and altogether with so grave and majestic
a demeanor that they commanded the eyes and also the applause of all
the people. The city [cabildo] followed, together with the tribunal of
the royal official judges, bearing their maces and insignia. They were
accompanied by the nobility of the city with flowing black mourning
cloaks, and with heads covered; but very apparent was the grief and
manifest the sadness which their love and good-will towards their
unfortunate prince brought to their faces. The royal standard of the
city was carried by Captain Gabriel Gomez del Castillo, assisted by the
two alcaldes-in-ordinary, who carried it between them, as authorizing
the action. The royal Audiencia with their president, the governor
of these islands, crowned all that grave and religious concourse with
all the splendors of authority. They were followed by the government
and court secretaries, and by the gentlemen and pages of the palace,
clad in all display of grandeur in funeral garb, thus manifesting
in somber grays the sharpness and depth of the wound which they had
received by the sudden death of the most serene and very august prince,
Don Balthassar Carlos, the clear and resplendent light of the Spanish
monarchy, at whose taking away all the world was darkened. Between the
city cabildo and the royal Audiencia was carried the Caesarean crown,
with two kings-at-arms, on a cushion of rich cloth, with the gravity
and decorum which is due to the head [that it adorns], to which all
the people who were present that day rendered humble veneration. So
sad a spectacle was made by all that splendid parade, that never was
more bitter grief represented, never was Majesty seen more afflicted,
never was sorrow seen more at its height. All the Plaza de Armas
was occupied, while that brilliant procession was going round it,
by the royal regiment of the Spanish troops, the governor of which is
Sargento-mayor Manuel Estacio Venegas. It consisted of four hundred
and eighty-six infantrymen formed in a body with four fronts, each
of which was commanded by two captains and one alferez. The regiment
marched to take position in five lines, with fifty artillerymen in the
rear with their campaign linstocks. They all maintained so great order
and discipline that the military art was seen in practice in all its
splendor--a glorious proof of the diligence of their commandant and
the loyalty and devotion of so valiant soldiers; for notwithstanding
the exce