Finally, in 1826 the central government formally deprived him of his position and summoned him to Bogota, but a revolution which promptly broke out in Caracas made him dictator. The news brought Bolivar back from Lima, where for two years he had reigned an absolute monarch, leading the life of a voluptuous eastern prince. For the next four years the Liberator struggled in vain to repress the rising tide of federalism and radicalism in Venezuela and New Granada. The republican theorists could not forget that he had re-established the convents, placed the schools under priestly control, abrogated government contracts for personal reasons, introduced aristocratic decorations, and schemed for a hereditary senate and a life tenure of the executive; nor that his influence had stopped the Cucuta convention in the path of political reform, prevented the abolition of slavery and capital punishment, and retained the connection of Church and State, and the exemption of the army and clergy from civil jurisdiction. Santander was more liberal and a better practical politician. He had shown much ability during the Liberator's absence, and risen to be the head of a considerable party. Bolivar succeeded in temporarily crushing some of the opposition in Venezuela and in cajoling Paez, and on his return to Bogota he made a feint of resigning the presidency. Congress, however, was still under his spell and re-elected him. He then made an attempt to secure legal sanction for his system by summoning another constitutent convention. But news had come of Peru's and Bolivia's defection, and the agitation of the transcendental liberals, the universal desire for local self-government, and the ambitions of a hundred intriguers for high office, proved too much for him. A majority of the convention which met at Ocana in 1828 were partisans of Santander and opposed Bolivar's proposals although the Liberator at the head of three thousand soldiers watched the proceedings. Though he did his best to intimidate the majority, he shrank from frankly playing the role of a Cromwell, and contented himself with ordering his supporters to withdraw, leaving the convention without a quorum. It dissolved and the country trembled on the verge of disintegration. His friends called an assembly which obediently proclaimed him dictator. The Liberator accepted, and deprived Santander of the vice-presidency. The press was muzzled, protesters banished, and military rule established. Some fiery young republicans, determined to emulate the example of Brutus, struck down the palace guards at midnight and rushed into the house to kill the dictator. But his mistress, Manoela Saenz, awakened by the noise, directed him to a window. He dropped a few feet to the pavement and ran and hid himself under a bridge, while the woman, in her night clothes, met the assassins on the stairs and told them they could enter only over her dead body. They pushed her aside with their bloody hands only to find the quarry