Such conduct on the part of officers, acting under color of the Legitimist government, called for retaliation and punishment in order to prevent its recurrence. Accordingly, early on the morning of the 22d, and soon after the news of the murders at Virgin Bay and on the lake reached Granada, Walker ordered D. Mateo Mayorga to be shot on the main Plaza. Mayorga was a member of the cabinet of Estrada, and was, therefore, morally responsible for the outrages and barbarities practised by those holding a military commission from the Legitimist authorities. He was executed soon after the order was given to the officer of the day, Ubaldo Herrera, and a file of Leoneses were detailed for the duty. All the native democratic officers approved the act, and they then remarked the Americans would hereafter learn that their mercy to the Legitimists was injustice to themselves. In the meantime, Corral had reached Masaya and was there behind barricades with a large proportion of the Legitimist strength; while Martinez, who had driven the Democrats from Pueblo Nuevo, on the 11th of the month, falling back on Managua after the surprise of Granada, was again assailed by an irregular body of Leoneses under General Mateo Pineda and Mariano Mendez. This was the position of affairs when, on the morning of the 22d, D. Pedro Rouhaud, a French subject long resident at Granada, went to Masaya, in order to inform Corral of Mayorga’s execution and the causes for it, and also to say that all the Legitimist families of the city would be held as hostages for the future good conduct of Estrada’s officers toward American women and children, and toward non-combatants generally. This message naturally produced a deep effect, not only on Corral but on all the officers at Masaya, since most of them had families or relatives then in Granada. Accordingly it was resolved that Corral should go to Walker’s camp with full powers to treat for peace, and D. Pedro Rouhaud returned late on the evening of the 22d with the gratifying intelligence.