n this witness; Roldan produces this and that
proof; Roldan is here, there, and everywhere--never had Bobadilla found
such a useful, obliging man as Roldan. With his help Bobadilla soon
collected a sufficient weight of evidence to justify in his own mind his
sending Columbus home to Spain, and remaining himself in command of the
island.

The caravels having been made ready, and all the evidence drawn up and
documented, it only remained to embark the prisoners and despatch them to
Spain. Columbus, sitting in his dungeon, suffering from gout and
ophthalmic as well as from misery and humiliation, had heard no news;
but he had heard the shouting of the people in the streets, the beating
of drums and blowing of horns, and his own name and that of his brothers
uttered in derision; and he made sure that he was going to be executed.
Alonso de Villegio, a nephew of Bishop Fonseca's, had been appointed to
take charge of the ships returning to Spain; and when he came into the
prison the Admiral thought his last hour had come.

"Villegio," he asked sadly, "where are you taking me?"

"I am taking you to the ship, your Excellency, to embark," replied the
other.

"To embark?" repeated the Admiral incredulously. "Villegio! are you
speaking the truth?"

"By the life of your Excellency what I say is true," was the reply, and
the news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of the
Admiral.

In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and the
last sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were the
hoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous,
triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brothers
with as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got well
clear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral's chains. But Columbus, with
a fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have them
removed. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to this
cruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongest
things in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer as
much of it as he could. "My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to what
Bobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and I
shall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of the
Sovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward I
have received for my services." Thus the Admiral, beginning to pi