They talked about the thing a great deal, but they did nothing.

Columbus was an invalid and broken man, who might die any day, and it was obviously to their interest to gain time by discussion and delay--a cruel game for our Christopher, who knew his days on earth to be numbered, and who struggled in that web of time in which mortals try to hurry the events of the present and delay the events of the future.

Meanwhile Philip of Austria and his wife Juana, Isabella's daughter, had arrived from Flanders to assume the crown of Castile, which Isabella had bequeathed to them.

Columbus saw a chance for himself in this coming change, and he sent Bartholomew as an envoy to greet the new Sovereigns, and to enlist their services on the Admiral's behalf.

Bartholomew was very well received, but he was too late to be of use to the Admiral, whom he never saw again; and this is our farewell to Bartholomew, who passes out of our narrative here.