Isabella and Ferdinand were with their army before Granada, and received Columbus well; but his demands for emoluments and honors in the event of success were pronounced absurd; the negotiations were broken off, and again Columbus started for France. The few converts to his theories were in despair, and one of them, Luis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical revenues of Aragon, obtained an audience of the Queen, and enkindled her patriotic spirit. When Ferdinand still hesitated, she exclaimed, "I undertake the enterprise for my own crown of Castile. I will pledge my jewels to raise the money that is needed!" Santangel assured her that he himself was ready to provide the money, and advanced seventeen thousand florins from the coffers of Aragon, so that Ferdinand really paid for the expedition, after all. THE FINAL STRUGGLE From "The New World" [January 6--April 17, 1492] Yet had his sun not risen; from his lips Fell in swift fervid accents his desire, And Talavera's eyes of smouldering fire Shone with a myriad doubts, a dark eclipse Of faith hung round him, and the longed-for ships Ploughed but the ocean of his star-lit dreams; Time had not tried his soul enough with whips And scorns, for so the rigid Master deems He makes his servants fit For the hard toils which knit The perfect garment, firm and without seams, The world shall wear at last; his hurt brain teems With indignation and he turns away Undaunted, and he girds him for the fray Once more; but first he hears the words of his good friend, Marchena, strong with trust in the far-shining end. His wanderings reached at last the lonely door Of calm La Rabida; there the silence came Grateful upon his grief's consuming flame; The simple cloisters gave him peace once more, And the live ocean rolled up to the shore In ceaseless voice of promise; through the pines The sun looked down benignant, and the roar Of the far world of rivalries declines Into an inward murmur With each day growing firmer, Whose sense is conquest at the last; as shines A lamp across a rocky path's confines, Making the outlet clear, Juan Perez' faith Who heard him and conceived his words no wraith Of fevered fancy but the very truth, was light To bring the Queen to know his purposes aright.