Chapter 134 - How they brought to the king one of the squires who had been taken prisoner, and the conversation he had with him

Summary

When those three [Portuguese] naos had thus been captured, and all the others had reached safety, the fighting ceased on both sides. The Castilians began to put the Portuguese they had found in them into the ship's boats, both those who were wounded and those who had no injuries. The king commanded that one of those who had been captured should be brought before him, but not a person of low rank.

When those who had been sent for this purpose arrived at the shore, they saw Vasco Rodrigues Leitão, one of the worthy squires who had come there, approaching the shore in a boat with others who were being brought to land. They said that he would suffice to give news to the king regarding what he wished to know. Then they took him into the king's presence. The first thing that the king asked him was whether Nuno Álvares was with the fleet; the squire answered that he was not. Then he asked him who were in the galleys and the naos; the squire named them all, and described how they had fought, how Rui Pereira had been killed, and other related things.

While he was speaking with the king, the queen came into a room near the one where the king was. Vasco Rodrigues, when he saw her, went to kiss her hands. She, who knew him well because he was a criado of Gonçalo Vasques de Azevedo, looked at him and said, ‘Oh, Vasco Rodrigues! You are here?’

‘Here, my lady’, he said, ‘at God's mercy and yours.’

The queen then went out of the room; left alone, he returned to where the king was. The king, smiling, said to him: ‘Confound you! This is pretty hand-kissing! You come with lance in hand to deprive your liege lady of the kingdom that is hers by right, and then you mock her by kissing her hands! You deserve no better than to have your lips and tongue cut off for kissing her hands the way you do.’