The following day, which was 29 May, the naos arrived, which had been fitted out to arrive in company with the galleys. In all there were forty, between the larger and smaller ones. When the King of Castile learned that the fleet of naos had arrived, he set out the next day with all his host to set up his camp and besiege the city. They arrived there at the hour of tierce. According to rumour, the men that he had there were probably around 5,000 lances, besides men who had remained in Santarém and all the other towns that were on his side. There were also 1,000 light horsemen of whom Don Álvaro Pérez de Guzmán was the captain, and many good crossbowmen, a total of 6,000, as some have written. There were a countless number of foot soldiers, besides the men who came in the fleet, and quite a few others who came to him by land every day.

The king commanded that the siege camp be set up next to the Convent of Santos, which is for ladies of the Order of Santiago, and at a short distance from the city, little more than two crossbow shots away. There they prepared at once for the king a tall house with a number of floors, built on four thick beams, surrounded by a drystone wall.

Near to it were pitched many very grand pavilions, both that of the king and those of the noblemen who had come with him. All the other men pitched their tents around Alcântara and Campolide and the surrounding district, in long and well-ordered rows. On top of all the tents there were banners and pennons of various coats of arms and insignia. As to how each tent was adorned by arms, which made the camp glitter, and of the multitude of trumpets and other things that made it such a splendid sight, there is no need to speak.

The camp, completely palisaded on the side facing the city, was in a small valley, where there is a well, for they had no fear of receiving harm from any other direction, since all the surrounding towns were loyal to the King of Castile.