At the door of the great mosque, the same on which the harebrained knight of Pulgar with his fifteen companions as wild as himself had fixed the tablet with the words _Ave Maria_, they halted. Like the chapel, it had been hastily consecrated. Here the sovereigns offered up prayer and thanksgiving. In what part of the present cathedral did this occur? At what is now the high altar, or within the Capilla Real? Did any wandering spirit whisper into the ear of the still beautiful queen, in the swell of the triumphant anthems which rise to celebrate her fame, that there she would lie entombed with Ferdinand by her side? The first interview of Columbus with the queen took place in the middle of the Moorish war, when all available revenues were absorbed. It was the Andalusian Fray Perez de Marchena, who sent him to Santa Fé, recommending him to the Bishop of Talavera, a learned prelate, at that time confessor to the queen and shortly to become Archbishop of Granada. It was Talavera who presided at the council of Salamanca, before which Columbus exhibited his charts and detailed his projects. Like Galileo, he was rejected as a vain dreamer, not altogether free from suspicion of magic. A second time he came to Santa Fé, and boldly expostulated with Isabel on her backwardness. “Her refusal,” said Columbus, “was not in consonance with the magnanimous spirit of her reign.” The great queen was touched at the rough sincerity of his words. “I will assume the undertaking,” was her reply, “for my own kingdom of Castile. I will pawn my jewels if the money you raise is not sufficient.” The box or casket, with a gold pattern, which she gave him, is still preserved in the sacristy of the cathedral at Granada. He returned it to her filled with virgin gold, “As admiral, viceroy, and captain-general of all islands and continents in the western ocean,” titles which descended to his son. The memory of Columbus (or _Colon_, as he is called in Spain, a name continued in his present descendants, the Duques de Veragua) is perpetuated at Seville by a large flagstone let into the marble floor in the centre of the cathedral. _A Castilia y a Leon_ _Nuovo Mundo dio Colon_, is the motto. On either side the rude outlines of two small caravels are cut, models of the vessels in which he started from Palos in Andalusia in search of the new world. In shape they resemble Grecian triremes without the bank of oars. A raised stern bears a square metal lantern as a night signal, and floating at the prow flies the flag of Spain. On the deck appears the outline of a giant mariner wearing a broad sombrero, which _may_ represent Columbus, in a thick coat, and with a telescope to his eye.