"By the life of your Excellency what I say is true," was the reply, and
the news came with a wave of relief to the panic-stricken heart of the
Admiral.

In the middle of October the caravels sailed from San Domingo, and the
last sounds heard by Columbus from the land of his discovery were the
hoots and jeers and curses hurled after him by the treacherous,
triumphant rabble on the shore. Villegio treated him and his brothers
with as much kindness as possible, and offered, when they had got well
clear of Espanola, to take off the Admiral's chains. But Columbus, with
a fine counterstroke of picturesque dignity, refused to have them
removed. Already, perhaps, he had realised that his subjection to this
cruel and quite unnecessary indignity would be one of the strongest
things in his favour when he got to Spain, and he decided to suffer as
much of it as he could. "My Sovereigns commanded me to submit to what
Bobadilla should order. By his authority I wear these chains, and I
shall continue to wear them until they are removed by order of the
Sovereigns; and I will keep them afterwards as reminders of the reward I
have received for my services." Thus the Admiral, beginning to pick up
his spirits again, and to feel the better for the sea air.

The voyage home was a favourable one and in the course of it Columbus
wrote the following letter to a friend of his at Court, Dona Juana de la
Torre, who had been nurse to Prince Juan and was known by him to be a
favourite of the Queen:

"MOST VIRTUOUS LADY,--Though my complaint of the world is new, its
habit of ill-using is very ancient. I have had a thousand struggles
with it, and have thus far withstood them all, but now neither arms