Upon the 25th of September Villa went to the convento in Ilagan prepared to torture the priests, but he succeeded in compelling a number of them to sign indorsements in his favour on various letters of credit payable by the Tabacalera Company and departed again in fairly good humour, having done nothing worse than strike one of them.

Later, however, on the pretext that Fathers Aguado and Labanda had money hidden away, he determined to torture them with water.  The first to be tortured was Father Labanda.  Villa had him taken to the prison where the priest found his two faithful Filipino servants who had been beaten cruelly and were then hanging from a beam, this having been done in order to make them tell where his money was.

He was tied after the usual fashion and water poured down his nose and throat.  During the brief respites necessary in order to prevent his dying outright he was cruelly beaten.  They finally dragged him out of the prison by the feet, his head leaving a bloody trail on the stones.  After he had been taken back to his companions, one of the men who had tortured him came to beg his pardon, saying that he had been compelled to do it by Villa.

Father Aguado was next tortured in one of the rooms of the convento.  Villa finished the day’s work by announcing to the band of priests that he would have them all shot the next day on the plaza, and ordering them to get ready.

On the 29th the barbarities practised by this inhuman fiend reached their climax in the torturing to death of Lieutenant Piera.  The following description gives some faint idea of one of the most diabolical crimes ever committed in the Philippines:—­

“Villa’s cruelty and sanguinary jeering grew without let or hindrance from day to day; it seemed that this hyena continually cudgelled his brains to invent new kinds of torture and to jeer at the friars.  On the night of the 29th of September the diabolical idea occurred to him of giving the coup de grace to the prestige of the friars by making them pass through the streets of Ilagan conducting and playing a band of music.  He carried out his nonsensical purpose by calling upon Father Diograeias to play the big drum, and when this priest had started playing Villa learned that Father Primo was a musician and could therefore play the drum and lead the band with all skill, so he called upon Father Primo to come forward, and with one thing and another this ridiculous function was carried on until the late hours of the night.

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“While these two priests were serenading Villa and his gang, the most dreadful shrieks were heard from the jail, accompanied by pitiful cries that would melt the coldest heart.  The priests hearing these echoes of sorrow and pain, and who did not know for what purpose Fathers Deogracias and Primo had been separated from them, seemed to recognize the voices of these two priests among the groans, believing them to be cruelly tortured; for this reason they began to say the rosary in order that the Most Holy Virgin might imbue them with patience and fortitude in their martyrdom.  Great was their surprise when these priests returned saying that they had contented themselves with merely making fun of them by obliging them to play the big drum and lead the band.