They could have done no worse had they been Silipan savages dancing in triumph around the palpitating head cut from the body of some enemy.
"The priests who witnessed this blood-curdling scene trembled like the weak reed before the gale, waiting their turn to be tortured, but God willed that cruel Villa should be content with the butchery perpetrated upon unhappy Sr.Soto.Villa dismissed the priests after despoiling them of their bags and clothes telling them, to torment them: 'Go to the _convento_ until the missing ones turn up so that I may shoot you all together.'" Leyba entered Echague on September 22, promptly going to the _convento_ as usual and demanding money of the priest, Father Mata.

When the latter had given him all he had, he received three terrific beatings at the hands of some twelve men armed with whips and sticks, after which Leyba himself struck him with his fist and his sabre.

He was finally knocked down by a blow with the sabre and left disabled.

It took six months for him to recover.
Shortly after Leyba's arrival in Nueva Vizcaya on the afternoon of the 25th, five priests were summoned to Solano and there abused in the usual fashion in an effort to extort money from them.

Only one escaped ill treatment and one was nearly killed.
Leyba now went to Bayombong to carry out the established programme with the priests.