The second constitutional congress was to meet on the 1st of October, 1826, and the liberal party had, since September, industriously worked to secure a majority. But on the appointed day there was no quorum, the members of the opposition having refused to take their seats, evidently to prevent the adoption of any measures against the president.[V-34] It was rather suspicious that the government at San Salvador, always friendly to Arce, had forbidden its delegates to occupy their seats in congress unless it were to discuss the expediency of transferring the federal authorities to some place distant from Guatemala.[V-35] It soon became apparent that the president's aim was to have his own assembly, for on the 10th of October he convoked an extraordinary congress.[V-36] This was open violation of the constitution, which vested in the senate the authority for convoking, and moreover limited representation to only one delegate for every 30,000 inhabitants. Much indignation was felt by the members of congress, who had constituted themselves into an organizing commission, but dispersed on the same day that Arce's decree was published.[V-37] [Sidenote: MURDER OF FLORES.] Exciting events now followed in quick succession. The vice-jefe Cirilo Flores and the state authorities had retired on the 8th of October to Quezaltenango, where he was murdered a few days afterward—on the 13th—by a mob of fanatical Indians.[V-38] The act was attributed to Arce and his immediate friends, but apparently without much reason,[V-39] though it must be admitted that intrigues of the servile party and the preaching of hostile priests aroused the fanaticism of the populace to such a degree that the slightest cause would bring about the commission of outrages. The trouble did not end with Flores' death, for many members of the assembly and representative council were compelled to flee for their lives. The state was now powerless, for even its military forces disappeared before the federal troops. The liberals in the state and republic saw their hopes dashed, and many emigrated.[V-40] Arce held the executive authority of both the federation and the state of Guatemala; and acting upon the advice of Salvador, he began reorganization, decreeing on the 31st of October the election of a new executive and legislature for Guatemala, from which the inhabitants entertained hopes of a final restoration of peace throughout the republic. But those hopes were frustrated by a sudden change of policy on the part of the Salvador government, which surprised everybody, all the more from the fact that it had heretofore firmly supported the president. [Sidenote: ARCE'S VICTORY AND DEFEAT.]