_ 20 _ in-Chief they told him that the King sent them to beg him to cease the war against him and he would give him all he asked. The Captain-in-Chief replied that he would do so but that first he must return the fortress so that it could be finished, and send him the Portuguese, and pay him the cost of the fleet. The Armenian took the message ashore and returned with the King’s answer, he would give him the Portuguese and the expenses of the fleet and as much money as he asked, but he must not speak of the fortress, which he would not give him. The Captain-in-Chief told them to go back and tell Khwaja Attar, because the advice was his, that he would take no money, he wanted nothing but the fortress or else he would have to give his own ears, and they would be cut off in his own house. They were not to return with such deluded messages, because he would not listen to them. The King and the others were frightened by this message, but Khwaja Attar, a man of diabolical understanding, sought another way, because he knew that this war was against the wishes of the Captains who were forced into it by the arguments they had with the Captainin-Chief. So by night he sent one of the Portuguese to call to the Captains by name, and say that Khwaja Attar was giving a lot of money to the Captain-in-Chief, as much as
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