After having thus spoken, he made the doors fast, and fortified them by putting all the seats and benches against them. They then mounted to the top of the tower, taking up a portable ladder, or steps. The priest carried up with him the holy vessels belonging to the sacrament, provided a store of stones, and armed himself with two loaded guns. They left the baggage mule at the door relieved of its burden, and Bartholomew shut himself in with his masters. With watchful eyes, ready hands, and resolute hearts, the little party awaited the hour of assault, of which the Moorish maiden had given them warning. Midnight passed, the priest knew it by the stars; they looked out upon the sea which lay before them, and not a cloud passed over in the moonlight, but they fancied it a Moorish bark, and, applying themselves to the bells, they began to raise a peal so loud and vigorous that every valley and all the shores resounded again; at which sound the officials in the harbour assembled together, and ran here and there, but their haste was of no use in preventing the vessels approaching the shore and taking away the people from land; those in the place who were expecting them, went out laden with their most valuable property, and were received by the Turks with loud cries and shouts, and the sound of musical instruments. They set fire to the place, and also to the church doors, not meaning to enter in, but simply to do all the harm they could. Bartholomew was left to go afoot, for they carried off his mule, demolished a stone cross that stood at the entrance of the town, called aloud upon Mahomet, and gave themselves up to the Turks, a dishonest and thievish nation. Several times, and perhaps not always in vain, did Periander and Antonio fire their guns; many a stone did Bartholomew throw, always to that quarter whence the mule was stolen, and many an arrow was shot by the Jadraque; but more than all were the tears that were shed by Auristella and Constance, praying to God to deliver them from the danger they were in, and that his temple might not be injured by the fire, which it was not: it did not escape, however, by a miracle, but because the doors were of iron, and the fire not very strong. It was nearly day when the ships laden with their prizes went to sea with shouts of triumph and raising the Moorish war cry, and the joyful sounds of atabals and trumpets. Two persons were now seen running towards the church, one from the shore, the other from the land side; on their nearer approach, the Jadraque knew one to be his niece Rafaella, who, with a cane cross in her hand, came, crying out, "Christian, Christian, and free, free by the grace and mercy of God!" They recognized in the other the notary, who had by chance been out of the town that night, and at the sound of the alarm bell came to see the disastrous events, which he deplored, not for the loss of wife or child, since he had none, but for that of his house, which was plundered and burned.