A secret union among leading men was, therefore, formed in 1810, which contemplated a general rising throughout the provinces, but the plot was detected at the moment when it was ripe for development. This conspiracy was based upon a desire to _overthrow the Spaniards_. "They felt," says Mr. Ward, "that the question was not now one between themselves as subjects, but between themselves and their fellow subjects, the European Spaniards, as to which should possess the right of representing the absent king," as guardians and preservers of the rights of Ferdinand. The Europeans claimed this privilege exclusively, with customary insolence. "The Ayuntamiento of Mexico was told by the Audiencia that it possessed no authority except over the _leperos_"--or mob of the capital; and it was a favorite maxim of the oidor Battaller that "while a Manchego mule or a Castilian cobler remained in the Peninsula, he had a right to govern."[54] In those times, a certain country curate, by name Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, dwelt in the Indian village of Dolores, adjacent to the town of San Miguel el Grande, lying in the province of Guanajuanto. One of the conspirators being about to die, sent for his priest, and confessing the plot, revealed also the names of his accomplices. The curate Hidalgo was one of the chiefs of this revolutionary band, and the viceroy Venegas hoping to crush the league in its bud, despatched orders for his arrest and imprisonment, as soon as the confession of the dead conspirator was disclosed to him. Hidalgo's colleagues were also included in this order, but some of the secret friends of the insurgents learned what was occurring at court and apprised the patriot priest of his imminent danger. The news first reached Don Ignacio Allende, who commanded a small body of the king's troops in San Miguel, and who hastened with the disastrous tidings to his friend at Dolores. Concealment and flight were now equally unavailing. The troops of Allende were speedily won to the cause of their captain, while the Indians of Dolores rushed to defend their beloved pastor. As they marched from their village to San Miguel and thence to Zelaya, the natives, armed with clubs, slings, staves and missiles, thronged to their ranks from every mountain and valley. The wretched equipment of the insurgents shows their degraded condition as well as the passionate fervor with which they blindly rushed upon the enemies of their race. Hidalgo put on his military coat over the cassock, and, perhaps unwisely, threw himself at the head of a revolution, which rallied at the cry of "_Death to the Gachupines_."[55]