the hall, with his arms folded on his breast and his eyes
cast down, the very picture of melancholy, being then probably
contemplating the transactions in which he was to engage that night. In
the evening, when the sports were over, the company sat down to supper
in a lower hall, where at the least sixty gentlemen were at table, the
ladies being by themselves in an inner room, and from a small
court-yard between these apartments, the dishes were served to both
tables. Don Balthazar de Castillo, uncle to the bride, acted as usher of
the hall at this entertainment. I came to the house towards the end of
supper, to attend my father and stepmother home at night. I went to the
upper end of the hall, where the governor sat, who was pleased to make
me sit down on the chair beside him, and reached me some comfits and
sweet drink, with which boys are best pleased, I being then fourteen
years of age.

At this instant some once knocked at the door, saying that Francisco
Hernandez Giron was there; on which Don Balthazar de Castillo, who was
near the door ordered the door to be opened. Giron immediately rushed
in, having a drawn sword in his right hand, and a buckler on his left
arm; accompanied by a companion on each side armed with partizans. The
guests rose in great terror at this unexpected interruption, and Giron
addressed them in these words: "Gentlemen be not afraid, nor stir from
your places, as we are all engaged in the present enterprize." The
governor, Gil Ramirez, immediately retired into the apartment of the
ladies, by a door on the left hand. Another door led from the hall to
the kitchen and other offices; and by these two doors a considerable
number of the guests made their escape. Juan Alonzo Palomino, who was
obnoxious to Giron for having opposed him in a late mutiny, was slain by
Diego de Alvarado the lawyer. Juan de Morales, a rich merchant and very
honest man, was slain while endeavouring to put out the candles. My
father and a number of others, to the number in all of thirty-six, made
their escape by means of a ladder from the court-yard of Loyasa into
that of the adjoining house, in which I accompanied them, but the
governor could not be persuaded to follow them, and was made prisoner by
the rebels. My father and all the companions of his flight agreed to
leave the town that night, and endeavour to escape to Lima.

Having assembled about an hundred and fifty soldiers, Giron assumed the
office of commander-in-c