Chapter 11 - Concerning the tumult in the city when people thought that the Master was being killed, and how Álvaro Pais made his way there and many others with him

Summary

The Master's page was sitting astride his horse at the door when they told him to dash through the city as planned. He charged off at full gallop, shouting and bellowing through the streets, ‘They’re killing the Master! They’re killing him in the queen's palace! Help the Master, they’re killing him!’ Finally, he reached the house of Álvaro Pais, which lay a long way off.

When they heard this, the people poured out into the streets to find out what was happening. Once they began to discuss the matter, their courage grew in their excitement, and each man started to take up arms as best and as fast as he could. Álvaro Pais, who was armed and at the ready, wearing a coif on his head as was the custom at that time, hurriedly mounted on a horse, something he had not done for many years. All his supporters were with him as he yelled out to everybody he met, ‘Come on, friends, let's go and help the Master, for he's King Pedro's son!’ Both he and his page shouted this out as they galloped through the streets.

The sound of their voices echoed through the city, and everyone heard their cries that the Master was being killed. Just like a widow who had lost her king, and as though the Master stood in her husband's place, they all rose up with weapons in their hands, dashing in the direction of where it was reportedly happening, in order to save the Master's life and prevent his death. Not holding back from going there himself, Álvaro Pais shouted out to them all, ‘Let's go and help the Master, my friends, let's go and help him, for they’re killing him for no reason at all!’

The people began to join him, and there were so many of them that it was a strange sight to see. There was no room for all of them in the main thoroughfares, and so they also made their way along rarely used alleyways, with each man anxious to get there first. When they asked one another who was killing the Master, there was no shortage of those who answered that it was Count Juan Fernández acting on the orders of the queen.