As you have heard, Vasco Lorenzo, the brother of Lope Gómez [de Lira], was to be found in Braga after he had lost Viana, and there he continued to ally himself to the King of Castile, believing that in Braga he was safe. But on the day when Guimarães was captured, the inhabitants of the city of Braga began to have words with the residents of the castle, who were out in the streets discussing what the king and the constable were doing, to the point where they created a disturbance against them. They started jabbing at them with long knives and lances, and those from outside the castle shouted out the watchwords ‘For Portugal! For Portugal! For King João!’, till eventually they confined the castle inmates within its walls. Next they began to shoot at them from four siege engines which happened to be to hand.

Straightaway, that very day, they sent a message to the king in Guimarães, which lay 3 leagues away, urging him to come to the town, because its people were already on his side, and to capture the castle before anybody rushed to its aid. That day, as night fell, the king dispatched to Braga Mem Rodrigues de Vasconcelos and Martin-Paul, a Gascon knight, with sufficient forces needed for the task. He also wrote at once to the constable, who was still in the village where we left him beside the River Minho, to tell him that certain honourable men from Braga had sent him a message to say that the town was already on his side and had urged him to seize the castle. He added that Vasco Lorenzo held the castle on behalf of his brother Lope Gómez, and that, since Lope Gómez might well send troops to help him, he was now commanding him to hurry immediately to the town and to make every effort to capture it.

The constable was delighted to receive this instruction from the king, especially because circumstances prevented him from crossing the River Minho. At once, and without further ado, he hurried off with his men, passing close to Ponte de Lima, which was where Lope Gómez was, till he reached Braga. He took up lodging in the town, which was already on the king's side.