' `Whither?' `To
Portugal.' `For why?' `To speak again with King John!'
`Are you in the habit of speaking with kings?' `Aye, I
am!' `About what, may I ask?' `About the finding of
India by way of Ocean-Sea, the possession of idolatrous
countries and the great wealth thereof, and the taking of
Christ to the heathen who else are lost!' "
"Ha, ha! Ha, ha!" This was Escobedo.
"The prior thinks, `This is an interesting madman.' And
being a charitable good man and lacking entertainment that
evening, he brings the beggar in to supper and sits by him."
Roderigo Sanchez opened his mouth. "All Andalusia
knows Fray Juan Perez is a kind of visionary!"
"Aye, like to like! `Have you been to our Queen and
the King? ' `Aye, I have!' saith the beggar, `but they are
warring with the Moors and will pull Granada down and
do not see the greater glory!' "
All laughed at that, and indeed Gutierrez could mimic to
perfection. We got, full measure, the beggar's loftiness.
"So the siren sings and the prior leaps to meet her, or
tarantula stings him and be dances! `I am growing mad
too,' thinks Fray Juan Perez, and begins presently to tell
that last week he dreamed of Prester John. The end is
that he and the beggar talk till midnight and the next morning
they talk again, and the prior sends for his friends
Captain Martin Alonzo Pinzon and the physician Garcia
Fernandez.
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