O'Reilly set sail from Havana with a squadron of twenty-four vessels, with three thousand well-trained troops on board. He arrived at the Balise at the end of July. For a time panic reigned in the city. Aubry tried to quiet the people, and advised them to submit and trust in the clemency of the king of Spain. A committee of three, Lafreniere, as representative of the council, Marquis of the colonists, and Milhet of the merchants, presented themselves at the Balise to pay their respects to the Spanish general and to appeal to his mercy. O'Reilly entertained them at dinner and they left assured of perfect amnesty. On the eighth of August the Spanish squadron anchored before the city itself, and the authorities took possession in the name of his Majesty, Carlos III. of Spain. The Spanish colors replaced those of France and it seemed as if with this ceremony and the installment of Spanish officials in the different departments of the colony's government the mission of O'Reilly was ended. But there was still the punishment to be meted out to the rebels who had dared to defy the authority of the Spanish king and had sworn unchanging allegiance to the sovereign of France. After having received from Aubry, who seemed to play traitor to his compatriots, a list of those who had taken part in the recent insurrection and had prepared the foundation of a republic with a protector and an elective council of forty, O'Reilly on the twenty-first of August invited to his home the most prominent citizens and asked the representatives of the people's council to pass, one by one, into his private apartment. In their unsuspecting innocence, they accepted this invitation as a mark of distinction, but they were sadly disillusioned, when O'Reilly entered with Aubry and three Spanish officers, and arrested them in the name of his Majesty the King of Spain. According to Bancroft two months were spent in collecting evidence against the men. The defense asserted that they could not be tried and condemned by Spanish officials for acts done before the proper establishment of Spanish rule in the colony. The citizens begged for time to send a petition to the Spanish sovereign. But all attempts to divert O'Reilly from his purpose summarily to punish the men who had dared to defy Ulloa, as the representative of Spain, were futile. Twelve of the richest men of the colony had to see their estates confiscated; from the proceeds were paid the officers employed in the trial. Six others were sentenced to various terms of imprisonment, from six years to life. The five who had been most conspicuous in the revolt, Lafreniere, Marquis, Milhet, Caresse and Noyau, were sentenced to death. According to Bancroft they were shot in presence of the troops and the people on the twenty-fifth of October, 1769. According to Spanish historians they were hanged.