rothers had sailed
away never to return, could not say anything bad enough about "this
upstart Italian," as they called Columbus.

But to the most of the people Columbus was still the great Admiral. He
was the man who had stuck to his one idea until he had made a friend
of the queen; who had sailed away into the West and proved the Sea of
Darkness and the Jumping-off place to be only fairy tales after all; who
had found Cathay and the Indies for Spain. He was still a great man to
the multitude.

So when on a certain October day, in the year 1500, it was spread abroad
that a ship had just come into the harbor of Cadiz, bringing home the
great Admiral, Christopher Columbus, a prisoner and in chains, folks
began to talk at once. Why, who has done this? they cried. Is this the
way to treat the man who found Cathay for Spain, the man whom the king
and the queen delighted to honor, the man who made a procession for us
with all sorts of birds and animals and pagan Indians? It cannot be.
Why, we all remember how he sailed into Palos Harbor eight years ago and
was received like a prince with banners and proclamations and salutes.
And now to bring him home in chains! It is a shame; it is cruel; it is
wicked. And when people began to talk in this way, the very ones who had
said the worst things against him began to change their tone.

As soon as the ship got into Cadiz, Columbus sent off a letter to a
friend of his at the court in the beautiful city of Granada. This letter
was, of course, shown to the queen. And it told all about what Columbus
had suffered, and was, so full of sorrow and humbleness and yet of pride
in what he had been able to do, even though he had been disgraced, that
Queen Isabella (who was really a friend to Columbus in spite of her
dissatisfaction with the things he sometimes did) became very angry at
the way he had been treated.

She took the letter to King Ferdinand, and at once both the king and the
queen hastened to send a messenger to Columbus telling him how angry
and sorry they were that Bobadilla should have dared to treat their
good friend the Admiral so. They ordered his immediate release from
imprisonment; they sent him a present of five thousand dollars and asked
him to come to court at once.

On the seventeenth of December, 1500, Columbus came to the court at
Granada in the beautiful palace of the Alhambra. He rode on a mule. At
that time, in Spain, people were not allowed to ride on mules, b