The Queen was sitting weeping bitterly at these signs of discord, and the Infantas looked distressed at the dangers which were threatening the dynasty through their brother’s want of keeping faith with his subjects. The sense of danger became more pronounced when it was found that within the very precincts of the palace a plot was brewing. It was the honorary chaplain, Don Matios Vinuesa, and a gentleman-in-waiting, who formed the idea of sending for the city authorities one night and making them prisoners of the King in the royal domain, whilst the Infante Don Carlos was to take command of the troops of the garrison in virtue of the Absolutist party. This plot was discovered by the betrayal of the secret printing of the proclamations, and Vinuesa was hurried off to prison on January 21, 1821. On May 4, Vinuesa, the Canon of Tarazona, was sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment in Africa. But this punishment did not satisfy the fury of the people at the discovery of the plot favoured by the King. A meeting was held in the Puerta del Sol, and from thence the outraged people proceeded to the prison, to which their admission was only opposed by one locked door. All the rest were open, and, penetrating the cell of the unhappy cleric, they gave him two blows on the head with an iron hammer. The murdered man had tried to avert his death by falling on his knees and begging for mercy; but it was useless, and the bloodthirsty mob followed the mortal blows dealt on the head with several more with other weapons. An assassination which had been connived at by those in power filled the King with fear, for he felt that a people who could thus take justice into their own hands might resort to the same course any day with him. In this state of alarm, he ordered the Guard to assemble in the wide colonnaded square of the palace. The Guard was composed of soldiers who had fought bravely in the Battles of Bailen, Talavera, and Albuera, and the King did wisely to appeal to the chivalrous feeling of such men. “Soldiers!” he cried, with a voice which became penetrating in the speaker’s desire to make it ring in the hearts of his hearers--“Soldiers!” he cried, “the deed committed this afternoon against the person of the priest may to-morrow be committed against me or against yourselves. Soldiers! I trust in you, and I come before your ranks now to ask if you are disposed to defend your constitutional King.” To this appeal the Guard cried: “Viva the absolute King!” and, satisfied with this demonstration, Ferdinand returned to the royal apartments, somewhat reassured after the fright he had suffered.