An intrigue with the beautiful countess of Vila Nova, and her husband's jealousy, led to his arrest on 19 November 1644 on a false charge of assassination, and he lay in prison about nine years. Though his innocence was clear, the court of his Order, that of Christ, influenced by his enemies, deprived him of his comenda and sentenced him to perpetual banishment in Africa with a heavy money fine, and the king would not intervene to save him. Owing perhaps to the intercession of the queen regent of France and other powerful friends, his sentence was finally commuted into one of exile to the colony of Brazil.