The commissaries on this occasion received orders from his majesty, not to produce the intercepted letters, unless absolutely necessary to the conviction of the criminals, lest the court of Spain should suspect the manner by which he had obtained possession of those letters, and discover his correspondence with the marquis d’Aïamonte. Fortunately, however, such proofs were not requisite, Baësa having contradicted himself so palpably in his answers to the principal interrogatories, that he was put to the torture, and the miserable wretch no sooner felt the first pangs, than his courage failed him, and he confessed all the particulars of the plot. He owned the design of assassinating the king; declared that the office of the inquisition was well stored with arms, and that they only waited for an answer from the count-duke to put their plan into execution.
The greater part of the other conspirators, on being put to the torture, confirmed the deposition of the Jew; but the archbishop, the grand inquisitor, the marquis de Villa-Real and the duke de Caminha, in order to avoid so dreadful a punishment, confessed their guilt. The two latter were condemned to lose their heads, and the rest to be hanged and quartered; whilst his majesty himself was to pronounce sentence on the ecclesiastics.
The king thereupon assembled his council, and addressing his ministers, declared, that he had reason to fear the execution of so many people of distinction might be attended by dangerous consequences: that the principal conspirators being of the first families in the kingdom, their relations would naturally become secret enemies, and that the passion of revenge would naturally give birth to another conspiracy: that the execution of the comte d’Egmont in Flanders, and that of the Guises in France, had been fatal to the causes in support of which they had been employed; but that the generous pardon he thought of granting to some amongst them, together with a punishment, perhaps more severe than death, which he should inflict on others, would interest every heart in his favour, and force even the conspirators, their relations and friends, to look up to him in future with gratitude. His majesty, however, added, that though his inclinations led him to pursue lenient measures, he had, nevertheless, assembled his council, to be informed of their opinion, and to follow that which should appear to be the best.
The marquis de Ferreira first spoke on this occasion, and voted for the speedy execution of the criminals; alledging in the strongest terms that sovereigns, in cases of this nature, should be guided by justice alone; that clemency might probably be attended by dangerous consequences, since the pardon of traitors would be much sooner attributed to weakness of character in a prince than to real goodness; that a government which permitted such crimes to pass off with impunity, would infallibly be despised, and would likewise encourage the relations of the delinquent not only to attempt to liberate them from prison, but to carry their designs still farther; that an example of severity was absolutely necessary on his accession to the crown, were it only to intimidate others from forming plots of the same nature; in short, that these men were not only traitors to the king himself, but to the state, which they were on the point of overturning; and that his majesty ought sooner to consider the justice he owed to his people, by bringing them to condign punishment, than attend to the dictates of his own feeling heart, in a case where the preservation of his majesty’s person and the public security must ever be inseparable. This opinion being unanimously supported by all the members of the council, the king gave up his judgment to theirs, and the sentence was put in execution on the following day. The archbishop of Lisbon being anxious to preserve the life of one of his friends, addressed himself to the queen to obtain his pardon, and asked this favour in full confidence that the services he had rendered to the house of Braganza were of such a nature, that no demand of his could possibly be refused. But her majesty, who was perfectly convinced of the necessity, and indeed the justice of punishing such traitors, and who clearly perceived how much a distinction in favour of one would irritate the friends and relations of the remaining conspirators (since in this case, and indeed in many others, clemency would become injustice) was decided on this occasion to make the natural gentleness of her disposition yield to the superior motives of impartial justice; and turning towards the prelate, with an air and tone of voice which forbad all reply, “Archbishop,” said she, “the only favour you can possibly expect from me is, that I should forget you have ever spoken to me on the subject.”
The king, however, out of respect to the clergy of Portugal, and indeed to obtain the favour of the court of Rome, which from regard to the house of Austria, had hitherto refused to receive his ambassadors, mitigated the sentence pronounced on the archbishop of Braga and the grand inquisitor, and condemned them to perpetual imprisonment. The arch-bishop’s illness and death were soon after announced to the public: such events, it is well known, frequently happen to certain state prisoners, who, from political motives, are not suffered to perish on a scaffold.
