Dr. Riofrio was a secular clergyman, of a sullen morose temper, ready to coincide with any set of men whose plans were calculated to bid defiance to any thing that did not please him; yet, whether from natural imbecility, or natural cowardice, he seemed to be only an instrument, and probably became acquainted with the plans in agitation by being a frequent visitor at a house in Quito where Morales had lived, and on account of his own house being sometimes the residence of Morales, when he was estranged from Quito by the President Carondelet. This man and Salinas were both natives of Quito, but neither of them of families of rank or fortune, although from the situations which both had held they were very respectable. After the release of the four denounced conspirators, Salinas and Riofrio returned to their former occupations; Quiroga to his home, more injured than ever; and Morales went into the country, without having reaped any advantage except experience. The government now appeared quite satisfied in having declared the acquittal of the prisoners honourable; they were pleased that no act of injustice had been committed, and flattered themselves that the papers lost by Muños had fallen into the hands of some pick-pocket, or that having been dropt in the street, they had ceased to exist in a shape which might betray their intentions. But they were deceived; the papers found their way into the study of Quiroga, who drew such conclusions from them as best suited his own ends, and disseminated their contents among such individuals as he judged most proper to entrust them with. From April to August, 1809, nothing particular occurred, except new advices from Spain; so that the abdication of Carlos, the accession of Fernando, the imprisonment of the King, and the invasion of the country by the French, were the subject matter of every conversation. But still tranquillity reigned in every part of the colonies, and their inhabitants seemed to vie with each other in enthusiastic demonstrations of loyalty and attachment to their _amado Fernando_. Every new advice from Spain served to increase the apprehension and the dismay of the governments and Spaniards residing in America; and their whole attention was so engrossed with the state of affairs in the country to which they belonged, that they had not time to meditate on the effects which might be produced by it in the country in which they were stationed--satisfied that the colonies must follow the fate of the parent state, just as if it had been annexed to it by the ties of nature, instead of being attached to it by the most unnatural connexions. But the bubble burst when and where it was perhaps least expected to happen, and although the effects of the explosion were soon repressed, yet it rent the veil, and laid the foundation of that emancipation which the whole of the heretofore enslaved nations of the new world now enjoy.