ve continues:]

34. For this purpose some scaffolds were built outside the wall so
that the pioneers might work comfortably. This, which was a means
for fortification, might, had not the divine aid intervened, have
been the cause of the loss of the city, the center of the faith in
Assia and a firm column of the Catholic religion. For the Sangleys
determined with the utmost secrecy not to let the opportunity slip,
but, on the contrary, to seize time by the forelock, and to climb
in great numbers by night by means of those scaffolds which were
not guarded in proportion to the danger. They thought that if they
did so, and first gained the wall by an unexpected and furtive rush
they could obtain the mastery of the city immediately without any
opposition. In fact they would have planned well had it not been that
God tied their hands. It happened, then, that the father sacristan of
our convent going down one morning to arrange the altar of the Santo
Ecce Homo (an image of which mention was made in volume iii, [11] as
well as the great devotion that Governor Don Sabiniano had for it),
found at its divine feet a message reading as follows: "Governor,
guard thy city, for they are trying to take thee by surprise." The
sacristan immediately put that message into the hands of the father
prior. The latter, considering that no one had to hide himself in
order to give such advice, (for, if it were true, any person would
be assured of a not small reward), he formed the concept that that
notice came from the hand of God; and above all that it would be well
to inform the governor of it. For where there are so many enemies,
the most careful watch is none too much.

35. Consequently, he took the message to the governor, to whom he told
the manner in which he had found it. The prudent superior not only
esteemed the caution, but he doubled his care and vigilance by visiting
the walls and sentinels hourly. But on the morning of the following
day, another more detailed paper was found in the same place, which
read as follows: "Governor, guard thy city. Remove the scaffoldings
from the walls, and do not trust anyone, for the enemy are very
near thee." The father prior also took that message to the governor,
alleging that because of his quality as a good vassal, he could not
avoid giving him that annoyance. But the governor was not annoyed
but instead thanked him again and again, and in his presence had an
adjutant, one Don Joseph Zamora, summ