In 1611 matters quickly became worse. As long as Jolkievski was in the Kremlin, Russians and Poles were at peace with each other, but Gonsievski was not so successful. Some Poles were so foolish as to mock the orthodox worshippers, and although severely punished, the circumstance roused the Muscovites to action. There were several riots, but these were quelled, and the measures the Poles took to ensure their own safety irritated the citizens still more. Hatred increased day by day; the position of the Poles became critical. As Holy Week approached, Gonsievski fearing trouble forbade the usual ceremonies. This so offended the people that he was forced to give way. The critical period passed with one or two unimportant risings, when suddenly a quarrel broke out with the carters, who had been asked to haul cannons into position and had refused. Soon the fighting became general in the town. Prince Pojarski, with the advance guard of the Russian army, had just arrived on the Sretenka when the Poles and Germans fell ruthlessly upon the citizens. The massacre lasted an hour or more, some seven thousand being killed. The alarm bells were ringing, and the crowd at last was chased from the Kitai Gorod when the Poles who followed further were driven back by the cannon of Pojarski. The Poles and foreigners had then to entrench themselves and, to clear the neighbourhood, the Poles fired the town. The conflagration spread rapidly and lasted three days. The Russians abandoned the burning town; the Bielo Gorod was destroyed, and much of the Kitai Gorod also; the dwellings and warehouses of the foreign merchants were consumed, and the "English factory" lost several of its members. Some went into the cellars and were suffocated, the survivors made a dash for the Kremlin, and were helped over the wall by the Poles, where their position was precarious, for they were amidst a town in flames in a foreign country, among a people in revolt against the garrison. Some vestiges of this fire are still found occasionally when excavating--old vaults full of charred wood and burned bricks--whilst the wall of the Kitia Gorod itself is said to bear evidence in several places of the fire that for days raged round it, and vitrified the bricks and tiles of its battlements and machecoules. When the news of the disaster in Moscow reached Sigismund he sent the delegates and hostages as prisoners to Marienburg. Shortly afterwards Smolensk capitulated: the brave Shein was tortured for holding out so long, then Sigismund returned to Warsaw and led the ex-Tsar Shooiski in triumph through the streets. He delayed in hastening needed reinforcements to the besieged garrison in the Kremlin of Moscow, counting those that reached it during the conflagration sufficient.