"King Ferdinand, I
say it only to you and in a whisper, has not a little of the
King of the Foxes! Not, till he has made up his mind,
doth he wish there a perfect man. When he has made it
up, he will cast about--"
"I do not think he has any better than the Adelantado!"
" `Those brothers are one. Leave him out!' saith the
King. I will read you his mind! `Master Christopherus
Columbus hath had too much from the beginning. Nor is
he necessary as he was. When the breach is made, any
may take the fortress! I will leave him and give him
what I must but no more!' He will send at last another
than Bobadilla, but not again, if he can help it, the old Viceroy!
Of course there is the Queen, but she has many sorrows
these days, and fails, they say, in health."
"It may be," said Juan Lepe. "I myself were content
for him to rest The Admiral only. But his mind is yet a
hawk towering over land and sea and claiming both for
prize. He mingles the earthly and the heavenly."
"It is true," said Fray Juan Perez, "that age comes upon
him. And true, too, that King Ferdinand may say, `Whatever
it was at first, this world in the West becomes far too
vast a matter for one man and the old, first, simple ways!' "
"You have it there," I answered, and we covered the
embers and went to bed in La Rabida.
Winter passed.
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