Chapter 145 - How Nuno Álvares received a message that forces were gathering together to come and seek him out, and the manner in which he acted

Summary

The King of Castile was greatly enraged on account of the fighting and aggravation caused by Nuno Álvares in that region where he was guarding the frontier; he was also much affected by the death of the Master of Alcántara, who had been killed in the Battle of Os Atoleiros, as you have heard. So he ordered a great captain of his army, one Pedro [Ruiz] Sarmiento, the chief provincial Governor of Galicia, who was well renowned for his feats of arms, to take as many of his men as he wished and go to the Alentejo in search of Nuno Álvares, with orders to take him either dead or alive. Speaking to the king on this matter, Pedro Sarmiento promised him that he would give his arse a good whipping, as one does to a boy.

Others write that Dom Pedro Álvares, who was the Prior of the Hospitallers and brother of Nuno Álvares, and the said Pedro Ruiz Sarmiento entreated the king to give them permission, because they wished to go and avenge the death of the Master of Alcántara, and that the king granted it.

While Nuno Álvares was in Elvas, a message arrived for him that many Castilians were in Crato, and that, from the camp around Lisbon where the King of Castile lay, the said Pedro Sarmiento and the Prior of the Hospitallers, Nuno Álvares's brother, would come to join them there with 600 lances.

As soon as Nuno Álvares heard this, he immediately discussed in council about going to bar their way at Ponte de Sor, before they could join up with the other Castilian forces. He departed speedily from Elvas and travelled 7 leagues with his forces that day. He lodged at the Fonte da Figueira which is at the edge of the alder grove on the road to Cano, and at nightfall set his guards and sentries as was usual.

When it was already far into the evening, some thirty lances of his company detached themselves from the encampment, in the direction of Cano, so that their exhausted animals could be better rested. They took with them a trumpeter who was in the company of one of those who had moved away. When it came to midnight, the trumpeter, lacking all good sense, began to play and was heard in the encampment where Nuno Álvares was resting.