" Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. -
Also Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap. 6.]
[Footnote 7: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Garcilasso,
Com. Real., Parte 2, lib. 3, cap. 6. - Herrera, Hist. General,
dec. 6, lib. 10, cap. 2.]
At length, disheartened by the long protracted coming of Vaca de
Castro, and still more by the recent reports of his loss,
Almagro's faction, despairing of redress from a legitimate
authority, determined to take it into their own hands. They came
to the desperate resolution of assassinating Pizarro. The day
named for this was Sunday, the twenty-sixth of June, 1541. The
conspirators, eighteen or twenty in number, were to assemble in
Almagro's house, which stood in the great square next to the
cathedral, and, when the governor was returning from mass, they
were to issue forth and fall on him in the street. A white flag,
unfurled at the same time from an upper window in the house, was
to be the signal for the rest of their comrades to move to the
support of those immediately engaged in the execution of the
deed. *8
[Footnote 8: Pedro Pizarro, Descub. y Conq., Ms. - Montesinos,
Annales, Ms., ano 1541. - Zarate, Conq. del Peru, lib. 4, cap.
6.]
These arrangements could hardly have been concealed from Almagro,
since his own quarters were to be the place of rendezvous. Yet
there is no good evidence of his having taken part in the
conspiracy. *9 He was, indeed, too young to make it probable that
he took a leading part in it.
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