The inquisitors assign all the windows overlooking the plaza; they order that no coaches shall traverse the streets, and decide where the barriers are to be erected; the municipal authorities surrender the city to them and do whatever they require. [Sidenote: _THE CELEBRATION_] In the evening preceding the auto, the procession of the Green Cross takes place--a solemn affair in which the standard is borne by a crowd of familiars and gentlemen; the white cross follows with the religious Orders, the cross of the parish church with its clergy, the Green Cross carried by the Dominican prior and his frailes with torches and chanting the Miserere. The procession winds through the designated streets to the plaza, where the Green Cross is planted above the altar and is guarded by Dominicans during the night. The white cross is carried on to the brasero, where it is guarded by a body, existing in some cities, known as the soldiers of the Zarza, whose function is to guard the brasero and plaza and to furnish the wood for the burning.[635] The Inquisition itself is guarded during the night by soldiers who, before day-break, arouse the officials by beat of drum. Within the building, the sanbenitos and insignia are arranged in order and porters are assembled in readiness to carry the effigies and bones and such penitents as have been disabled from walking. At 9 <small>P.M. the senior inquisitor, with a secretary, visits those who are to be relaxed and informs them of their approaching fate; with each of them he leaves two frailes to guide them. If any of the pertinacious or negativos are converted, they are to be heard immediately and their confessions received, when the inquisitors with the Ordinary determine whether to admit them to reconciliation, and the same is done with those converted on the staging. Before dawn mass is celebrated in the audience-chamber, and also at the altar of the Green Cross. By daylight breakfast is given to all who are to appear in the auto, and also to the frailes assigned to the relaxed.[636] They are not taken from their cells till the hour of forming the procession, when the penitents are ranged along the walls of the audience-chamber in the order of their marching; all are dressed in their sanbenitos with the requisite insignia.