Now there was a winding cave under the guest-house, which was used for various purposes. Into this a number of monks were driven, and they were threatened with death unless they would ransom their lives by surrendering the Eucharistic vessels and vestments. This they refused to do. Then the Arabs bade them point out which were the heads of the community. They replied, with truth, that the abbot was now absent, he having gone away on some business a few weeks before. Then they insisted on the physician being indicated to them, for they had an idea that he was possessed of money. Again the monks refused to declare which of them was physician. Then the Arabs thrust them all into the cave, and choking up the entrance with thorns and grass, set fire to it. And when there had been a blaze and smoke for some little while, they shouted to the monks within to come forth; so the unfortunate men came through the blaze and over the red coals, and fell panting for breath on the ground. Their hair, beards, eyelashes, and their garments were burnt, and their faces were discoloured with smoke. The Arabs again bade them deliver up their superiors, and as they again refused, they drove them back through the flames into the cave, and heaped on more fuel, and kept up the blaze, till all within had been suffocated. Then they dispersed themselves over the Laura, and entered every cell, and took from them all that they wanted, and laded the camels belonging to the monks with the spoil that they had found, and departed. And after many hours, the brethren who had escaped came forth from their places of concealment, and sought water and food to satisfy their appetites; and they scattered the embers of the great fire, and as the smoke rolled forth from the cavern, and a pure air entered, they lighted tapers and went in, at the setting of the sun, and found all the fathers therein dead, with their faces to the ground, and in various attitudes, some as though creeping into a corner in quest of air. And they made great lamentation over them, and drew them forth and washed them, and buried them with reverence. S. AMBROSE OF SIENNA, O. P. (A.D. 1287.) [At Sienna on the Saturday before Passion Sunday; but by the Dominican Order on March 22nd; the Roman Martyrology on March 20th, the day of his death. He was beatified by Gregory XV. His Acts were written by friars Gisberti, Recuperato di Petromala, Aldobrandini Paparoni, and Olvado, by order of Honorius IV., the then reigning pope, from documents transmitted to them within a month of the decease of S. Ambrose. These originals also exist, and have been printed along with the Acts by the Bollandists.]