228 ONE THOUSAND FAMOUS THINGS

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The Beggar Man and His Little Son
N the springtime of the year 1471., and at noon of day, under a
burning sun which turned to ashes the roads of Andalusia, upon a
hill about half a league from the small seaport of Palos, two strangers
fared afoot, their shoes worn with walking, their clothes (in which
might be detected the remains of a certain costliness) sullied with
dust, paused to seat themselves in the shadows of the gateway of a
small monastery, called Santa Maria de Rabida.
One of them was a man who had scarcely reached the middle of
life, of tall stature, robust in figure, majestic in his bearing, with a
noble brow, an open countenance, a pensive gaze, and mild and
gracious lips. His hair, of a blond lightly tinted with brown in his
early youth, was prematurely marked at the temples by those grey
shadows which misfortune and mental labour hasten. His fore-
head was lofty ; his complexion was paled by thought and bronzed
by sun and sea. The tones of his voice were manly, sonorous, and
penetrating, like the accents of a man accustomed to give utterance
to profound ideas.
The other was a child of eight to ten. His features, more feminine
but already matured by the fatigues of his life, had so lively a resem-
blance to those of the first stranger that it was impossible not to
recognise in him either his son or brother.
These two strangers were Christopher Columbus and his son
Diego. The monks, touched by the noble aspect of the father and
the gracefulness of the child, invited them to enter and offered them
shelter. While Columbus and his child refreshed themselves with
water, bread, and olives at the table of their hosts., the monks in-
formed their prior of the arrival of the two strangers, and the strange
interest attaching to their distinguished appearance in opposition to
their poverty. The prior descended to converse with them.
This head of the convent of Rabida was Juan Peres de Marchenra,
former confessor of Queen Isabella, who with Ferdinand then ruled
over Spain. A man of sanctity, science, and erudition, he had pre-
ferred the shelter of his cloister to the honours and intrigues of the
court; but his very retreat had preserved for him a great reputation
in the palace, and a powerful influence over the mind of the Queen.
The prior saluted the stranger, embraced the child, and gently
made himself acquainted with the circumstances which had forced
them to travel on foot the most unfrequented routes of Spain and
borrow the shelter of the humble roof of a poor and solitary monas-
tery. Columbus told the story of his obscure life, and laid bare to
the attentive monk his grand conceptions. The prior, affected at
first with compassion, was soon afterwards stirred into enthusiasm.
He saw in him one of those messengers of God who are repulsed from
the threshold of princes, whither they bear in the hands of want the
invisible treasures of truth. Alphonse Louis de Lamartine