They had hoped to be present at the interview of Don Tomaso and Alonzo de Quintanilla with the sovereigns, and were disappointed at being sent to bed, as it were. Nevertheless, their return was not without triumph. As they walked down the long corridor, now full of persons, for the palace was thoroughly aroused, they were stopped at every moment by eager questioners. Diego until then had been merely an object of curiosity, and even of prejudice on the part of some. Many persons of rank treated him haughtily and disapproved the conferring of the title of “Don” upon the son of an obscure Italian and putting him upon an equality with the greatest nobles of Spain. Now, they regarded him with extraordinary interest and respect. This youth, closely resembling his father, would one day inherit all the titles and dignities of the greatest man in the world at that time. Diego subtly realized this, and, instead of dazzling and unsettling him, gave him a better poise and a more sensible view of honors and distinctions. Midway of the crowd in the corridor they met the Duke de Medina Cœli, governor of the pages. Although stern in discipline, he was strictly just, and had never made the smallest distinction between Diego and the other pages, and was always careful to give him the title of “Don.” As Diego and Don Felipe stopped and respectfully saluted him, the Duke spoke kindly to Diego, congratulating him upon the glorious achievement of his father and hoping that Diego would prove worthy of him.
“I thank you, sir,” responded Diego, with a low bow, “and I shall try by my conduct not to discredit my honored father.”
Don Felipe, who was really more courageous with the Duke than Diego, whispered a request into his ear. The Duke smiled, and answered:
“You may go to Prince Juan’s room if you wish. No doubt he is awake like every one else in the palace. If he chooses to go with you to the dormitory of the pages to see what you have to show, I shall make no objection.”
The Duke passed on, and Diego and Don Felipe made straight for the apartments of Prince Juan. The Prince was under military discipline, and had no more privileges in regard to leaving his room than had any of the pages. Diego knocked at the Prince’s door, and it was opened, not by an attendant, but by Prince Juan himself. He caught Diego in his arms and hugged him, boy fashion, and then hugged Don Felipe.
“I have scarcely slept since the great news came!” cried Prince Juan. “Never did any country receive so great a gift as your father, Don Diego, has made my country. Tell me all, all, all, that you have seen and heard.”
“The governor bade me say that if your Highness wished to go into the pages’ dormitory he would permit it, and there we can show the pictures and tell the story as we have heard it,” said Don Felipe.
Prince Juan had in him that fine quality of wishing to share his pleasures with others. The thought of being surrounded by his friends and young companions while the story was told delighted him. He, with Diego and Don Felipe, rushed pell-mell into the long dormitory, simple as a barrack, where the pages slept on their hard, narrow beds. But they were not sleeping. They were gathered in groups at the narrow windows trying to make out from the commotion in the courtyard what had happened. When the door opened the dormitory was quite dark, but Prince Juan, seizing with his own hands a lamp that hung from the wall outside, carried it into the large, bare room. The three were greeted with shouts of delight, for when alone with Prince Juan, he was treated as a friend and comrade rather than a prince. Prince Juan, putting the lamp on the table, and with the twenty pages around it, began to examine the pictures that Don Felipe had drawn and painted, and to listen breathlessly to the story of what they had seen. When the gray dawn crept in at the windows they were still gathered around the table, although the lamp had long since burnt itself out. Then, however, they scampered back to their beds, and Prince Juan ran to his apartment, for in a little while it would be time for the governor of the pages to glance in Prince Juan’s room and inspect the dormitory.