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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
The king ordered the siege engines to be set up and all his devices to be disposed in order to take the town by force. While this was happening, he was told that forces from Olivença and Badajoz were intending to attack those who were guarding the haymakers between the two towns, close to where he was. The king went there with some of his men in order to do battle with those forces, but they did not wish to come out. Some of the Portuguese made a sortie there, approaching Badajoz in order to skirmish with the enemy. In the skirmish, some of those from the town were killed and wounded, and of the Portuguese Antão Vasques died, a very valiant and powerful knight, at whose death the king was most upset because he was an outstanding man who had served him well.
The king returned to his camp while Martim Afonso de Melo went to raid the area of Alburquerque. He set up an ambush half a league from the place and ordered the horsemen to overrun the vicinity because it was the season of the grape harvest. They brought him news that, at that moment, García González de Grijalba and his brother Fernán García had entered the town, and with those they brought and the people who were in the town, there would be up to 220 lances, while Martim Afonso had seventy. While García González was attacking the horsemen and chasing them, Martim Afonso came out of concealment. García González immediately turned back, and many of the Castilians were slain or taken prisoner. Then Alfonso Pérez Sarracín came out from a side street, encountered Martim Afonso and knocked him to the ground, wounding him in one hand. Thus, García González chanced to escape being killed or seized. However, Martim Afonso took a number of prisoners, among them a nephew of García González, and returned to the siege camp [at Campo Maior].
At that juncture, the king attacked the town, having already filled in the moat. While some men were on the siege ladder, he ordered it to be placed against a tower that the siege engines had begun to demolish.
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