it took the royal forces less than two months to organize a counterrevolution. on october 13 the marques de selva alegre offered his resignation to the junta and was replaced by his kinsman the count of selva florida, who started talks with the deposed count , the royal representative of spain. the viceroy of peru sent troops under the command of manuel de arredondo. they arrived in quito on november 24, promptly took over the city and returned ruiz de castilla to power. salinas was imprisoned on december 4 and taken to the military barracks, charged with treason. he spent the next eight months imprisoned in the military dungeons with other "conspirators". his wife and daughters were under house arrest, but arranged for a group of patriots to try to free her husband. on august 2, 1810, while the people of quito were trying to save them, the imprisoned men were butchered by the troops as they lay in their cells. his wife and daughters were taken to be hanged in the central plaza, but the nuns of the convent of concepcion intervened and gave them refuge. salinas's youngest daughter maria del carmen, who was born while he was in captivity, married manuel de ascásubi, who also took part in the independence process and helped in the formation of the young ecuadorian nation. the family was persecuted and their holdings expropriated until the war of independence ended and the victorious marshall antonio josé de sucre returned to salinas's heirs all that had been taken. juan de salinas is remembered as the first military leader in what is now ecuador and one of the first martyrs of the wars of independence.