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, summoned, and ordered the latter to remove the scaffolding of the walls, and double the guards in all the posts. It was afterwards learned how important the arrangement that has been practiced had been, for it was discovered when the deserved punishment was meted out to the insurgents that the surprise of the city was to have been attempted on the night following that day, but that they had not succeeded because what was to have served them as a ladder had been removed.