Europe now began to assume an alarming aspect. The revolt of the Spanish army at the island of Léon found an echo in a similar movement among the Neapolitan troops. Portugal quickly followed their example; and the seditious, imagining the French army well inclined to imitate the conduct of their neighbours, directed all their efforts towards this end. After having broken all the bonds of civil order, the revolution endeavoured to overturn the principle of duty and obedience among the soldiery. In most of the corps, however, the officers continued faithful to their engagements; a few only were unable to resist the torrent, and a conspiracy was formed in several of the regiments at Paris, extending in its ramifications to various military stations, and it was determined that the rising should take place in the barracks on the 20th of August, 1820. On the proposal of M. Mounier, then director-general of the police, the ministers' council determined upon arresting the conspirators before they had unfurled a standard and actually proclaimed the insurrection. The heads of this military conspiracy are well known at present, and some of them have even been rewarded; but, as is always the case, the plot was denied by the parties engaged in it. The Chamber of Peers behaved with much indulgence, as able and experienced authorities usually do when severity is not indispensably necessary; and the government preferred pardoning many offences, and consigning much to oblivion, to being compelled to authorise the shedding of blood. The elections of 1820, which had taken place when a favourable impression had been raised by the birth of the Duc de Bourdeaux, gave a powerful and compact _côté droit_ to the chamber, and MM. de Villèle and Corbière, who had assumed the position of its chiefs, ought naturally to have supported the Duc de Richelieu; but, at the very commencement of the session, clouds appeared on the horizon. The _côté droit_ of the chambers had hitherto fought by the side of the ministers, and triumphed with them, and consequently they claimed a direct participation in the administration. Negotiations were entered into with them; the Duke would not consent that any of the men who had hitherto governed with him, and preserved the kingdom in its hour of peril, should be excluded from the council; however, two only of the principal deputies on the _côté droit_, MM. de Villèle and Corbière, were appointed members of the cabinet, with the title of ministerial secretaries of state.[46] M. Lainé, a man with whose honest and upright character the Duke had been particularly struck, was also a member of this administration. [46] Ministres secrétaires d'état.