Note 3 — LETTER BY A SPANISH OFFICER

By the letters which I wrote to your Grace, in the aforesaid last year, you will be fully informed of the extraordinary quarrel in which I was involved by the bad counsel and selfish designs of the father of my wife Doña Maria Josepha, encouraged by the mischief-making partisans that he has. On this topic I ought to add that, soon after the galleon which carried the aforesaid letters had sailed from this place, the said Doña Maria Josepha with great eagerness made known her desire to return home with me, urgently entreating that I would enable her to do so as soon as possible. Such being the relations between us, and the lawsuit being then near its final limit [estar en terminos de concluirse] (since all the evidence [necessary] for deciding it had already been furnished), and since, to judge by what was coming out in the suit, much annoyance could be occasioned by my side to her father, in order that it might serve as a warning and correction to the malice and evil design with which he undertook this quarrel, I resolved, responding to the good-will of the said Doña Maria Josepha, to give her the satisfaction of [granting] her petition. By way of correlative [to this], I performed the feat of overlooking, in regard to that same father of hers, the injury that in every way he has tried to do me; so that, although I could, while awaiting the decision [of the lawsuit] which, as the saying goes, was already in my hands—inflict on him most grievous injury, notwithstanding all this, from that time I formed the steadfast resolve that in case Doña Maria Josepha and I were reunited, as we were expecting, not only would I do my share to secure that from it not the slightest [harm] should result therefrom to him, but that we should maintain such harmony that this matter should no longer be remembered. In pursuance of this resolve, and because it seemed to me that this was the best way in order to live in conformity to the commands of God, I spoke upon this subject to the former governor, and to the archbishop3—who, on account of their earnest desire, as heads of the commonwealth, that this result might be secured, were unspeakably delighted that Doña Maria Josepha and I should come to so good a resolution. Immediately they held a conference in regard to the measures that should be taken in order that this reunion might be accomplished as soon as possible; and as it seemed best to them that it should be done through a conference with her father, since she had asked me that the matter might be thus arranged, they agreed to talk with him about it; this business was attended to by the archbishop, in his own name and in that of the governor. Although that gentleman [i.e., Doña Maria’s father] answered the archbishop with plausible arguments, to the effect that our union did not depend upon himself, but upon the aforesaid Doña Maria Josepha, but that he would, nevertheless, speak to her with the aim of promoting it, he acted so deceitfully that, in place of devoting himself to carrying out that promise, what he did was to go, a short time after he had left the presence of the archbishop, to the place where (as I told your Grace in my previous letters) Doña Maria Josepha was staying. [There], like a lion unchained—goaded by the idea of what the archbishop had given him to understand, to the effect that Doña Maria Josepha and I would certainly come together in a very short time, and by his own notion that we had been communicating with each other with that object—he began to threaten her in the most extravagant terms, in order not only to break up her purpose of reconciliation, but to prevent her from having the slightest communication with me. Not halting at this alone, his preposterous behavior went so far that he visited the provincial of St. Dominic; and the latter, being a good friend of his, and a man of so excellent judgment as he has shown in this affair, complied with his demand—which was, that the provincial should carry into effect whatever orders he [i.e., my wife’s father] should give to the prioress of the house where Doña Maria Josepha was.4 The prioress obliged that lady to leave the rooms in which she was living, which had a view of the street, and placed her in others where I could not possibly speak to her on any side of them. They placed such constraint upon her that she experienced inexpressible affliction, through this and other most improper measures which they took—even going so far that [they would not admit] the daughter whom I had by Doña Rafaela (whom may God keep), when they learned that this girl had on previous occasions gone to that house on account of the request that the said Doña Maria Josepha had made to me, that I would send my daughter to her; for they made arrangements to deprive her of the pleasure of having the girl with her, availing themselves of the same means which Herod used when he published the edict for the slaughter of the Innocents, so that the death of Christ our blessing might be included therein. For, not shooting openly at the window they aimed at, in order to attain their object orders were given by the provincial that in no case should any young girl be allowed to enter the house—notwithstanding the fact that until then not the slightest objection had been raised to the admission of any of the girls who were of my daughter’s age, and even when they had been going to that house for a longer time than she. When I learned of all these and other wrongful acts, I brought them to the notice of the archbishop, who was amazed—modifying the idea that he had formed of my wife’s father from his previous actions, and being equally surprised at the provincial for his actions in contributing to proceedings in which he ought [rather] to feel so great scruples at following the lead of this man. The archbishop administered to him an exceedingly severe rebuke, nor was the provincial left without others, which to a person less carried away by passions would have served for his entire correction. At last, when the father of Doña Maria Josepha saw that these and other malicious and unusual measures—of which he secretly availed himself in order to attain the purpose which guided him to actions, in regard to the lawsuit, which were improper and unjust—were continually failing him, and that consequently the affair of our reconciliation was steadily taking such shape that it would very soon be accomplished, he yielded in outward appearance, through his fear that this would occur without his having the least intervention in the matter. Through the agency of that same provincial, the affair was discussed with the archbishop and the governor; and thus the conclusion of it was arranged, so that, a few days after the middle of July, Doña Maria Josepha and I were reunited, the former governor having brought about a reconciliation, two or three days before, between her father and myself.