Everything had been done beforehand to excite the public over the affair. Columns upon columns of matter prejudging the case had filled the Ultramontane Press for weeks, while the _Sociedad Editorial_ and the republican _Pais_ were accused of complicity with the prisoner because they pointed out that the publication of incriminating documents alleged to have been found in his house, before the Court had pronounced them genuine, was contrary to all the principles of justice. In Republican and Socialist circles this action on the part of the Government--for copies of the documents in question were sent to the Press by persons in Government employ--produced the indignation that might be expected--indignation that probably was counted upon to bring about an outbreak of violence. But the mass of the people, thanks to their lack of education, knew and cared very little about Ferrer and his alleged offences against society. While all Europe was excited about the fate of the founder of the lay schools, the Spanish people, believed abroad to be seething with anarchy and sedition, were peaceably if dispiritedly pursuing their usual avocations, only interested in Ferrer, if they took any interest in him at all, as another victim of the tyranny of the Church, whose “tool,” as they call Maura, had brought Spain so low. This was because the _Sociedad Editorial_, and especially the _Liberal_, laboured as indefatigably to keep the temper of the people within bounds as their opponents on the Ultramontane press laboured to produce irritation. At one period in the protracted controversy I wondered whether the editors or staff of the _Sociedad Editorial_ could actually be unaware of the lies spread broadcast concerning the political party for which they stand, so temperate in quality and so limited in quantity were their comments on the foreign campaign against the honour of the Spanish nation. But I soon came to understand that it was not ignorance of what was going on, although the Censorship used all its wits to keep foreign newspapers out of the Liberal-Monarchist newspaper offices. It was the deliberate policy of the wise and far-sighted Liberal-Monarchist party to keep their working-class readers in the dark about the Ferrer incident, because they knew that if the mass of the people became aware of the attack upon their honour, a civil war between the Ultramontanes and the people would have broken out within a week.