Diego sighed heavily, while the Queen and all present could not forbear smiling.
“Could you, my Lord Duke, grant the request of this young man?” asked the Queen.
The Duke hesitated a moment, and Diego thought he would be refused. He rose, the picture of dejection, and, hanging his head, said mournfully:
“Poor, poor Felipe!”
The Queen at that laughed once more. Diego, turning to Doña Christina, said sadly:
“Madam, I would ask you to plead for Don Felipe with the Duke; but if the Duke will not grant the Queen’s request I am afraid he will not listen to any one else.”
“But I shall obey the Queen’s wishes,” said the Duke. “I will give Don Felipe leave also; but you are to start upon your return two days after the caravel arrives.”
A thrill ran through Diego, his eyes shone, his mouth opened wide with delight; and Queen Isabella, who understood youth well, nodded to him again as a sign of dismissal. Diego retained his senses enough to make an obeisance to the Queen and low bows to the Cardinal, the Duke, and Doña Christina. Then, slipping out of the door, he ran like a deer back to the hall of the pages. As he entered it Prince Juan sprang forward and, clasping him around the neck, shouted:
“Tell us all, all, all!”
The other pages, with Don Felipe, clustered around; and Diego, with Prince Juan’s arm about his neck, poured forth the story told by the Portuguese merchant, and also the news that the Pinta had arrived at Bayonne.