Juan and Luiz Carrera, imprisoned at Mendoza, had been an embarrassment and menace to San Martin and O'Higgins. The latter hated them too much to be willing to make terms, and yet he feared that their execution would cause an insurrection by their family and party friends in Chile. A criminal prosecution had been trumped up against them and proceedings delayed on various pretexts. The news of the disaster at Cancha-Rayada was their death sentence. Dr. Monteagudo, O'Higgins's representative, acting as judge, sentenced them to death at three o'clock one afternoon and sent them to the shooting bench at five. Every Chilean who did not belong to the O'Higgins faction was profoundly shocked at this murder. Though the victims were agitators and revolutionists they belonged to one of the most respected families in Chile; with their older brother they had been the leaders in the first war against Spain; their devotion to the cause of independence was unquestioned, and they embodied the national sentiment which opposed the Argentine army's remaining on Chilean soil. Pursuit of the Spaniards flying from the field of Maipo was hardly over when open opposition to O'Higgins and his policy broke out. A cavalry corps--the "Husares de la Muerte"--composed of Carrera partisans had volunteered after the rout at Cancha-Rayada and rendered valuable service at Maipo. O'Higgins ordered it to disband. An open cabildo met which voted the dictator's deposition, but his soldiers arrested the Carrera leader, shot him in cold blood, and the citizens had no alternative but to disperse and submit. O'Higgins undertook to crush the opposition by ferociously persecuting his republican enemies and rapaciously confiscating the property of the royalists. This so occupied him that he was unable to pay much attention to the Spaniards in the south. Osorio gathered a small force at Talcahuano, easily beat off some desultory expeditions which the patriots sent against him, and from May until September held the whole country south of the Maule. But after the slaughter at Maipo the viceroy had all he could do defending Peru and Bolivia. Late in the year Osorio withdrew with most of his troops, leaving only meagre garrisons in the fortresses of southern Chile.