With the several pretended disclosures of Garabito before him, his mind ran quickly back over the career of Vasco Nuñez, his ill treatment of Enciso, his expulsion of Nicuesa, his irregularities while in office, the king's order to call him to a reckoning, the brilliant discoveries intervening, the failure to convict him of crimes, the king's favor, and at last the nearer and to be hoped final reconciliation. Warmer yet within him glowed the thought of these things, as his mind dwelt upon the letters disparaging to himself which Vasco Nuñez had sent the king, and recalled once more what Garabito had said concerning the repudiation of both himself and his daughter. He talked with Bachiller Corral, who had been once arrested by Vasco Nuñez for improper conduct, and to the royal treasurer, Alonso de la Puente, whom Vasco Nuñez had once offended by demanding the payment of a debt, he read the letter of Fernando de Argüello, and then ordered the arrest of the writer.
He communed with his heart in his rage and was glad. And he wrote his son-in-law a letter, his dear son-in-law, a friendly, fatherly letter, requesting his presence at Acla for the purpose of consultation over affairs affecting their mutual interests. This letter was despatched by messengers urged to the greatest haste, that the friends of Vasco Nuñez might not have time to warn him of his danger. "Once within my grasp," muttered the old man, "he never shall escape me." That he might not embark on some lengthy voyage or otherwise delay his coming, Pedrarias ordered Francisco Pizarro to place himself at the head of as large a force as he could muster, and immediately to find and arrest his former comrade and commander, Vasco Nuñez de Balboa, and bring him under safe guard to Acla.
Now the dissembling letter of Pedrarias, so the chroniclers tell us, was placed in the hands of Vasco Nuñez while yet the star of his destiny hovered, impatient of flight, about the spot whereon it was to determine his fate; which proves to any reasonable mind, beyond peradventure, several things; item, that the heavenly lights are fingered by Omnipotence for individual import; item, that Micer Codro knows the stars; item, that the stars know Micer Codro; item, parva momenta in spem metumque impellere animos.
Conscious of no wrong, Vasco Nuñez suspected no treachery, and on receipt of the letter he set out at once with the returning messengers to grant his father-in-law the desired interview, leaving his command at the Pearl Islands in charge of Francisco Compañon. As they journeyed toward Acla he interrogated his companions concerning the affairs of the colony. At first they were cautious in their replies, and made evasive answers; but the prompt and cordial manner in which Vasco Nuñez responded to the summons of Pedrarias carried conviction of his integrity. Further than this, they had long known Vasco Nuñez as a gallant cavalier and a genial friend, and they resolved, come what might, he should not fall into the clutches of his enemy without a word of warning from them. Enjoining secrecy, they told him all; that current opinion considered not only his liberty but that his life was in jeopardy.
Balboa would not believe it. Pedrarias might be very angry, though he had written in so friendly a strain; it was his nature to be suspicious and treacherous; he could not help it; he was martyr to a hate wherein he was created, and not unlike that of Acrisius who quarrelled with his twin brother Proetus before they were born. There might be some difficulty in pacifying Pedrarias, but as for fearing him, the idea was preposterous. Even though he had meditated treason against the governor, which he had not, he was not guilty of any criminal act; and surely a man cannot be hanged for his meditations. Of course he would go forward.
THE ARREST.
As he descended the mountains and drew near Acla, Vasco Nuñez was met by the force sent out by the governor. As the leader advanced to make the arrest, his old friend and patron cast on him a reproachful look and exclaimed, "How is this, Francisco Pizarro? You were not wont to come out in this manner to receive me!" He offered no opposition, however, and made no remonstrance when the irons were put upon him and he was led away to prison at Acla.
History presents few sadder pictures than the closing scenes in the career of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa. And as we look at it, our sorrow waxes hot with indignation over the triumph of wrong. Occasionally, in the hostile encounters of men, justice seems to abandon the arena, leaving iniquity master of the field; at which times the spectator burns for the power which Omnipotence declines to exercise.
The game here played was for a valuable life. On one side was a singularly morbid hate, envenomed and pitiless, united with unscrupulous treachery and hypocrisy, which in an old man of ability, breeding, and position, was hideous beyond expression. On the other side were recognized talents of so exceptional an order as to make the possessor the most popular man in the colony. This is what kept his irascible adversary on nettles. Vasco Nuñez was the hero of this conquest. He was to Pedrarias as Loki to Baldur, or as Hyperion to a satyr; and in their strangely assorted friendship they were more unequally yoked than in their enmity they were divided. He was the mirror in which by comparison the governor most clearly saw his own infirmities. Like Othello he was of that free and open nature which thinks men honest that but seem so. His faults were those of the times rather than of the man. He was as ambitious as Achilles, but it was a laudable ambition as times went. He was neither voracious nor avaricious; cruel he unquestionably was, but not wantonly so; he gathered gold, but he scattered it open-handedly. He coveted fame; and in those days neither equity nor humanity were essential to greatness. I do not regard him as greedy of office; he loved power, but he loved adventure more. Of course, in principle, the robber life he led was wrong, though sanctioned by philosophers and divines, and Vasco Nuñez aspired to belong to neither class. He was an illiterate cavalier, honest and religious, ready to accept the theories of the day if they did not too greatly interfere with his desires. Neither his loyalty nor his religion was sufficient to be of great injury to him; although, if we may credit Peter Martyr, he never attempted any adventure without the invocation of the deity and all the saints. Among his comrades he had ever at command a light artillery of wit; in logical argument he was not equal to his archenemy, but in action he was the inferior of no man. A natural and perfect leader, he was out of place as second. Conception and execution were one with him; he could not be bound by another's ideas. Latent in him were inexhaustible resources, known to exist, even by himself, only as occasion required them. Only with emotions of pride might any Spaniard regard his frank intrepidity, chivalrous bearing, and affable, generous disposition. In cruelty, subtlety, and base cunning Pedrarias was his superior, but not in war, or statesmanship, not to mention honorable enterprise. Throughout his entire career, whatever Vasco Nuñez touched by himself was a success; there was no chance about it, but simply energy and ability, temperate courage and common sense. His final overthrow was accomplished not by fair and open opposition, but by means most foul and damnable. Some might say that in this contemplated assumption of authority he was, like Icarus, flying too near the sun; yet, in truth, it was no sun, but fires infernal that melted the wax of his wings. His trial, to which let us now pass, was a judicial assassination.
HYPOCRISY AND CUNNING.