Cardinal Ximenes died. Juana still watched by the tomb of her husband, and took no interest in the world. Charles V was entering upon his career as a conqueror who was to subdue the Roman world to his will.
As for Magellan in Spain he was to be but little more remembered now. Spain believed the story of the jealous Gormez, and the mariners of Seville said:
"The Admiral was mad!"
In the common view the mad Admiral had gone down in Antarctic seas. Like Faleiro, his friend, who had been sent to the mad house, it was thought that his brain had become unsettled, and that his bright visions had failed.
The two mutineers ate bread and drank wine again in the convent bowers of Seville.
Gormez had schemes of his own. He desired the authority of the throne to make an expedition to the Spice Islands, which he believed he could find by sailing West. Strangely enough, as we have said, this jealous, treacherous man was afterward made a pilot in an expedition that visited Florida, Cape Cod, and Massachusetts Bay. But he did not find the way to the Spice Islands on the voyage.
Mesquita, still believing in the success of the expedition of Magellan, said to a few whom he could reach:
"Magellan is not mad. He executed those who had planned to murder him. He had to put to death these men for the sake of the expedition. He will return again!"
Few believed his story, and fewer his prophecy.
Still there were some who hoped that the prisoner's prophecy might prove true. Columbus was deemed mad, and quelled a mutiny, but he returned again. Vasco da Gama faced doubt and destruction, but he returned again. There were not wanting some who asked, "Will Magellan ever return again?" Such usually received the answer, "The Admiral was mad!"