He
showed no unwillingness to talk with them, thought it was in
those sallies of caustic humor in which he usually indulged at
the expense of his hearer. Among these visiters was a cavalier
of no note, whose life, it appears, Carbajal had formerly spared,
when in his power. This person expressed to the prisoner his
strong desire to serve him; and as he reiterated his professions,
Carbajal cut them short by exclaiming, - "And what service can
you do me? Can you set me free? If you cannot do that, you can
do nothing. If I spared your life, as you say, it was probably
because I did not think it worth while to take it."
[Footnote 2: 'Basta matar." Fernandez, Hist. del Peru, Parte 1,
lib. 2, cap. 91.]
Some piously disposed persons urged him to see a priest, if it
were only to unburden his conscience before leaving the world.
"But of what use would that be?" asked Carbajal. "I have nothing
that lies heavy on my conscience, unless it be, indeed, the debt
of half a real to a shopkeeper in Seville, which I forgot to pay
before leaving the country!" *3
[Footnote 3: "En esso no tengo que confessar: porque juro a tal,
que no tengo otro cargo, si no medio rea que deuo en Seuilla a
vna bodegonera de la puerta del Arenal, del tiempo que passe a
Indias." Ibid., ubi supra.]
He was carried to execution on a hurdle, or rather in a basket,
drawn by two mules. His arms were pinioned, and, as they forced
his bulky body into this miserable conveyance, he exclaimed, -
"Cradles for infants, and a cradle for the old man too, it
seems!" *4 Notwithstanding the disinclination he had manifested
to a confessor, he was attended by several ecclesiastics on his
way to the gallows; and one of them repeatedly urged him to give
some token of penitence at this solemn hour, if it were only by
repeating the Pater Noster and Ave Maria.
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