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DE CHASTE’S VOYAGE TO TERCERA. 847
mifed fhould be done’on the fucceeding day. The next day the marquis ordered Don
Pedro de Padilhe to tell the commander de Chafte, that he muft proceed with his peo-
ple to Lifbon, where he fhould be embarked for France, as he had not the power of
forwarding him from there, not having a fuflicient number of veflels to tranfport his
army back; with this the commander was obliged to acquiefce, in {pite of all difpute
to the contrary. However, while waiting from day to day forthe departure of the
army, he was informed by fome of his captains, that the Spaniards endeavoured to
feduce them to join them, with their troops, in order to be prefent at a battle which the
king Philip meant to give the moors at Larache, where Don Sebaftian was killed four
years before, and loft the day. On the fame day the commander being invited to the
quarters of Don Pedro de ‘Voledo where the principal captains of the army were aflem-
bled, was repeatedly prefled to be gay, and enjoy himfelf, on account of his appearing fad
and caft down at his bad fortune ; upon which fubjcct, Don Lopez de Foulquoal, Maitre
de Camp,. general of the army, thus exprefled himfelf: Mon/. de Chafee, in my opinion,
you have no reafon to grieve in the manner you do; feeing that, in this inftance, nothing has
occurred but what has been advantageous to you. Iwill refer the ftatement of your adven-
tures to the sudgment of. the moft experienced warriors in the world ; I am certain, upon
explaining every circumftance, that they can form no other idea thereof, than fuch as is en
tertained by myfelf and my companions ; which is, that although you fhould have had all
the good fortune poffible againft us, you could not appear in a braver or more honourable
light, nor better have fignalized your renown than you have done, in having fought with,
and kept a whole ftrong and numerous army employed for an entire day, with fuch a handful
of men, who cheerfully expofed themfelves in the fight, with fixed arms advancing to give a
Shock to our foldiers, and meeting their fteel with refolution, to bathe their own in the blood
of ours ; killing a great number of our braveft men, notwithftanding your being abandoned
by the Portuguefe, and their chief, with fome of your own deferted from you to us, informing us of
your diftrefs ; in this pofition, engaging the marquis de Santa Cruz to enter into terms with JOU,
notwith/tanding the information received of your being a prey to thirft and hunger, which were
deftroying your people, and faving your lives from abfolute condemnation ; for my part, I
think we were too éafy, that it would have been an eternal affront and ftain upon the ho-
nour of our nation, if we had had the difgrace to have granted beyond what’we have done ;
and that you have to thank God for the affiftance he has afforded you, and that you are at
prefent in the hands of men of honour, from whom you receive every courtefy you can defire.
‘The commander thanked him very humbly for his politenefs, and faid: I /hould be the
moft ungrateful of beings, if I were not to shew proper fentiments, when oppor-
tunity may offer, for the honour and kindnefs fhewn me: but as the French are. incapa-
ble of concealing what is uppermo/t, as in the inftance of myfelf, I fhall freely obferve, that
all the careffes and kind treatment fhewn us, are done with a defign of which I cannst ap-
prove; what, for two days back, has given me greater caufe of venation, is the hearing
that your captains were feducing my and their men to go to the battle of Larache ; which
I give the more credit to, from the marquis having already begun to break the treaty of capi-
tulation, putting off the embarkation of my men for France, which fhould have taken place
from this ifland to Lifbon ; which is done more to induce us to make a party in this battle,
than from any want of vefféls, as he fays ; or, if this be not the caufe, it is for the purpofe
of playing off fome villainy upon me and mine ; breaking his engagements entirely. He is
not, however, to conceive, that although I.fhould be forced to go to Lifbon, I /hall the more
be perfuaded, either willingly, or by conftraint, to go to the faid battle ; for, rather than
do fo, I would ftab myfelf in fifty places, as Lam fure would all my companions, except we
suere ordered to proceed, by the king my mafter ; to whom Ifhall go to render an account of my
conduct.
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