How the captains García de Alvarado and Saucedo went to ask Cristóbal de Sotelo to pardon the soldiers he had in prison, and of their fate; and of what else happened until García de Alvarado killed the good knight¹ Cristóbal de Sotelo.

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 riotous² when they heard of the imprisonment³ of the Machines. Don Diego presently knew of the arrest, but took no steps. García de Alvarado and Saucedo determined⁴ 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 enraged⁵ at these words, and answered by telling Saucedo to go to his lodging⁶; 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[216] 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 malice⁷ 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]

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