In 1268 the inhabitants of Toledo (the townspeople on the left, the clergy in the centre and the nobility on the right) processed out of the city down to the river to implore Saint Augustine to help them combat the plague of locusts that was destroying the land. They fell on their knees before the miraculous apparition of the saint who, helped by some small angels, cast the voracious insects into the Tagus. Like The Burial of the Count of Orgaz (P959) this is the final preparatory sketch for a large canvas for the Augustinian church of San Felipe el Real in Madrid. Meléndez died before painting the final version.