United States or Mongolia ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
He thought of the man who had visited him that morning at Klassan and told him the base lie. He and the rest knew about Blasco, and yet they sent him to his very door over that long trail. He glanced at Pete, and noted his strong, noble face. Here was a man, he well knew, who would avenge the insult he had received.
The Royal Audience, its dignity and unanimity shattered by the turmoil in the midst of which it found itself, divided its forces equally on either side. A battle was fought between the Viceroy and the forces of Gonzales Pizarro, in the course of which the latter obtained a decided victory, and Blasco Nuñez de Vela was slain.
Yet all, on whichever side they cast their fortunes, loudly proclaimed their loyalty to the Crown. Thus betrayed by his own men, by those apparently most devoted to his service, Blasco Nunez became suspicious of every one around him. Unfortunately, his suspicions fell on some who were most deserving of his confidence. Among these was his predecessor, Vaca de Castro.
Vastly less picturesque than Blasco Ibanez, he is nearer the normal Spaniard the Spaniard who, in the long run, must erect a new structure of society upon the half archaic and half Utopian chaos now reigning in the peninsula. Thus his book, though it is addressed to Spaniards, should have a certain value for English-speaking readers. And so it is presented.
It would be difficult to find two men who, dealing with the same ideas, bring to them more antagonistic attitudes of mind than Baroja and Blasco Ibanez. For all his appearance of modernism, Blasco really belongs to the generation before 1898.
He was careful, therefore, to have it understood, that the date of his commission was subsequent to that of the fatal battle, and that it authorized an entire amnesty of all offences hitherto committed against the government.16 Yet, in some points of view, the death of Blasco Nunez might be regarded as an auspicious circumstance for the settlement of the country.
With an enemy in his rear whom he dared not fight, and followers whom he dared not trust, the cup of his calamities was nearly full. At length, he issued forth on firm ground, and, passing through Tomebamba, Blasco Nunez reentered his northern capital of Quito. But his reception was not so cordial as that which he had before experienced.
He had no warrant to suspend their execution. He should fulfil his commission; but he offered to join the colonists in a memorial to the emperor, soliciting the repeal of a code which he now believed would be for the interests neither of the country nor of the Crown.3 With this avowed view of the subject, it may seem strange that Blasco Nunez should not have taken the responsibility of suspending the law until his sovereign could be assured of the inevitable consequences of enforcing it.
On the arrival of the viceroy Blasco Nunnez Vela, Verdugo, who was originally from the same city in Spain, engaged heartily in his service, and continued in his suite at Lima, till the time when the viceroy proposed to dismantle that city and retire to Truxillo.
The nation became gradually sensible of the value of his services; though the manner in which they were requited by the government must be allowed to form a cold commentary on the gratitude of princes. Gonzalo Pizarro was doomed to experience a still greater disappointment than that caused by the escape of Vaca de Castro, in the return of Blasco Nunez.
Word Of The Day