An attempt upon the king's life, which shortly followed this measure, gave the minister the opportunity he wanted for urging the suppression of the famous society. The history of the Tavora plot, which culminated in this attempt is one of the most mysterious affairs in the whole history of Portugal, and from the many contradictory accounts which have been published, it is almost impossible to arrive at the exact truth. But it is certain that the Jesuits and the nobles had no reason to love the king and his minister, and it is hardly to be wondered at that their opposition resulted in violent measures. The great nobles had been systematically deprived of all political power since the accession of King Joseph, for Carvalho, like Richelieu, distrusted them, and preferred to employ men of his own rank in life or of bourgeois descent in public business in preference to noblemen and their relations. The three leaders of the plot were the Duke of Aveiro, a descendant of John II., and one of the greatest noblemen in Portugal, the Marquis of Tavora, who had filled with credit the post of Governor-general of India, and the Count of Atouguia, a descendant of the gallant Dom Luis de Athaide, the defender of Goa; but the heart and soul of the conspiracy was the Marchioness of Tavora, a beautiful and ambitious woman, who was bitterly offended because her husband had not been made a duke. The confessor of this lady was a Jesuit named Gabriel Malagrida, who is by some authors treated as a half-insane fanatic, and by others as a dangerous intriguer, incensed by the attacks of Carvalho upon his order. Whether Malagrida was innocent or guilty, whether he was mad or sane, whether the Tavoras were incited by religious or political motives, or merely by a desire for private revenge, whether all these noblemen, and especially the Duke of Aveiro, were not merely accused in order to allow Carvalho to strike a blow at the nobility, whether, finally, all those who were punished were victims of the minister or really guilty, are questions which cannot be determined here. The evidence on all sides is most contradictory, and all that is certain is that the king was fired at and wounded on the night of September 3, 1758; and that in the following January, the three noblemen who have been mentioned, the Marchioness of Tavora, Malagrida with seven other Jesuits, and many other individuals of all ranks of life, were arrested as implicated in the attempt to murder. The laymen had but a short trial, and, together with the marchioness, were publicly executed ten days after their arrest.