Start at once, for the Queen waits for you, and I much more than she.

Commend me to the prayers of my brethren, and of your little Diego.

The grace of God be with you, and may Our Lady of La Rabida accompany you." The news of that day must have come upon Columbus like a burst of sunshine after rain.

I like to think how bright must have seemed to him the broad view of land and sea, how deeply the solemn words of the last office which he attended must have sunk into his soul, how great and glad a thing life must have been to him, and how lightly the miles must have passed beneath the feet of his mule as he jogged out on the long road to Santa Fe..