rank.

The king and queen, and, after their example, the courtiers treated him
with all the respect paid to persons of the highest rank. Yet some of
these courtiers were his bitterest enemies, and did every thing they
could, in his absence, to poison the minds of the king and queen against
him, and to cause his downfall.

The favour shown Columbus by the sovereigns insured him for a time the
caresses of the nobility, for in court every one is eager to lavish
attentions upon the man "whom the king delighteth to honour."

At one of the banquets which were given him occured the well known
circumstance of the egg.

[Illustration]

A shallow courtier present, impatient of the honours paid to Columbus,
and meanly jealous of him as a foreigner, abruptly asked him, whether he
thought that, in case he had not discovered the Indies, there would have
been wanting men in Spain capable of the enterprise.

To this Columbus made no direct reply but, taking an egg, invited the
company to make it stand on one end. Every one attempted it, but in
vain; whereupon he struck it upon the table, broke one end, and left it
standing on the broken part; illustrating, in this simple manner, that
when he had once shown the way to the new world, nothing was easier than
to follow it.

[Illustration]