I have worked and waited all these years, he replied.

I know just what I can do and just how much I can do for the king and queen of Spain.

They must pay me what I ask and promise what I say, or I will go somewhere else.
Go, then! said the queen and her advisers.

And Columbus turned his back on what seemed almost his last hope, mounted his mule and rode away.
Then something else happened.

As Columbus rode off to find the French king, sick and tired of all his long and useless labor at the Spanish court, his few firm friends there saw that, unless they did something right away, all the glory and all the gain of this enterprise Columbus had taught them to believe in would be lost to Spain.