After their meeting with Our Lady, Jacinta told her mother about her experience. News spread quickly around the village exposing the children to ridicule and disbelief. Ti Marto believed his children but unfortunately, Lucia wasn't afforded the same assurances by her family.

On July 13th crowds began to gather for the apparition.

The governor of the area was Arturo de Oliveira Santos.  He believed materialistically and not in the Catholic Church.  He felt that Mary belonged in the Middle Ages and there was no room for her in modern life. He ordered a trial for the children.

The siblings' father, Ti Marto, said that he would have no part of it, while Lucia's father, Antonio, felt she (Lucia) might be lying and this would teach her a lesson.

Lucia began the trip with her father on the back of a burro falling off three times before they arrived at Ourem. There, they met Ti Marto.  He had not taken Jacinta and Francisco.  They met with the governor.   He asked many questions of Lucia to which she made no reply.  She kept her eyes focused straight ahead.  He asked her to tell him the secret to which she replied, "no".
Santos asked if  Antonio, Lucia's Father believed the stories at Fatima to which he said that he didn't believe them. He thought it was just "the tales of women".  He asked the same question of Ti Marto, the father of Francisco and Jacinta and his answer was that he believed what his children said.
As they were leaving the meeting, Santos threatened Lucia saying that unless she told the secret it would cost her her life.

 On August 13th, Santos came to the home of Ti Marto.   He offered to take the children to the apparition site in his carriage. Once they got inside the carriage,  he kidnapped them and took them to his house in Ourem.
Meanwhile, many thousands of people gathered at Cova de Iria.  Some had walked for days, all had their petitions to present to Our Lady.  The children never arrived.

Santos locked them in a room of his house. The next day he took them to the Town Hall. The children were questioned. He was especially interested in the "secret" which the Lady told them. The children would not tell him. He threatened them with imprisonment, torture and death.  They still  refused to tell.   Finding that he was getting nowhere he threw them in jail. After they spent a short time in the jail he questioned them again.
At one point the governor threatened to throw them in boiling oil.  He had the three children together in one room and a guard came in and took Jacinta away to be boiled in oil. Francisco and Lucia prayed fervently.  After a period of time, the guard reentered and reported the child was "fried".  He was ready for the next.  With that, he dragged Francisco off.   Lucia was alone.  When asked again for the secret, Lucia told the Administrator nothing.  Again the door opened and the guard gathered Lucia.  It was her turn to die.  She was led down a corridor and into a room where she saw Francisco and Jacinta alive and unharmed.  That was the end of their stay in prison.

Santos took them back to his house and kept them locked up overnight. The next day he questioned them. Finally, seeing that his efforts were useless, he released them.  That was the 15th of August.

On September 13th, the crowd had grown so much that the children could barely make
their way to the apparition site.

In October there were about 70,000 people in attendance.