ompous words and images a great halo round himself of
dignity and wonder and divine distinction,--an opportunity such as he
loved, and such as he never failed to make use of.

The Sovereigns were delighted and profoundly impressed. Columbus wound
up his address with an eloquent peroration concerning the glory to
Christendom of these new discoveries; and there followed an impressive
silence, during which the Sovereigns sank on their knees and raised hands
and tearful eyes to heaven, an example in which they were followed by the
whole of the assembly; and an appropriate gesture enough, seeing what was
to come of it all. The choir of the Chapel Royal sang a solemn Te Deum
on the spot; and the Sovereigns and nobles, bishops, archbishops,
grandees, hidalgos, chamberlains, treasurers, chancellors and other
courtiers, being exhausted by these emotions, retired to dinner.

During his stay at Barcelona Columbus was the guest of the
Cardinal-Archbishop of Toledo, and moved thus in an atmosphere of
combined temporal and spiritual dignity such as his soul loved. Very
agreeable indeed to him was the honour shown to him at this time. Deep
down in his heart there was a secret nerve of pride and vanity which
throughout his life hitherto had been continually mortified and wounded;
but he was able now to indulge his appetite for outward pomp and honour
as much as he pleased. When King Ferdinand went out to ride Columbus
would be seen riding on one side of him, the young Prince John riding on
the other side; and everywhere, when he moved among the respectful and
admiring throng, his grave face was seen to be wreathed in complacent
smiles. His hair, which had turned white soon after he was thirty, gave
him a dignified and almost venerable appearance, although he was only in
his forty-third year; and combined with his handsome and commanding
presence to excite immense enthusiasm among the Spaniards. They forgot
for the moment what they had formerly remembered and were to remember
again--that he was a foreigner, an Italian, a man of no family and of
poor origin. They saw in him the figure-head of a new empire and a new
glory, an emblem of power and riches, of the dominion which their proud
souls loved; and so there beamed upon him the brief fickle sunshine of
their smiles and favour, which he in his delusion regarded as an earnest
of their permanent honour and esteem.

It is almost always thus with a man not born to such dignities,