Juan de Guzman

“ If we can but reach the palace, we are saved."
"Is it thou, indeed, Juan Lerma?" cried Guzman, with a voice singularly wild and piteous, but struggling onward.—"Now then thou canst kill me thyself, since thou wouldst not be avenged by infidels."
"Quick! quick! they are following us! they are crossing the ditch!—But fifty paces more!" ”

“ But thou must be ruled. Speak not to Cortes in complaint: he will do thee no justice. Send no defiance of battle to Guzman, for this has been proclaimed a sin against God and the king, to be punished with loss of arms, degradation, and whipping with rods,—sometimes with the loss of the right hand. You stare! Oh, señor Juan Lerma, you will find we have a master now,—a master by the king's patent,—who makes his own laws, beats and dishonours, and gives us to the gallows, when the fit moves him, without any necessity of cozening us to death in expeditions to the gold mines, or the South Seas. ”

“ At this signal for breaking up the audience, which was pronounced with the grave and easy authoritativeness of one long accustomed to command, the individuals present, Christian and heathen, princes, chieftains, and cavaliers, took their departure, leaving behind them Sandoval, Alvarado, and a few other officers of high standing.
As Juan stood, embarrassed between hope and doubt, the señor Guzman descended from the platform, and, passing him, said with a low voice and a derisive smile,
"You mount, señor, and Bobadil neighs for you! It is better—the war is equal." ”

“ He then turned his face towards the king, and, at that moment,
Juan Lerma lifting his eyes, beheld the only man he had ever learned to hate—It was Don Francisco de Guzman.
Noble, compassionate, and truly unvindictive, as was Lerma's spirit, he did not make this discovery without a thrill of fierce exultation. There is a touch of the wild beast in the hearts of us all; and so long as man is capable of anger, he will, at some moment, and for some brief space of time, yield to thoughts and wishes, that he himself must, a moment after, esteem diabolic. ”

“ D. Juan Ramirez de Guzman replied: 'Alonzo Perez de Guzman, my brother of profit.' This answer seemed ill to all, and especially to Guzman, who saw that a slur was cast upon the illegitimacy of his birth, for at that time they named children of profit (gananciu) , those who were born of unmarried women, and his mother had not been married. Guzman, irritated at being thus spoken of before the king and the court, then said: 'You speak truth, I am a brother of profit, but you are and will be one of loss ”

“ Religion and moral culture make us the masters of our malign propensities; but man is naturally a vengeful animal.
It was but the weakness of a moment with Juan Lerma; perhaps, too, it was caused by the thrill of joy at the proof thus rendered, that Guzman, at least, exercised no control over the fate of the princess of Mexico ”

“ Two hundred years ago the citizens made their Creator ashamed of them by succumbing to a band of exhausted and half-starved buccaneers. Sir Henry Morgan and his men nearly perished of hunger in trying to cross the isthmus while Don Juan Perez de Guzman, president of Panama, was praying and eating, and keeping tab on Morgan’s progress and his own prayers, instead of pleasing God by killing pirates. God is not always pleased with mere praying. ”

“ Guyot (Bertrand) , one of the archers in the Scottish guard attached to Louis XI.—Sir W. Scott, Quentin Durward (time, Edward IV.) .
Guzman d’Alfara ́che (4 syl.) , hero of a Spanish romance of roguery. He begins by being a dupe, but soon becomes a knave in the character of stable-boy, beggar, swindler, pander, student, merchant, and so on.—Mateo Aleman (1599) .
Guzman. The priest who brings up Don Juan in Mansfield’s play of that name. He tries to train the boy aright; failing in this, he screens him and palliates his offences ”

“ I accepted his invitation gladly and a part of the time that I was in Caracas I spent at the Yellow [94] House, the residence of the President, as his guest. Guzman was the handsomest man I have ever known; tall and as straight as a sword, with long black beard and dark eyes, sharp as needles, that could flash fire or friendship. He was magnetic and winning to the last degree and every inch a ruler of men, without the faintest notion as to what fear meant. During the nearly twenty years that he was absolute ruler of Venezuela his temper was the thing most dreaded through all the land. ”

