them to be cruelly tortured; for this reason they began
to say the rosary in order that the Most Holy Virgin might imbue
them with patience and fortitude in their martyrdom. Great was their
surprise when these priests returned saying that they had contented
themselves with merely making fun of them by obliging them to play
the big drum and lead the band.

"Although this somewhat tempered their sorrow, a thorn remained in
their hearts, fearing that the moving lamentations and the mortal
groans came from the lips of some hapless Spaniard. This fatidical
presentiment turned out unfortunately to be a fact. The victim
sacrificed that melancholy night, still remembered with a shudder by
the priests, was Lieutenant Salvador Piera. This brave soldier, who had
made up his mind to die in the breach rather than surrender the town
of Aparri, was persuaded to capitulate only by the prayers and tears
of certain Spanish ladies who had been instructed to do so by a man
who should have been the first one to shoulder a rifle. After having
been harassed in Aparri he was taken to Tuguegarao at the request of
Esteban Quinta or Isidoro Maquigat, two artful filibusters thirsting
to revenge themselves on the Lieutenant, who during the time of the
Spanish government had justly laid his heavy hand upon them. In the
latter part of September they conducted him on foot and without any
consideration whatever to the capital of Isabela. In this town he
was at once placed in solitary confinement in one of the rooms of
the _convento_ and allowed no intercourse with any one. The sin for
which they recriminated Piera was his having charged Dimas [283] with
being a filibuster, and their revengefulness reached an incredible
limit. The heartrending moans of this martyr to his duty still resound
in that _convento_ converted into the scene of an orgy of blood. The
unfortunate man was heard to shout: 'For God's sake, for God's sake,
have pity,' and trustworthy persons tell that under the strain of
torture he would challenge them to fight in a fair field by saying:
'I will fight alone against twenty of you;' but the cowardly torturers,
a reproach to the Filipino race, looked upon it as an amusement to
glut their spite on a defenceless man whose hands were tied. They
had him strung up all night with but insignificant refreshment and
rest, sometimes being suspended by his arms which finally became
disjointed and useless, and at others he was hung up by his feet,