Note 225 — Chapter VIII · 1578-1584

The unhappy Guaras remained in prison, treated with the greatest severity, until May, 1579. Mendoza appears to have pressed his case rather languidly, unwilling to embitter national relations further for the sake of so plebeian and insignificant a person as Guaras. A wealthy brother of the latter, named Gombal de Guaras, came to London early in 1579 to try whether bribery could release the prisoner. Mendoza was furiously angry at this interference, and had nothing but scorn for Gombal’s boastful tactics on ’Change. Gombal spent large sums of money to forward the release, and notwithstanding Mendoza’s assertion that Guaras would have been released earlier but for his brother’s boasts and turbulence it is doubtful whether the poor man would ever have got out at all without his expenditure. All sorts of hard conditions were imposed upon Guaras on his release. All his debts had to be paid and his maintenance in prison; he had to leave England at once without communicating with anybody, and was never again to return. He left England a ruined man, and died in 1584 at his birthplace, Tarrazona, and later his heirs prayed unsuccessfully for repayment of the money he had disbursed in England.—Spanish Calendar, vol. ii., and Españoles é Ingleses en el Siglo XVI., por Martin Hume (Madrid, 1903).