As soon as this disgraceful act of cruelty was over, the necessity of having some Governt. was felt, and it was agreed almost by acclamation that Morla, Don Thomas Morla, who had formerly been the Captain-General of Andalusia, and had distinguished himself by the prompt and decisive measures which he had taken to prevent the progress of the yellow fever, was the best fitted to fill the station now vacant. Morla, it was supposed, had not entirely made up his mind as to the side he should take, and that, like Solano, he waited for Dupont’s[321] army. However, he had no choice, and accepted with reluctance the honour. He harangued the people with great ability and fortitude, assured them that if he undertook the charge he would fulfil it rigidly; that they knew him to be inflexible, nor should he depart from what he thought his duty, notwithstanding the dreadful spectacle he had just beheld. He gave an immediate proof of his cleverness and dexterity; during the tumult, about eight hundred of the _Presidarios_, galley-slaves, broke into the Arsenal, armed themselves and others. Morla was aware of the danger, and also of the impolicy of allowing such men to bear arms, and resolved upon disarming them instantly. He ordered processions to be made through the streets of the Capucins and other Franciscan friars, who were to chant hymns and prayers requesting the citizens to lay down their arms. By night almost all the inhabitants had deposited their arms at the feet of the friars. [Sidenote: DUKE OF INFANTADO] I was pleased to find such a favourable opinion prevailed with regard to the Duke of Infantado.[322] He had been exiled from his own estates, and lived at San Lucar, where he had acquired the esteem and confidence of all who saw him. Thus his conduct at Bayonne is conceived to arise entirely from compulsion. He was dismissed the Court in consequence of that affair at the Escorial in which he was involved, as there was a paper found in his possession signed by the Prince of the Asturias, nominating him as President of Castille, in which capacity he would have had the governt. of the country. The Prince contended that this instrument could have had no power but after his mother’s death, in proof of which he alleged that the seal was affixed upon black wax, and it was only to obviate the danger that might have arisen in the country should his mother and the Prince of the Peace have been able to shut him up and attempt an exclusion or Regency.