“ But it is certain, the young man so charged thee to Cortes; affirming that, but for his interference, the villany meditated—But, pho! thou growest angry! So much, certainly, he brought against thee?"
"He did," replied Guzman, smiling as if in derision; "and I know not how any could have been induced to believe him, except that man,—each man,—being naturally a rogue himself, doth rather delight to entertain those aspersions which bring down his neighbour to his own level, than the commendations which acquaint him with a superior. ”

“ One may fetch angels to the brand, but, ay de mi! the iron turns them into beldames!"
"Ay, there is some truth in that," said Guzman, a little thoughtfully. "No man honours Don Hernan more than myself; and yet did he suffer me to be choused out of the princess I fetched from Iztapalapan."
"Ay, the whole army witnessed it, and there was not a man who did not cry shame on you for taking it so—"
"Good-humouredly," interrupted the cavalier. "Rub me as thou wilt for a jest, Villafana; but touch me not in soberness."
"Pshaw! can I not abuse thee as a friend, without the apology of a grin? ”

“ Mota Padilla, Cong. N. Gal., 105. ↑ Oñate's brother, Juan, was one of the stanchest partisans of Guzman. When the news arrived in Nueva Galicia, where Juan de Oñate had remained, of Guzman's imprisonment, and that Torre was empowered to take the residencia of all subordinate officials, he was advised by Cristóbal to effect his escape. He accordingly fled to Peru, where some assert that he died poor and blind. Id. ↑ Mendoza, on the 10th of December, 1537, reported to the king that although this province was rich in resources, it would be lost unless his Majesty applied some remedy. ”

“ Guzman almost succeeded in escaping, but his judge, who had landed at Vera Cruz by the end of 1536, met him at the viceroy's palace in Mexico city, and secured his arrest before he could depart. After his trial he was detained in Mexico until June 30, 1538,-when he was enabled to leave New Spain by an order which directed him to surrender his person to the officers of the Casa de Contratacion, [13] at Seville. Guzman lost no time in going to Spain, where he spent the next four years in urging his claims to a right to participate in the northern conquests. ”

“ Other parts have been attributed to Juan Rodriguez del Padron, a poet, and Diego de Valera, [278] a knight and gentleman often men [p. 185] tioned in the Chronicle itself, and afterwards himself employed as a chronicler by Queen Isabella.
But whoever may have been at first concerned in it, the whole work was ultimately committed to Fernan Perez de Guzman, a scholar, a courtier, and an acute as well as a witty observer of manners, who survived John the Second, and probably arranged and completed the Chronicle of his master’s reign, as it was published by order of the Emperor Charles the Fifth ”

“ The Indians, believing that he came to destroy the whites, assisted him. Guzman's troops deserted him, and Carrera with his own hands took him prisoner, sick and encumbered with a great coat, in the act of dashing his horse down a deep ravine to escape: he sent to Guatimala Guzman's military coat, with the names of Omoa, Truxillos, and other places where Guzman had distinguished himself in the service of the republic, labelled on it, and a letter to the government, stating that he had sent the coat as a proof that he had taken Guzman. ”

“ If he kill six strong men upon the stone Temalacatl, he shall be set free.' This is the law."
"This is the law, then," repeated Guzman, in imperfect Mexican, turning his eyes upon Guatimozin, as if he disdained to hold converse with any meaner infidel: "Is it a law that will be remembered, when the prisoner is a Spaniard?"
"He who is a prisoner, has no name and no country," replied the prince. "He is neither Tlascalan nor Castilian, but a man who kills or dies." ”

“ Breaking the silence which both my companion and I had kept till that moment: “Are you not tired, Sayavedra,” said I, “of thus travelling like two Carthusian friars? For my part, I feel quite absorbed in idle meditation. Let us talk. Tell me some story which may enliven us.” “Signor Don Guzman,” said he, “you will, I am sure, be ready to allow that it much better becomes him who has plenty of money in his pocket to tell merry stories, than him who has not a sous wherewith to bless himself.” ”

