Meanwhile the Ultramontane Press never wearied of repeating blood-curdling tales of the awful scenes of carnage, rapine, and sacrilege, brought about by the teaching given in the lay schools, a hundred of which, they said, Maura had been compelled to close in order to put an end to a system of education which produced such horrors: and since the Opposition newspapers were not allowed to publish a line without the sanction of Señor La Cierva, the Minister of the Interior, the nation, had it read the Ultramontane papers, would have supped its fill of uncontradicted libels upon the working people of Cataluña. But the nation does not read the Ultramontane papers. The Press of that party, indeed, admits the exiguousness of its circulation by pathetic appeals to the faithful to furnish money for the propaganda which in Ultramontane opinion constitutes the only hope of arresting the crimes born of the instruction given in the lay schools, and fostered by the seditious labours of the _Liberal_. But although the people closed their ears to the fulminations of the Church papers, the hand of the Church lay heavy on all Spain in 1909, for the continual reports of bombs and arrests, and the whispered tales of the secret drilling and arming of “good Catholics,” kept everybody on the rack, fearing they knew not what. The slow progress of the campaign in Melilla, the constant arrival of shiploads of sick and wounded, and the impossibility of obtaining trustworthy news of what was really going on, filled the cup of anxiety, and every one was in low spirits, for every family had friends or relatives in the war. Meanwhile Don Jaime, in his castle of Frohsdorf, was occupied in editing a verbose document which he published later on, addressed “to those loyal to me.” The gist of this was that as long as Spain was engaged in war he would make no move, but that when the flag waved victorious he would remember that he had to fulfil unavoidable duties imposed by his birth. “And,” said he, “social order, shaken by the revolution, is tottering to its foundations. And this not so much from the attack of anarchical crowds as from the cowardice of the powers who make compact with them, delivering themselves as hostages in order to save their life and property. In the violent struggle which is approaching between civilisation and barbarism I yield to no one the first place in the vanguard in the fight for society and the country.” Curiously enough, an incident in which the nation at large took very little interest nearly proved the last straw. This was the execution of Ferrer.