Chapter 31 - How Diogo Lopes Pacheco avoided being captured, and how the others were handed over and forthwith cruelly put to death

Summary

After this agreement had been reached in the way that we have described, the nobles whom we have mentioned were captured in Portugal. On the very day when the order of the King of Castile for the arrest of Diogo Lopes and the others reached the town where they were to be found, it so happened that very early that morning Diogo Lopes had gone out to hunt partridges. Pero Coelho and Álvaro Gonçalves were both arrested, but when they went to fetch Diogo Lopes it was discovered that he was no longer there and had gone out hunting that morning. The gates of the town were shut lest anyone should try to send a message to warn him, and the guards then waited in order to arrest him on his return.

There was a lame beggar to whom Diogo Lopes was always charitable in his home at mealtimes and who sometimes shared a joke with him: aware of the steps that were being taken, he decided to warn him on his way back before he reached the town. He secretly found out the direction that Diogo Lopes had taken. Approaching the guards at the gates, he asked their permission to go out. Failing to suspect such a man, they opened the gates and let him through. He walked as far as he could in the direction in which he thought Diogo Lopes would be returning and found him already on his way back, along with his squires, quite unaware of the news that the pauper was bringing.

When the beggar told him that he wished to speak with him, Diogo Lopes showed no inclination to listen, little suspecting that he was bringing such a message. Nevertheless, the beggar insisted that he should hear what he had to say and told him privately that the King of Castile had sent a large detachment of guards who, having captured the other two, had arrived at his palace to capture him also. He also told him how the gates of the town were guarded to prevent anyone from getting out to warn him. On hearing this, Diogo Lopes fully grasped the situation: gripped by the fear of death, he fell into deep thought.