The fascists were all held in the _Ayuntamiento_, the city hall, which was the largest building on one side of the plaza.
It was there the clock was set in the wall and it was in the buildings under the arcade that the club of the fascists was.
And under the arcade on the sidewalk in front of their club was where they had their chairs and tables for their club.
It was there, before the movement, that they were accustomed to take the aperitifs.
The chairs and the tables were of wicker.
It looked like a cafe but was more elegant."
"But was there no fighting to take them?"
"Pablo had them seized in the night before he assaulted the barracks.
But he had already surrounded the barracks.
They were all seized in their homes at the same hour the attack started.
That was intelligent.
Pablo is an organizer.
Otherwise he would have had people attacking him at his flanks and at his rear while he was assaulting the barracks of the _guardia civil_.
"Pablo is very intelligent but very brutal.
He had this of the village well planned and well ordered.
Listen.
After the assault was successful, and the last four guards had surrendered, and he had shot them against the wall, and we had drunk coffee at the cafe that always opened earliest in the morning by the corner from which the early bus left, he proceeded to the organization of the plaza.
Carts were piled exactly as for a _capea_ except that the side toward the river was not enclosed.
That was left open.
Then Pablo ordered the priest to confess the fascists and give them the necessary sacraments."
"Where was this done?"
"In the _Ayuntamiento_, as I said.
There was a great crowd outside and while this was going on inside with the priest, there was some levity outside and shouting of obscenities, but most of the people were very serious and respectful.
Those who made jokes were those who were already drunk from the celebration of the taking of the barracks and there were useless characters who would have been drunk at any time.
"While the priest was engaged in these duties, Pablo organized those in the plaza into two lines.
"He placed them in two lines as you would place men for a rope pulling contest, or as they stand in a city to watch the ending of a bicycle road race with just room for the cyclists to pass between, or as men stood to allow the passage of a holy image in a procession.
Two meters was left between the lines and they extended from the door of the _Ayuntamiento_ clear across the plaza to the edge of the cliff.
So that, from the doorway of the _Ayuntamiento_, looking across the plaza, one coming out would see two solid lines of people waiting.
"They were armed with flails such as are used to beat out the grain and they were a good flail's length apart.
All did not have flails, as enough flails could not be obtained.
But most had flails obtained from the store of Don Guillermo Martin, who was a fascist and sold all sorts of agricultural implements.
And those who did not have flails had heavy herdsman's clubs, or ox-goads, and some had wooden pitchforks; those with wooden tines that are used to fork the chaff and straw into the air after the flailing.
Some had sickles and reaping hooks but these Pablo placed at the far end where the lines reached the edge of the cliff.
"These lines were quiet and it was a clear day, as today is clear, and there were clouds high in the sky, as there are now, and the plaza was not yet dusty for there had been a heavy dew in the night, and the trees cast a shade over the men in the lines and you could hear the water running from the brass pipe in the mouth of the lion and falling into the bowl of the fountain where the women bring the water jars to fill them.
"Only near the _Ayuntamiento_, where the priest was complying with his duties with the fascists, was there any ribaldry, and that came from those worthless ones who, as I said, were already drunk and were crowded around the windows shouting obscenities and jokes in bad taste in through the iron bars of the windows.
Most of' the men in the lines were waiting quietly and I heard one say to another,
'Will there be women?'
"And another said,
'I hope to Christ, no.'
"Then one said,
'Here is the woman of Pablo.
Listen, Pilar.
Will there be women?'
"I looked at him and he was a peasant dressed in his Sunday jacket and sweating heavily and I said,
'No, Joaquin.
There are no women.
We are not killing the women.
Why should we kill their women?'
"And he said,
'Thanks be to Christ, there are no women and when does it start?'