repair immediately to the Court at Santa
Fe. Old Perez was in high feather, and busy with his pen. He wrote to
Doctor Garcia Hernandez, and also to Columbus, in whose letter the
following pleasant passage occurs:

"Our Lord has listened to the prayers of His servant. The wise and
virtuous Isabella, touched by the grace of Heaven, gave a favourable
hearing to the words of this poor monk. All has turned out well.
Far from despising your project, she has adopted it from this time,
and she has summoned you to Court to propose the means which seem
best to you for the execution of the designs of Providence. My
heart swims in a sea of comfort, and my spirit leaps with joy in the
Lord. Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more
than she. Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your
little Diego. The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La
Rabida accompany you."

The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst of
sunshine after rain. I like to think how bright must have seemed to him
the broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the last
office which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glad
a thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must have
passed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road to
Santa Fe.

CHAPTER XI

THE CONSENT OF SPAIN

Once more; in the last days of the year 1491, Columbus rode into the
brilliant camp which he had quitted a few weeks before with so heavy a
heart. Things were changed now. Instead of being a suitor, making a
nuisance of himself, and forcing his affairs on the attention of
unwilling officials, he was now an invited and honoured guest; much more
than that, he was in the position of one who believed that he had a great
service to render to the Crown, and who was at last to be permitted to
render it.

Even now, at the eleventh hour, there was one more brief interruption.
On the 1st of January 1492 the last of the Moorish kings sent in his
surrender to King Ferdinand, whom he invited to come and take possession
of the city of Granada; and on the next day the Spanish army marched into
that city, where, in front of the Alhambra, King Ferdinand received the
keys of the castle and the homage of the Moorish king. The wars of eight
centuries were at an end, and the Christian banner of Spain floated at