His
position was much like that of the modern inventor who resents having
the greater part of the profits of his invention given to those who
promote it. Columbus's friends, the few men who had encouraged him and
believed in him ever since he came to Spain, begged him to accept less,
but he was inflexible. He was prepared to make the biggest journey man
had ever dreamed of, and not one iota less would he take for it. But no
such rewards would Talavera promise, and thus ended the interview for
which Columbus had waited nearly seven years!
And so he rode away from the lovely Moorish city, weary and dejected,
yet hoping for better treatment when he should lay his plans before the
French king. His ride took him across the fertile Vega (plain) of
Granada and into a narrow mountain pass where the bleak Elvira Range
towers three thousand feet above the road. But smiling plain and
frowning mountain were alike to the brooding traveler. He noticed
neither; nor, when he started across the ancient stone bridge of Pinos,
did he notice that horsemen were galloping after him. They were Queen
Isabella's messengers sent to bid the bold navigator return. They
overtook him in the middle of the bridge, and then and there his trip to
France ended.
The queen, they told him, would accept his terms unconditionally.
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