The manner by which the king of Portugal became acquainted with this conspiracy, was for a long time unknown to the court of Spain, nor did the Spanish monarch discover the person who dispatched the archbishop’s letters to Lisbon, till another conspiracy was forming against himself.
The king of Portugal, as has been already mentioned, kept up a constant correspondence with the enemies of Spain; his ports were open to the French and Dutch fleets; he had a resident both at Barcelona and with the insurgents in Catalonia; and he left no means untried to cause confusion in the very heart of Spain, in order to occupy the mind of Philip the IVth, in a way to give him no time to attend to the affairs of Portugal.
The new monarch had already partly succeeded in sowing the seeds of rebellion in the breast of his brother-in-law, the duke de Medina-Sidonia; and their mutual confident the marquis d’Aïamonte, a Castilian nobleman, had completed his seduction. This latter was nearly related to the queen of Portugal and the duke; and the situation of his estate at the mouth of the Guadiana, near the frontiers of Portugal, greatly favoured his secret correspondence with that court. Naturally ambitious, he wished to raise his fortunes, and flattered himself his own elevation would be the consequence of that of the two houses of Braganza and Medina-Sidonia. He was a man of a daring, enterprising character, discontented with the conduct of the prime minister, and possessed of that perfect indifference for life so necessary to all those who engage in great and difficult undertakings.
Immediately on the discovery of the archbishop of Braga’s conspiracy; the marquis d’Aïamonte wrote secretly to the duke de Medina-Sidonia to congratulate him on the escape of his sister the queen of Portugal, and the rest of the royal family; insinuating at the same time, how nearly it concerned him, that the new monarch should preserve a crown, which must necessarily descend to his own nephews; and that Portugal, from its vicinity to Castile, would ensure him a retreat on any emergency; especially during the ministry of the count-duke whose arrogance and despotic system of politics had no other object than to seek occasions of humbling the grandees. He added, too, it was far from certain that the minister, though his relation, would long permit him to enjoy the government of so large a province in the neighbourhood of Portugal; that this subject was worthy his serious reflections; and that if the duke was willing to be more fully acquainted with his sentiments on the occasion, he would immediately send him a faithful friend, to whom he might safely confide his most secret thoughts.
The duke de Medina-Sidonia, naturally proud and vain, and whose jealousy had been secretly raised by the regal dignity of his brother-in-law, presently perceived that the marquis’s letter was only a cover for much deeper designs; he therefore instantly sent off a certain Louis de Castille, his confident, to confer with him on the subject. The marquis on opening his credentials, did not scruple to unbosom himself; and after having reminded him of the ease with which the duke of Braganza had mounted the throne of Portugal; he added, that it was impossible for the duke of Medina-Sidonia to make choice of a more favourable juncture to secure the fortunes of his house, and to render it for ever independent of the crown of Spain. He next represented, that the long war with France and Holland had nearly exhausted the king’s forces, the greater part of which were necessarily employed in Catalonia; that this was the favourable moment for stirring up a rebellion in Andalusia, and carrying the war into the very centre of the kingdom; that the people, ever lovers of novelty, and loaded with taxes, would submit with pleasure to a change of government; and that the duke de Medina-Sidonia was not less beloved in Castille, than Braganza in Portugal. It would, however, be necessary to engage his lieutenant-governors in his interest, though without entrusting them with his secret; that he had nothing to do, but to place his partizans in the most important posts; he would then have no difficulty in securing the galleons which were daily expected from India; and that the king of Portugal would aid and assist him in his design, by sending a great fleet into Cadiz, consisting not only of his own vessels, but those of his allies, having on board land forces, which would presently subdue all and every one ill-advised enough to make impotent efforts in support of their allegiance to the king of Spain.