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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 10 January 2024
As the king carried on, as we have said, mending the siege ladder, those in Tuy sent out a message [to the King of Castile] asking for help. While the things you have heard of were taking place, a good two months went by, during which time the king continued his martial labours, which were as follows.
He received information that the troops who had left Castile with Ruy López Dávalos were approaching where he was. When he was sure that they were quite near him, a little over a day's journey away, having already planned the location of the battlefield very close to the town, he ordered the seizure of all the ferry boats that crossed from the other side to his own country, prohibiting them, under pain of death, from going there again to fetch any person. Neither before nor after this did scouts cease going to and fro to bring provisions, without fear of those who lived in the area and of the Castilian troops who were coming over. The besieged townsfolk informed those troops about exactly what their situation was and how the king [of Portugal] had been expecting them for days, showing that he was greatly pleased to do battle with them and had already chosen the site. Furthermore, they should arrive well prepared to fight. Similarly, those in the town showed great courage, having decided that when the king moved to battle, they should all go out to burn the siege engines, the siege ladder and the whole camp. Ruy López Dávalos arrived so close with his troops that he was already less than half a day's journey from the camp.
The king understood the cunning with which they wanted to deceive him and as he worried about how he should deal with it, a reliable message reached him that the enemy troops had made their way to Sampaio, a small village six leagues from where he was; and there they were lodged, and there the bridge was barricaded so that no harm could reach them [from that direction]. In fact, they slept there that night and the next day they left for Pontevedra, which was 2 leagues away, where the Archbishop of Santiago was. There they did not get a welcome because he intended to move into Portugal, as he did later.
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