He urged the service he had
rendered Hernando himself. "This was a hard requital," he said, "for
having spared his life so recently under similar circumstances, and that,
too, when he had been urged again and again by those around him to
take it away." And he concluded by menacing his enemy with the
vengeance of the emperor, who would never suffer this outrage on one
who had rendered such signal services to the Crown to go unrequited. It
was all in vain; and Hernando abruptly closed the conference by
repeating, that "his doom was inevitable, and he must prepare to meet
it."20
Almagro, finding that no impression was to be made on his ironhearted
conqueror, now seriously addressed himself to the settlement of his
affairs. By the terms of the royal grant he was empowered to name his
successor. He accordingly devolved his office on his son, appointing
Diego de Alvarado, on whose integrity he had great reliance,
administrator of the province during his minority. All his property and
possessions in Peru, of whatever kind, he devised to his master the
emperor, assuring him that a large balance was still due to him in his
unsettled accounts with Pizarro. By this politic bequest, he hoped to
secure the monarch's protection for his son, as well as a strict scrutiny
into the affairs of his enemy.
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