ABSTRACT
Seeing that he could not on any account make the Moor Alicô let him take the Portuguese, Father Antonio Fernandez decided to depart because the rest were hurrying him, afraid that the Moor might change his mind. As they were about to set off the three Portuguese, accompanied by their guards, came to say goodbye, and their visit again pierced the father’s heart. On seeing their tears, he too shed many, and they all clearly showed at that point the great sadness and anguish of their disconsolate hearts. The father could see that they were remaining captives among Moors, and in such remote lands that it would be difficult to receive news of them afterwards, and he could imagine how much it would pain their fathers and mothers when the sad news reached them, and what sorrowful and anguished words <[f. 476/465]> they would say to him, if the Lord took him to see them. It was all a great torment to him and he embraced them one by one with so many tears and sighs that he could not speak, let alone finally leave them. The sadness and anguish that they too showed and their weeping were such that they rent not only the father’s heart but also the ambassador’s and all his companions’. But since their having to stay behind was an evil that they could not remedy, they made the father set off after he had delayed there a long time, and so they were left behind weeping and the father went away sighing and begging the Father of mercies and all consolation to have pity on those sons of His by consoling them [in such great tribulation] and delivering them from the power of such evil people.
