Walker had not been many hours at Masaya before he received letters from Col. Natzmer relating strange events at Leon. On the morning of the 12th the military governor of the department, Escobar, had asked a detail of Americans to guard the _Principal_—a strong building on the Plaza where the arms and ammunition were stored—and no sooner was the sentry from the Rifles posted than a singular movement was perceptible in the town. The President and the Ministers hastily left the government house near the Principal, and Mariano Salazar on horseback rode through the streets, proclaiming that the Americans were about to make Rivas prisoner and to assassinate the Ministers and chief men of the city. The excitement soon became intense; the barriers of San Felipe, one of the most turbulent quarters of the town, began to send forth its unquiet residents, some of them armed and all endeavoring to increase the popular ferment. Then it was reported Rivas had left the city; and the women, regarding the movement as a revolution and the signal of war, commenced packing their trunks and closing their doors and windows. Natzmer, seeing the threatening aspect of the men at the barriers, called the Americans to the Plaza and placing them under arms, prepared for defence. At once a courier was despatched to Chinandega with orders for Lieut. Dolan—who was there with a company of Rifles—to march immediately for Leon. Dolan was but a short distance on his march, when he met Rivas and Jerez riding toward Chinandega. The singularity of the fact made him suspect something was wrong, and he thought of arresting them on their way; but the surgeon with him, Dr. Dawson, who had lived for many years in Nicaragua, suggested that it would not be proper for a simple lieutenant to arrest the President and one of his Ministers. Dolan, therefore, marched on without molesting them, and soon joined Anderson in the Plaza. As soon as these tidings reached Walker, he ordered Col. Jaquess, then in Masaya with his command, to prepare for a march; and Jaquess with the Rangers was in a short time on the road to Managua. Couriers met Walker every few hours on his way toward Leon; and when near Nagarote he was met by Ferdinand Schlessinger—a man to whom Rivas had given a commission to fortify the harbor of Realejo. Schlessinger told the general-in-chief, that Rivas and Jerez were at Chinandega, barricading the town, and pressing natives into military service; also, that they had given him orders to stop the works at Point Ycaco, and in consequence of his suspicions he had made good his escape. At the same time, letters from Natzmer informed Walker that Jerez, as Minister of War, had issued orders to him to disoccupy the towers of the cathedral, where riflemen had been placed, in order that troops of the country might be stationed there. Natzmer forwarded the order to Walker, awaiting his instructions on the subject.