[179] But he can also be picturesque in expressing time (like Lopez, who for ‘early morning’ says, ‘at the time when people were coming from Mass’), e.g. _Cr. D. Joam_, cap. 102 _ad fin._: Ceuta had been captured so swiftly that ‘many had left the corn of their fields stored in their granaries and returned in time for the vintage’. The whole description of the expedition against Ceuta and the attack and sack of the city are extremely clear. [180] Cf. Goes, _Cr. D. Manuel_: _escrevia com razoamentos prolixos e cheos de metaforicas figuras que no estilo historico não tem lugar_; _Cr. do Princ. D. Joam_, cap. 17: _com a superflua abundancia e copia de palavras poeticas e metaforicas que usou em todalas cousas que screveo_. His style is less involved than is often said. Some of his sentences may contain as many as 500 words and yet be perfectly plain and straightforward, whereas Mallarmé could be obscure in five words. [181] Cf. cap. 2: _Oo tu principe pouco menos que devinal!_ and _Tua gloria, teus louvores, tua fama enchem assi as minhas orelhas e ocupam a minha vista que nom sei a qual parte acuda primeiro._ This chronicle has the same plethora of learned quotations. Chapter 1 quotes St. Thomas, Solomon, Tully, the Book of Esther, and introduces Afonso V, King Duarte, the French duke Jean de Lançon, the Cid, Nun’ Alvarez, Moses, Fabricius, Joshua, and King Ramiro. [182] He re-wrote the _Cronica do Conde D. Pedro de Meneses_ twice. João de Barros, who was inclined to slight earlier and contemporary historians, acknowledges his great debt to Zurara. Damião de Goes regards him less favourably. [183] November 22, 1467 (_Coll. Liv. Ined._ iii. 3-5). There is also an affectionate letter from King Pedro of Aragon to Zurara, dated June 11, 1466, or 1460. [184] Zurara, on the other hand, with feigned diffidence represents himself as ‘a poor scholar’, ‘a man almost entirely ignorant and without any knowledge’, and if he has any learning it is but the crumbs from King Afonso’s table (_Cr. D. Pedro_, cap. 2). He can rise to real eloquence, as in the beginning of cap. 25 of the _Cr. da Guiné_: _Oo tu cellestrial padre, que com tua poderosa maão, sem movimento de tu devynal essencia, governas toda a infiinda companhya da tua sancta cidade_, &c., or sober down into a Tacitean phrase such as that of cap. 26, describing the fate of natives of Africa brought to Portugal: _morriam, empero xraãos_ (they died, but Christians). He has a misleading trick of saying ‘The author says--_diz o autor_’, meaning himself. [185] _Nunca me em ello quis leixar obrar segundo meu desejo_ (_Cr. D. Pedro_, cap. 1).