apprehended without loss of time, in abject terror disclosed the names of all concerned. A number were arrested that night; and as further information was gained, a great many persons of high position were found to be implicated.[1] Doña Maríana and her husband were confined in a dungeon till December 1820, when they were liberated by the exertions of Zerecero. Although it does not appear that any executions followed the discovery of this plot, many of those arrested languished for a long time in prison.[2]
The failure of this conspiracy did not, however, deter others. Plots thickened in the capital, and when the failure of Empáran's attack upon Zitácuaro became known, the bolder conspirators, hoping to deal a finishing blow at royalist power in New Spain, again formed a plot to seize the viceroy. Their plan was to attack his escort on the 3d of August, while he was taking his customary evening ride, in the paseo de la Viga, and having secured his person, to conduct him to Zitácuaro, and deliver him into the power of Rayon. There he would be coerced to issue orders consigning the government of the kingdom to Rayon.[3] But again a traitor marred the plot on the eve of its accomplishment. On the night of the 2d, one Cristobal Morante, who had attended the last meeting of the conspirators when their plans were finally arranged, denounced the proceedings to Venegas,[4] who immediately gave orders for necessary precautions to be taken. On the following morning the principal conspirators were arrested, and in order to allay the agitation caused by the discovery and the military measures taken, the viceroy on the same day issued a proclamation informing the public of what had occurred.
- ↑ Among them Padre Belaunzaran, afterward bishop of Monterey, the marquis of Rayas, the counts of Santiago, Regla, and Medina, and several high officials in the service of the government.
- ↑ Consult Bustamante, Martirol., pp. 51; and Mex. Refut. Artic. Fondo, 12. Zerecero was the author of the work quoted in note 33.
- ↑ Gaz de Mex., 1811, ii. 780.
- ↑ Bustamante erroneously states that it was a woman who divulged the plot. Cuad. Hist., i. 299.
