Pulleys screech and yells are heard amid the metallic sound of iron striking upon stone, hammers upon nails, of axes chopping out posts.

A crowd of laborers is digging in the earth to open a wide, deep trench, while others place in line the stones taken from the town quarries.

Carts are unloaded, piles of sand are heaped up, windlasses and derricks are set in place.
"Hey, you there! Hurry up!" cries a little old man with lively and intelligent features, who has for a cane a copper-bound rule around which is wound the cord of a plumb-bob.

This is the foreman of the work, Nor Juan, architect, mason, carpenter, painter, locksmith, stonecutter, and, on occasions, sculptor.

"It must be finished right now! Tomorrow there'll be no work and the day after tomorrow is the ceremony.