Don Pantaleon, brother to the Portuguese ambassador, and joined with him in the same commission,[*] fancying himself to be insulted, came upon the exchange, armed and attended by several servants.

By mistake, he fell on a gentleman whom he took for the person that had given him the offence; and having butchered him with many wounds, he and all his attendants took shelter in the house of the Portuguese ambassador, who had connived at this base enterprise.[**] The populace surrounded the house, and threatened to set fire to it.

Cromwell sent a guard, who seized all the criminals.
They were brought to trial; and notwithstanding the opposition of the ambassador, who pleaded the privileges of his office, Don Pantaleon was executed on Tower Hill.

The laws of nations were here plainly violated; but the crime committed by the Portuguese gentleman was to the last degree atrocious; and the vigorous chastisement of it, suiting so well the undaunted character of Cromwell, was universally approved of at home, and admired among foreign nations.

The situation of Portugal obliged that court to acquiesce; and the ambassador soon after signed, with the protector, a treaty of peace and alliance, which was very advantageous to the English commerce.
* Thurloe, vol.ii.p.