Two days before the passage of the Somosierra orders had been given to arm and embody the people of Madrid. The people were ready and willing, but this measure had been too long delayed; nevertheless a permanent Junta was formed, to maintain order, and provide for the defence of the capital; and the latter object was especially entrusted to Morla and to the Marques de Castelar. Now indeed was the time for that city to have emulated Zaragoza, and the spirit was not wanting in the inhabitants, had there been one commanding mind to have directed them. Priests and regulars came forward to bear arms, and old men, and women, and boys offered themselves for the service of their country; ... for this purpose leaving their houses open, and their property to take its chance, they employed themselves in opening trenches, erecting batteries, and barricading the streets. The pavements were torn up, and women and children carried the stones to the tops of the houses, to be used from thence against the enemy. Parapets were made on the houses, and the doors stopped with mattresses. Whatever arms were in the possession of individuals were brought forth, and about 8000 muskets were distributed. The troops who were in the city, and the armed inhabitants, were now assembled in the Prado, that they might be distributed to their appointed stations; the first step for establishing that order without which all efforts in defence of the city would be ineffectual. Great confusion prevailed, and when the people called out for cartridges, Morla coolly replied, that there were none. Happy had it been for Morla, if the indignation which this proof of negligence excited had been directed against himself; had he then perished under the hands of the mob, the treachery which he was preparing would never have been known on earth, and he would have escaped perpetual infamy. But his character stood so high, that no ♦MARQUES DE PERALES MURDERED BY THE POPULACE.♦ suspicion pointed towards him. It happened that among those cartridges which had been delivered in the morning some were found containing sand instead of gunpowder; they had probably been made by some dishonest workman, or mischievous lad; but in such a time of feverish irritation and imminent danger, the fact was of course imputed to a deep-laid scheme of treason, and the Marques de Perales was the person upon whom the crime was laid. The Duque del Infantado was informed that a mob was hastening toward the house of this unfortunate nobleman, and that he and his family were in the greatest peril. Infantado himself seems to have thought there was guilt somewhere; he repaired instantly to the spot, meaning to deliver over the suspected persons to a proper tribunal, by which they might be tried; but before he arrived Perales[38] had been pierced with wounds, and his dead body dragged upon a mat through the streets, the rabble accompanying it, and exulting in what they believed his deserved punishment.