Don Martin, the curate, also came up, concealing himself carefully so that Silver Stick should not see him.

It was a small community grouping itself round the sick apostle, with all the zeal inspired by the unknown.
Gabriel answered all these men's questions, that so often betrayed the simplicity of their minds.

When a fit of coughing seized him, they all surrounded him with concern written on their faces.

They would have wished even at the cost of their own lives to restore him to health.
Luna, carried away by his enthusiasm, ended by narrating to them the story of his life and sufferings, and so the prestige of martyrdom came to increase the ardour of these people.

The narrowed minds of these sedentary men, living tranquil and safe in the Cathedral, made them admire the adventures and torments of this fighter; for them he was a martyr to this new religion of the humble and oppressed, and besides, their innocence converted him into a victim of that social injustice which they daily hated more.
For them there was no other truth but Gabriel's words; the bell-ringer, although the roughest and most silent among them, was the most advanced in his conversion.