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.
* * * * * "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.