(or believed to hold) French soldiers, systematically killing them, while the streets of the town heard nothing but a continuous scream in every corner of the town of "Viva San Marco!". 18 April On the 18th, with the governors already set out for Vicenza, Emilei made preparations to get to Venice to contact the Senate, while in Verona Maffei and other military leaders sought to organise the army and the populace, since provveditore Bartolomeo Giuliari alone was unable to bear the gravity of the situation. The French cannon in castello di San Felice and castello di San Pietro opened fire again almost as soon as the truce expired, and quick French sorties (sent out from them with the aim of taking the pressure off Castel Vecchio) were quickly repulsed. The news of the flight by the two provveditori irritated the populace, who continued to fight in an uncoordinated manner, whilst several peasants and mountain-dwellers arrived from Contado, some of whom were armed. Giuliari ordered the commanders to give weapons to those from Contado who had none, and produce a constitution for a provisional regency, which then put itself in contact with general Balland, stipulating a three-hour truce elsewhere even if the battle around Castel Vecchio continued. Meanwhile, some citizens succeeded in carrying artillery pieces up onto the colle San Leonardo, higher than both the surrounding hills (colle San Pietro and the Torricelle), and were thus easily able to fire down on the strong points on these hills. Some soldiers were shortly afterwards detached to support the townsfolk on the hill, and to defend the hills themselves. The principal objective became the capture of Castel Vecchio, to which end the people transported two artillery pieces from bastione di Spagna to porta Borsari and the roof of the teatro Filarmonico, on which wooden scaffolds were installed. Shortly afterwards the people were replaced there by Austrian soldiers, clearly more expert in this field. In the meantime other mortars taken from the enemy were used to besiege the castello, while from Bassano del Grappa conte Augusto Verità arrived at the head of 200 Austrian prisoners. The French trapped in castel Vecchio carried a cannon up to the top of the clock tower and began to bombard porta Borsari, but Augusto Verità responded by bombarding the clock tower with Austrian artillery, succeeding in hitting it, knocking off the cannon and forcing the French to evacuate