But Baso, who was attached to the Infante Don Francisco, warned him so that he could repair to Old Castile, and the matter thus got wind, and reached the ears of Echevarri, the Chief of the Police. This official promptly ordered the bells to be set ringing in every place on the King’s route, and the crowds of people thus brought to the road from Burgos prevented the King being taken captive. It was on the day following the frustration of the plot that Ferdinand opened the Senate in state. The King went with stately step to the royal apartments of Queen Amalia, and, accompanied by the Infantas, grandees, gentlemen-in-waiting, and all the pomp of the occasion, Their Majesties proceeded to the Senate in the magnificent state coach drawn by sixteen cream horses with nodding plumes. Seated on the throne, with the Ministers, Deputies, and Bishops, on the benches, and a brilliant assembly of courtiers and ladies in the boxes, the King read his opening speech; and, as he promised to maintain the rights of the people, it seemed as if King and State were once more in union. But the seeds of discontent were not so easily uprooted, and a Commission of the Patriotic Society of the Café of Lorencini went at twelve o’clock one night to the palace to request the removal of the Marquis of las Amarillas, the Secretary of War. This request angered the monarch, the bad feeling between Ferdinand and his Ministers increased daily, and in the meetings the King did not hesitate to exhibit his bad temper in spiteful and satirical allusions accompanied by a malignant smile. It was at this time that Riego was made Captain-General of Galicia. He was a pleasant, valorous young fellow who suddenly became a favourite of the populace through the bold way in which he stood up for the constitutional rights of the nation. But after his triumphal entry into Madrid he quite lost his head, and, instead of being the Rienzi the people had hoped for, he had not sufficient eloquence with which to harangue the people when they shouted for him to come and speak for them, and the populace had to be contented with the sight of his face in the light of their torches. Riego was indeed wanting in the intellectual force required to lead a nation, and, though he had thought to be its idol, he soon found he was only its plaything, but his vanity spurred him on in the campaign for the assertion of its rights. Ferdinand, meanwhile, had been told by one of his secret agents of the weak side of the leader of the insurgents; and having sent for Riego, he flattered him by showing him how advantageous it would be to schemes of constitutional liberty if he were to join the Ministry. Riego then boldly declared his hope that the Ministry would be changed, and Ferdinand, who was at that moment anxious to get rid of his Cabinet, entered into the plan of replacing the Ministers by friends of Riego.