"I beg you, captain, let me have some sort of sweetmeats so I can give them to the sultan. For he likes to eat these things, and with this as an excuse, I'll be able to come and go easily, and he won't suspect me." The Lord of Malvei said: "I can give them to you." And he had dates and sweetmeats brought in a box, and gave them to Cipres de Paterno. When he had returned, the sultan asked him for news about the Christians. He replied that his friend had told him that they did not intend to leave. "Until your lordship changes your camp site. And sir, I was given these dates and sweetmeats." The sultan was very pleased at what he had brought, and had him go often. So he went and told Lord Malvei everything he knew, and Lord Malvei kept Tirant informed. Cipres of Paterno swore never again to serve the sultan. When the King of Egypt had the letter of battle drawn up, he ordered a messenger to take it to Tirant, the captain of the Greek army. It said the following: "From Abenamar, by the will of God, King of Egypt, to you, Tirant lo Blanc, captain of the Greek army. "I challenge you to battle, man to man, on foot or on horseback whichever you desire to your own advantage, before a competent judge. We will do combat until one of us is dead, so that I may present your head to my lady. If you wish to answer this letter, give your reply to Egypt, my messenger, and that will suffice to show your agreement, and to bring our battle to the end that I desire. "Written in our camp on the eastern shore, the first day of this moon, and signed. "King of Egypt" After Tirant held counsel in his tent, he answered the King of Egypt's letter in the following way: "I vow to God and my lady, and to the honor of chivalry, that twenty days into August, four days before or after, I will be on the eastern shore, before your camp, with all the power to do battle if you should wish it. Written by my hand and sealed with my coat of arms in the camp called Transimeno. The fifth of August. "Tirant lo Blanc." Here the book returns to the emperor who wanted very much to have news of the camp. He saw seven sailing ships approaching, and when they had docked he learned that they came from Sicily, and that they were bringing four thousand soldiers and many horses which the King of Sicily was sending. The reason for this I shall now relate.