"His Majesty, the scholars have already left. Their mouths have never been tight... What happened today in Pena Palace will likely not take long to reach Castile, to the court at Valladolid, and become known to the Catholic Monarchs in the east!..."
"Mm..."
"His Majesty, as the saying goes, before a conflict begins, one ought to think about how it will end. A rational man does not take a red cloth and provoke a bull gone mad. And the present situation is this: the Kingdom of Castile, owing enormous debts and driven to vicious extremes, is a violent bull..."
"Mm..."
"His Majesty, not everything that glitters is gold. The court's earlier judgment of Columbus was not wrong. Nor were the calculations of the nautical scholars wrong. What Columbus reached should absolutely not be India or Cipangu! Relying solely on a book written in eastern script may not truly prove anything. There are far too many possibilities as to this book's origins. You are a true monarch, possessing the virtues of both the Fox and the lion. Therefore, you need not be angry over this, nor regret it..."
"Mm..."
The sky had already dimmed, and the scholars had departed as well. In the empty Pena Palace, only the royal guards on watch remained, along with the King of Portugal, seated upright upon the stone throne, gazing at the palace murals.
John II looked at the former kings upon the wall, and the former kings gazed back at him. Gradually, the anger on his face vanished, and the gloom there dispersed as well. His reason had once more overcome his emotions, and he had again become, in the words of the Florentine scholar Machiavelli, a "perfect prince."
"Nuno, I am not angry, nor have I ever regretted it. I am only thinking—thinking