"Duarte, at the Church mass two days from now, the bishops and great nobles will all attend. We have to make preparations in advance! Of the two thousand city-defense troops, how many can you mobilize?"
"Nuno? You're not still thinking of doing something, are you? That is a grand mass presided over by the entire Lisbon Church. It concerns the dignity of the Holy See. Blood absolutely cannot be shed there!..."
"Duarte, I'm asking you to mobilize troops not so you can shed blood, but so you can 'protect' this mass properly! A sword is most intimidating only before it has been thrust out. Duke Manuel is indeed a king all sides can accept, and he is our only, better choice... But before we formally lean toward him, we must display our strength, our swords! We must mobilize at least a thousand fully armed soldiers to 'protect' the grand mass and let everyone see it. This is also a powerful deterrent, to make the Church and the great nobles rein in their greedy thoughts and negotiate properly with us!..."
"Haha! Nuno, you're right! I've said it before: we royalists must unite as one whole! If one man goes over, he might be killed like a donkey after the millstone is removed, slaughtered and eaten for meat... But as long as we gather the court nobles, the seafaring nobles, and the whole royalist party and go over together... then that is a force capable of controlling all Lisbon, one of the foremost powers in the kingdom! Even if Duke Manuel succeeds to the throne and we collectively pledge loyalty to the new king, we will still be the same as we are now! If Duke Manuel wants to inherit all of His Majesty's power, to inherit His Majesty's great enterprise of