Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. II.djvu/500

474 474 PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY. PART II. Deep regret of the sovereigns. and temples and divine honors dedicated to him, as to a divinity !"^^ None partook of the general indignation more strongly than Ferdinand and Isabella, who, in addi- tion to their personal feelings of disgust at so gross an act, readily comprehended the whole weight of obloquy, which its perpetration must necessarily at- tach to them. They sent to Cadiz without an instant's delay, and commanded the admiral to be released from his ignominious fetters. They wrote to him in the most benignant terms, expressing their sincere regret for the unworthy usage which he had experienced, and requesting him to appear before them as speedily as possible, at Granada, where the court was then staying. At the same time, they furnished him a thousand ducats for his expenses, and a handsome retinue to escort him on his journey. Columbus, revived by these assurances of the kind dispositions of his sovereigns, proceeded with- out delay to Granada, which he reached on the 17th 1500. of December. Immediately on his arrival he ob- tained an audience. The queen could not repress her tears at the sight of the man, whose illustrious services had met with such ungenerous requital, as it were, at her own hands. She endeavoured to cheer his wounded spirit with the most earnest Reception of Columbus. 28 Benzoni, Novi Orbis Hist., ing up in an apartment of his house, lib. 1, cap. 12. — Herrera, Indias as a perpetual memorial of national Occidciitales, lib. 6, cap. 15. iiifrratitude, and, when he died, Ferdinand Columhus tells us, ordered tiiem to be buried in the that Itis father kept tiie fetters in same grave vvitii himself. Hist. which he was brought home, hang- del Almirante, cap. 86.