Santa Fe was half camp, half city.  It had been built in what is called the Vega, the great fruitful plain which extends for many miles to the westward of Grenada.  The court and army were here as they pressed their attack on that city.  Perez de Marchena had ready access to Queen Isabella, and pressed his suit well.  He was supported by one of her favorites, the Marquesa de Moya.  In reply to their solicitations, she asked that Columbus should return to her, and ordered that twenty thousand maravedis should be sent to him for his traveling expenses.

This sum was immediately sent by Perez to his friend.  Columbus bought a mule, exchanged his worn clothes for better ones, and started, as he was bidden, for the camp.

He arrived there just after the great victory, by which the king and queen had obtained their wish—­had taken the noble city of Grenada and ended Moorish rule in Spain.  King, queen, court and army were preparing to enter the Alhambra in triumph.  Whoever tries to imagine the scene, in which the great procession entered through the gates, so long sealed, or of the moment when the royal banner of Spain was first flying out upon the Tower of the Vela, must remember that Columbus, elate, at last, with hopes for his own great discovery, saw the triumph and joined in the display.

But his success was not immediate, even now.  Fernando de Talavera, who had had the direction of the wise council of Salamanca, was now Archbishop of Grenada, whose see had been conferred on him after the victory.  He was not the friend of Columbus.  And when, at what seemed the final interview with king and queen, he heard Columbus claim the right to one-tenth of all the profits of the enterprise, he protested against such lavish recompense of an adventurer.  He was now the confessor of Isabella, as Juan Perez, the friendly prior, had been before.  Columbus, however, was proud and firm.  He would not yield to the terms prepared by the archbishop.  He preferred to break off the negotiation, and again retired from court.  He determined, as he had before, to lay his plans before the King of France.

Spain would have lost the honor and the reward of the great discovery, as Portugal and Genoa had lost them, but for Luis de St. Angel, and the queen herself.  St. Angel had been the friend of Columbus.  He was an important officer, the treasurer of the church revenues of Aragon.  He now insisted upon an audience from the queen.  It would seem that Ferdinand, though King of Aragon, was not present.  St. Angel spoke eloquently.  The friendly Marchioness of Moya spoke eagerly and persuasively.  Isabella was at last fired with zeal.  Columbus should go, and the enterprise should be hers.

It is here that the incident belongs, represented in the statue by Mr. Mead, and that of Miss Hosmer.  The sum required for the discovery of a world was only three thousand crowns.  Two vessels were all that Columbus asked for, with the pay of their crews.  But where were three thousand crowns?  The treasury was empty, and the king was now averse to any action.  It was at this moment that Isabella said, “The enterprise is mine, for the Crown of Castile.  I pledge my jewels for the funds.”