The Queen fails fast. She has not the voice and the hand
in all matters that once was so."
"He is one who dies for loyalties," I said. "He reverences
all simply the crowns of Castile and Leon. For his
own sake I am not truly so anxious to have him Viceroy
again! They will give him ships and let him discover until
he dies?"
"Ah, I don't think there is any doubt about that!" he
answered.
We talked somewhat of that great modern world, evident
now over the horizon, bearing upon us like a tall, full-rigged
ship. All things were changing, changing fast. We talked
of commerce and inventions, of letters and of arts, of religion
and the soul of man. Out of the soil were pushing
everywhere plants that the old called heretical.
Seven days. We were, as we shall be forever, friends.
But Juan Lepe would go back to La Rabida. He was, for
this turn of life, man of the Admiral of the Ocean-Sea. So
we said farewell, Enrique de Cerda and Jayme de Marchena.
Three leagues Seville side of Cordova I came at eve to
a good inn known to me of old. Riding into its court I
found two travelers entering just before me, one a well-formed hidalgo still at prime, and the other a young
man
evidently his son. The elder who had just dismounted
turned and I recognized Don Francisco de Las Casas. At
the same instant he saw me.
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