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The passion of Peter the Cruel for Inez de Castro was carried to such excess as, perhaps, in some degree, to account for the atrocity of his revenge upon her murderers. These were three distinguished Portuguese lords, who themselves stabbed the unfortunate Inez in the arms of her women.
I have seen all the beauties, even Doña Modeste Castro. Once, too that was before the Americans came I saw the Señorita Ysabel Herrera, a woman so beautiful that a man robbed a church and murdered a priest for her sake. But she was not so beautiful as you, señorita." The blood throbbed in the girl's fair cheeks. "He must love me," she told herself, "to think me more beautiful than Ysabel Herrera.
When, therefore, some of the more resolute, who followed things fearlessly to their consequences, proposed to march at once against Vaca de Castro, and, by striking at the head, settle the contest by a blow, it was almost universally rejected; and it was not till after long debate that it was finally determined to move against Holguin, and cut off his communication with Alonso de Alvarado.
Castro, who was an uneducated half-caste, ruled by corruption and terror; he repudiated all the national obligations, quarrelled with the United States and with every European Power, and disposed of his political opponents by the simple expedient of placing them against a wall with a file of soldiers with loaded rifles in front of them.
Castro, the Mexican general, ordered him to leave the country at once, but Fremont answered by raising the American flag over his camp. As Castro had more men, Fremont did not think it wise to fight, but marched away, intending to go north to Oregon. He turned back in the Klamath country on account of snow and Indians, as he said, and camped where the Feather River joins the Sacramento.
"If because of the seductions of an easy life, you should withdraw from us and desert us, you would have committed the crime of lese-civilization; you would have slain in its flower the re-birth of the spiritual and civic life of Castro.
He began to whisper in the other's hairy ear. I caught: "You are a fool. He will not make us to be molested, he is my kinsman." Castro made a reluctant gesture towards Barnes' chest that lay between us. "We could cram him into that," he said. "Oh, bloodthirsty fool," Carlos answered, recovering his breath; "is it always necessary to wash your hands in blood? Are we not in enough danger? Up up!
His horses! Madre de Dios! They ran like hares. Poor Guido! Válgame Dios! Even thou wouldst have been moved to pity. But he is so handsome! Look! Look! He comes now, side by side with General Castro. Dios! his serape is as stiff with gold as the vestments of the padre." Ysabel looked up as a man rode past.
By degrees, however, her manner changed: the ill-humour wore off, and she became quite a Patriot, saying she would willingly lose her mules if the Royalists were hunted down. However, about nine o'clock in the morning I left the good lady to pour her grievances into more sympathetic ears, being ordered to push on with a small detachment of cavalry, guided by Castro.
Afterwards I went into the big chapel, which serves also as a pantheon for the Dukes of Castro Duro, whose tombs you find in the side niches of the presbytery.
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