c.
A sharp struggle was carried on for weeks between the executive and this
commission, at first presided over by Martos, and, when he resigned, by
Salmeron. In the background Marshal Serrano and many politicians and
military men steadily advocated a _coup d'etat_ in order to avert the
triumph of the republicans. The adversaries of the executive were
prompted by the captain-general of Madrid, Pavia, who promised the
co-operation of the garrison of the capital. The president, Salmeron,
and Marshal Serrano himself lacked decision at the last moment, and lost
time and many opportunities by which the republican ministers profited.
The federal republicans became masters of the situation in the last
fortnight of April 1873, and turned the tables on their adversaries by
making a pacific bloodless _pronunciamiento_.

The battalions of the militia that had assembled in the bull-ring near
Marshal Serrano's house to assist the anti-democratic movement were
disarmed, and their leaders, the politicians and generals, were allowed
to escape to France or Portugal. The Cortes were dissolved, and the
federal and constituent Cortes of the republic convened, but they only
sat during the summer of 1873, long enough to show their absolute
incapacity, and to convince the executive that the safest policy was to
suspend the session for several months.

This was the darkest period of the annals of the Spanish revolution of
1873-1874. Matters got to such a climax of disorder, disturbance and
confusion, from the highest to the lowest strata of Spanish society,
that the president of the executive, Figueras, deserted his post and
fled the country. Pi y Margall and Salmeron, in successive attempts to
govern, found no support in the really important and influential
elements of Spanish society. Salmeron had even to appeal to such
well-known reactionary generals as Pavia, Sanchez, Bregna and Moriones,
to assume the command of the armies in the south and in the north of
Spain. Fortunately these officers responded to the call of the
executive. In less than five weeks a few thousand men properly handled
sufficed to quell the cantonal risings in Cordoba, Sevilla, Cadiz and
Malaga, and the whole of the south might have been soon pacified, if the
federal republican ministers had not once more given way to the pressure
of the majority of the Cortes, composed of "Intransigentes" and radical
republicans. The president, Salmeron, after showing much indecision,