Читать книгу The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898. Volume 20 of 55 - Unknown - Страница 4

May 12, 1621, occurred the unfortunate death of the governor’s wife, which I intend to relate here, as it is a peculiar case. The governor of these Filipinas Islands, Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenza, suspected that his wife, called Doña Catalina Zambrano, was not living as was fitting for such a personage. One afternoon, that of May 12, he pretended that he was going to the port of Cavite, where he generally went because the Dutch enemy were in this bay with their fleet. The governor went, but, leaving all the men who accompanied him, returned alone. Entering the city secretly, he concealed himself in a house, where a captain in his confidence brought him a young page who was in the service of his wife—the one who carried the messages, and knew everything that went on. The governor placed a dagger to his breast in order to get him to tell what he knew of his wife. The page openly confessed that she was maintaining a sinful alliance with a clerk, an ordinary person, called Juan de Messa Suero, who had been a member of the Society of Jesus for some years at Coimbra; and that his wife was dressing in the garb of a man, in order to go outside of the palace, as she had done at other times. Juan de Messa came with a very eminent pilot. The governor’s wife left the palace clad as a man, with her cloak and sword and all went together to the square. Thence they began to walk toward a house of Juan de Messa. The governor, with three other men who accompanied him, went on ahead of them, and awaited them near the door of the said house, hidden in a recess. The governor’s wife entered first, then Juan de Messa. Then the pilot stopped to shut the door. Thereupon the governor attacked him alone, and giving a violent push on the door, opened it. He entered, and found himself with the pilot alone, for the other man, Juan de Messa, with the governor’s wife, on hearing the noise, fled up the stairs. It appears that the governor stabbed the pilot in the breast. The latter left the portal of the house, whereupon those who accompanied the governor and had remained to guard the door, attacked and killed him there. The governor went upstairs and found Juan de Messa in the hall. He chased the latter around a table that held two lights. The governor made a strong thrust at him, which almost knocked him down; but showed that he was clad in armor. By the force that the governor exerted in the thrust, he felt that he himself was wounded in the hand. Apparently the pilot had given him that wound, and he had not felt it before that. The governor’s sword began to grow weak, and he said: “Ha, traitor, thou hast wounded me.” Juan de Messa lost his head, and ran down stairs, thinking that his safety lay there. The governor attacked him, and on the way down stabbed him in the neck, with such force that he tripped and fell down. Below, the governor and the guard finished killing him. The governor would have been in great peril, both with the pilot and upstairs with Juan de Massa, had not the miserable man lost his head. Had he at least extinguished the candles, and stationed himself on the stairway, which was narrow, he could have prevented the governor from ascending, and could even have killed him. The latter went immediately to look for his wife, and found her hidden in an attic, hanging to a beam. He stabbed her from beneath, and passed half of his sword through her body, and at that the poor lady fell. She requested confession. The governor restrained himself, and said that it was a timely request. Leaving the three men whom he brought with him as a guard, he in person going to the Franciscan convent, which was near by, to summon a confessor, met a secular priest on the way, who had left his house at the disturbance. He took the latter with him and told him to confess “that person.” He confessed her very slowly, delaying more than half an hour. The governor, in the meanwhile, was walking up and down. When the father had finished, he stabbed his wife, telling her to repent of her sins and to confess to God who would pardon her. This happened at nine o’clock at night. A large crowd gathered immediately, and the alcaldes made investigation of what was passing. The dead bodies of the two men were guarded until next day, for justice to do its duty. That of the governor’s wife remained there until eight in the morning, when the master-of-camp, Don Geronimo de Silva, of the habit of St. John, ordered it to be taken up and carried to his house, in order to have it buried from there, according to the rank of her person, and not according to the so disgraceful event and death that had happened. They buried her body in the Recollect convent, with the greatest pomp possible. Then the two bodies of the men were buried, carrying them together from the street to the grave. The royal Audiencia took charge of the matter. They found almost two hundred notes from the governor’s wife in Juan de Messa’s possession, and in hers a great number from him. A report was made of all and sent to his Majesty. It was the first instance in which a so common person had an alliance with so powerful a lady, who was here as is the queen in España.6

Manila, July, 1621.