May 12, 1621, occurred the unfortunate death of the governor's wife,
which I intend to relate here, as it is a peculiar case. The governor
of these Filipinas Islands, Don Alonso Fajardo de Tenza, suspected
that his wife, called Doña Catalina Zambrano, was not living as
was fitting for such a personage. One afternoon, that of May 12, he
pretended that he was going to the port of Cavite, where he generally
went because the Dutch enemy were in this bay with their fleet. The
governor went, but, leaving all the men who accompanied him, returned
alone. Entering the city secretly, he concealed himself in a house,
where a captain in his confidence brought him a young page who was
in the service of his wife--the one who carried the messages, and
knew everything that went on. The governor placed a dagger to his
breast in order to get him to tell what he knew of his wife. The page
openly confessed that she was maintaining a sinful alliance with a
clerk, an ordinary person, called Juan de Messa Suero, who had been
a member of the Society of Jesus for some years at Coimbra; and that
his wife was dressing in the garb of a man, in order to go outside of
the palace, as she had done at other times. Juan de Messa came with a
very eminent pilot. The governor's wife left the palace clad as a man,
with her cloak and sword and all went together to the square. Thence
they began to walk toward a house of Juan de Messa. The governor,
with three other men who accompanied him, went on ahead of them, and
awaited them near the door of the said house, hidden in a recess. The
governor's wife entered first, then Juan de Messa. Then the pilot
stopped to shut the door. Thereupon the governor attacked him alone,
and giving a violent push on the door, opened it. He entered, and
found himself with the pilot alone, for the other man, Juan de Messa,
with the governor's wife, on hearing the noise, fled up the stairs. It
appears that the governor stabbed the pilot in the breast. The latter
left the portal of the house, whereupon those who accompanied the
governor and had remained to guard the door, attacked and killed
him there. The governor went upstairs and found Juan de Messa in the
hall. He chased the latter around a table that held two lights. The
governor made a strong thrust at him, which almost knocked him down;
but showed that he was clad in armor. By the force that the governor
exerted in the thrust, he felt that he himself was wounded in the
hand. Apparently the pilot had given him that wound, and he had not
felt it before that. The governor's sword began to grow weak, and he
said: "Ha, traitor, thou hast wounded me." Juan de Messa lost his
head, and ran down stairs, thinking that his safety lay there. The
governor attacked him, and on the way down stabbed him in the neck,
with such force that he tripped and fell down. Below, the governor
and the guard finished killing him. The governor would have been in
great peril, both with the pilot and upstairs with Juan de Massa, had
not the miserable man lost his head. Had he at least extinguished the
candles, and stationed himself on the stairway, which was narrow, he
could have prevented the governor from ascending, and could even have
killed him. The latter went immediately to look for his wife, and found
her hidden in an attic, hanging to a beam. He stabbed her from beneath,
and passed half of his sword through her body, and at that the poor
lady fell. She requested confession. The governor restrained himself,
and said that it was a timely request. Leaving the three men whom
he brought with him as a guard, he in person going to the Franciscan
convent, which was near by, to summon a confessor, met a secular priest
on the way, who had left his house at the disturbance. He took the
latter with him and told him to confess "that person." He confessed
her very slowly, delaying more than half an hour. The governor, in
the meanwhile, was walking up and down. When the father had finished,
he stabbed his wife, telling her to repent of her sins and to confess
to God who would pardon her. This happened at nine o'clock at night. A
large crowd gathered immediately, and the alcaldes made investigation
of what was passing. The dead bodies of the two men were guarded until
next day, for justice to do its duty. That of the governor's wife
remained there until eight in the morning, when the master-of-camp,
Don Geronimo de Silva, of the habit of St. John, ordered it to be
taken up and carried to his house, in order to have it buried from
there, according to the rank of her person, and not according to the so
disgraceful event and death that had happened. They buried her body in
the Recollect convent, with the greatest pomp possible. Then the two
bodies of the men were buried, carrying them together from the street
to the grave. The royal Audiencia took charge of the matter. They
found almost two hundred notes from the governor's wife in Juan de
Messa's possession, and in hers a great number from him. A report
was made of all and sent to his Majesty. It was the first instance
in which a so common person had an alliance with so powerful a lady,
who was here as is the queen in España. [6]
Manila, July, 1621.