CHAP. V I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
113
fied some few years afterwards ; for in remuneration of this loan, a part of the first gold brought by Columbus from the New World was employed in gilding the vaults and ceilings of the royal saloon in the grand palace of Saragoza, in Arragon, anciently the Aljaferia, or abode of the Moorish kings.* Columbus had pursued his lonely journey across the Vega and reached the bridge of Pinos, about two leagues from Gra nada, at the foot of the mountain of Elvira; a pass famous in the Moorish wars for many a desperate encounter between the Christians and infidels.
Here he was overtaken by a courier
from the queen, spurring in all speed, who summoned him to return to Santa Fé.
He hesitated for a moment, being loth
to subject himself again to the delays and equivocations of the court; when informed, however, of the sudden zeal for the enterprise excited in the mind of the queen, and the positive promise she had given to undertake it, he no longer felt a doubt, but, turning the reins of his mule, hastened back, with joyful alac rity to Santa Fé, confiding in the noble probity of that princess. * Argensola, Anales de Arragon, lib. i. cap. 1 0 .
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