maria was carried out in a chair into the midst of the conflict, and cried out loudly, "Peace! Peace!" Her cry was enough. There was no need of eloquence, of menace, of adjuration. One single word and a look, and swords were sheathed as by magic, and both parties, in pacific rivalry, enthusiastically escorted her back to the Alcázar where she was throned a queen. She it was who interposed between Charles and Toledo, and obtained the town's pardon. But the dead remained unforgiven, and Padilla's palace, by royal decree, was levelled to the ground, and the place is now an ugly little square planted with acacias, without even the tablet that used to mark the spot where the house stood. The great widow died in exile in Portugal. Her flight from Toledo was worthy of her romantic career. Dressed as a villager, by dead of night, she stole out of the town to join her knights in the silent Vega. Here a horse awaited her, and the little band, gallantly guarding a brave woman and the baby son she clasped in her arms, Padilla's proscribed heir, made for the Portuguese frontier. With this heroic figure vanishes the last gleam of Toledo's greatness.