hand, and looked upon the landscape. Its quiet
beauty soothed me. The whistle of a peasant from an adjoining field came
cheerily to my ear. I seemed to respire hope and comfort with the free
air that whispered through the leaves, and played lightly with my hair,
and dried the tears upon my cheek. A lark, rising from the field before
me, and leaving as it were a stream of song behind him as he rose,
lifted my fancy with him. He hovered in the air just above the place
where the towers of Warwick castle marked the horizon, and seemed as
if fluttering with delight at his own melody. "Surely," thought I, "if
there were such a thing as a transmigration of souls, this might be
taken for some poet let loose from earth, but still revelling in song,
and carolling about fair fields and lordly towers."

* * * * *

From "The Life and Voyages of Columbus."

=_181._= COLUMBUS A PRISONER.

The arrival of Columbus at Cadiz, a prisoner, and in chains, produced
almost as great a sensation as his triumphant return from his first
voyage. It was one of those striking and obvious facts, which speak to
the feelings of the multitude, and preclude the necessity of reflection.
No one stopped to inquire into the case. It was sufficient to be
told that Columbus was brought home in irons from the world he had
discovered. A general burst of indignation arose in Cadiz, and its
neighboring city, Seville, which was immediately echoed throughout all
Spain.... However Ferdinand might have secretly felt disposed towards
Columbus, the momentary tide of public feeling was not to be resisted.
He joined with his generous queen in her reprobation of the treatment of
the admiral, and both sovereigns hastened to give evidence to the world,
that his imprisonment had been without their authority, and contrary to
their wishes.

* * * * *

=_182._= HIS ARRIVAL AT COURT.

He appeared at court in Granada, on the 17th of December, not as a man
ruined and disgraced, but richly dressed, and attended by an honorable
retinue. He was received by their majesties with unqualified favor and
distinction. When the queen beheld this venerable man approach, and
thought on all that he had deserved, and all that he had suffered,
she was moved to tears. Columbus had borne up firmly against the rude
conflicts of the world; he had endured with lofty scorn the injuries and
insults of ignoble men; but he possessed stron