“ The famous Villanueva, we are told, had to dance attendance upon Secretary Andres de Rozas instead of keeping everybody waiting in his antechamber; and the King's former confessor had to pay his respects in the cell of Friar Santo Tomas, who was now the King's spiritual guide.
[10] A Newsletter of the time gives rather a quaint instance of the feeling against him at Saragossa. Don Antonio de Mendoza, the poet, entered a room where Guzman was playing cards. Guzman impatiently said: "How tiresome that man is to me." ”

“ Ricardo shrugged. "Nobody. There is no danger."
Blaze shook his head. "They know you are a red-hot Rebel. I wouldn't trust them."
"They know, also, that I am an American, like you gentlemen," proudly asserted Guzman. "That makes a difference. I supported the Liberator—God rest his soul!—and I secretly assist those who fight his assassins, but so does everybody else. I am receiving a fine price for those horses, so it is worth a little risk. Now, señor," he addressed himself to the Ranger, "I have brought you a little present. ”

“ Thus we are all indurated by age and habit,—and feel ultimately, that the dearest connexions of nature or passion may be sacrificed to those petty indulgences which the presence or influence of a stranger may disturb. So Guzman compromised between his conscience and his feelings. He determined, in spite of all the priests in Seville, to invite his sister and her family to Spain, and to leave the mass of his immense fortune to them ”

“ These proceedings materially affected the progress of the expedition, for the news spreading throughout the neighboring districts caused the natives either to fly, or to rise in defence of their homes, only to encounter certain defeat. Any other leader would have been startled by the desolation which met his eye on every side, but Guzman seemed rather to accept it as a flattering tribute to his renown, and made light of the alarm manifested by some of his followers, declaring that he would assume the responsibility before the crown of all his acts. ”

“ All the way thither, the people thronged to see the man true to his word at such a fearful cost. The Court was sent out to meet him, and the King, after embracing him, exclaimed, 'Here learn, ye knights, what are exploits of virtue. Behold your model.'
Lands and honors were heaped upon Alonso de Guzman, and they were not a mockery of his loss, for he had other sons to inherit them. He was the staunch friend of Sancho's widow and son in a long and perilous minority, and died full of years and honors. ”

“ Don Jose Avellanos loved his country. He had served it lavishly with his fortune during his diplomatic career, and the later story of his captivity and barbarous ill-usage under Guzman Bento was well known to his listeners. It was a wonder that he had not been a victim of the ferocious and summary executions which marked the course of that tyranny; for Guzman had ruled the country with the sombre imbecility of political fanaticism. The power of Supreme Government had become in his dull mind an object of strange worship, as if it were some sort of cruel deity. ”

“ Indeed, the disordered condition of affairs in New Spain, bandied as they were by irresponsible factions which found security in the remoteness of the only feared authority, demanded the supervision of a sagacious mind with a firm hand. On their part the friends of Cortés made light of his story, and as Guzman's evil deeds were not yet known in Spain, no great efforts were made to prevent his appointment to the presidency, for it was generally considered that as he was to have no vote, the oidores could control him easily were he viciously inclined. ”

“ Of the agreeable life Guzman continued to lead with his Comrades. An account of his Journey to Gaeta. History of a Beggar who died at Florence. Notwithstanding the disposition recommended by the tenth statute of our laws, I did not think proper to communicate to my comrades the secrets of the Cordovan, who had revealed them to none but myself; nevertheless we all lived together in perfect union. We frequently met together of an evening to the number of ten or twelve, and passed our time in practising and inventing new exclamations to excite pity. ”

“ He was a tall, handsome man of pure Castilian blood; a revolutionist by birth, breeding, education, and occupation, and his one ambition was to be President of Venezuela. I doubt if that country will ever produce another just like him.
It was known that Guzman favored the introduction of foreign capital to develop the wonderful resources of Venezuela, the full extent of which is not even yet understood, and Caracas was soon over-run with concession hunters. ”