PUNISHMENT OF CRIMINALS. 479 



thr mutest that niMird, bruising u linger number, and capturing several for conveyance to prison. 

 Government was evidently fully informed of their deaigns, and had followed them from step to 

 .step. All thoofficers of the National Guard known to belong to the club had been removed; the 

 number of tin- iinninti-.l x-rrix.s lm<l IMM-M inm-HMod; a 8utii<'i-nt body of the troops recently 

 returned tVniu tin* south, to furnish si-nt iii.-U along the principal paths up Santa Lucia, had 

 been stationed ut tin- castle; and an old decree respecting the carry ing of arms was republished. 

 All these UK -a-ures were executed without ostentation or exciting the suspicions of those not in 

 ilic srnvt ..!' tin- intended movement, and were generally regarded only as precautions for the ap- 

 proaching holidays, always more or less attended by drunkenness and disorders among the rabble. 



The leaders among the "Egucdistas" (socialists) were men related to families of the highest 

 standing, and their connections so extended as to embrace a very considerable portion of the 

 influential population. Undoubtedly their desire was to obtain possession of the government, 

 liy holding out to the mass a division of the spoils not less certainly to be obtained on sacking 

 the houses of the wealthy; but which of their number was to have been elevated to supreme 

 power seems not to have been decided. Until the 13th, as they supposed, things were going 

 on swimmingly. Emissaries had been sent to sow disaffection in the nearer provinces, one of 

 which, to the north, had been noted for the insurrectionary spirit of its population; and the 

 better to mask their designs, the governor of that province (Aconcagua) was accused of treason* 

 by a member of the Chamber of Deputies, also a leader of the club. The charges were deemed 

 of sufficient gravity and semblance to truth to warrant the arrest of the governor, and his trial 

 by the Senate ; but, as was foreseen by his friends belonging to the government party, his 

 acquittal was almost unanimous. Meanwhile ball-cartridges and arms were being collected for 

 an outbreak ; and on the very day that the governor was set at liberty a gig-load of the former 

 was despatched to San Felipe. Government being apprized of the movement, a number of 

 trusty sojdiers, disguised as police, followed the vehicle ; and at the very first halt the driver 

 was arrested, and himself and munitions brought back as witnesses. The information thus 

 elicited authorized the arrest of eight or ten prominent individuals, and created much alarm in 

 their ranks ; though, as the evidence against their most dangerous man was by no means con- 

 clusive, the club were not hopelessly cast down. The same day, being the anniversary of the 

 saint (Carmen) selected as "Patrona" of the Chilean army, a new flag was to be presented to 

 one of the regiments at Santiago; and as they cannot fight under colors not blessed by 

 the priest, a great show was to come off at one of the churches about 2 P. M. Previously the 

 Egualistas had bribed four disaffected sergeants of the Valdivia regiment, then recently re- 

 turned from the south, and quartered in the same building as the battalion for whom the 

 flag was intended. As the ceremony would call off other troops and a large concourse of 

 citizens, the time would be favorable for commencing the outbreak, and the subsidized "Val- 

 divias" agreed to deliver the quartel and its arms at that instant. There are collateral cir- 

 cumstances to prove that pillage equalizing worldly goods, as they expressed it would have 

 been one of their first attempts. Almost in the same hour when the driver with the ammu- 

 nition and the members of the club were arrested, a leader of the opposition at Valparaiso and 

 all the sergeants also found themselves in durance ; whilst a colonel of artillery (the member of 

 the Chamber of Deputies just referred to), having been somewhat too open in his predilections, 

 was notified by the Minister of War that an application for frontier service would be immedi- 

 ately granted. In less than twenty-four hours the latter found himself separated from his 

 regiment, and en route to execute duties improvised for the occasion. This was on Saturday. 



Sunday noon came, and instead of the active struggle in which the Egualistas hoped to 

 find themselves, they stood in groups about the plaza, with countenances sufficiently indicating 

 how disheartened they were. At night the number of mounted police was doubled, and those 

 on foot were early in their examinations of the fastenings of shop doors and windows. The 

 multitude of ladies who ordinarily promenade the Canada on Sunday, and visit from house to 

 house of their friends at that hour, had almost entirely disappeared ; and by 10 o'clock, except 



