A whole city full of people condensed into one broad amphitheatre, all
bearing a national resemblance to each other in countenance and
costume, all apparently animated by the same spirit--for nothing could
be more unanimous than the applause which greeted a favourite
smilingly crossing the arena, the abuse which overwhelmed an object
offensive to the eye of the many-headed, or the ridicule which
descended in a joyous uproarious flood on the hapless individual in
whose appearance, dress, or manner, anything was detected calculated
to appeal to the highly sensitive risible faculty of a Spanish
assembly;--a gay and picturesque mixture of colours, waving and
tossing like a garden in a breeze, as the masses of white mantillas,
heads black as coal, decorated with flowers and green leaves, red
sashes, tufted sombreros, and yellow gaiters, with here and there a
blue-and-white soldier standing stiffly up, were agitated by each new
emotion--such was the scene that met the eyes of our travellers on
entering the bull-ring at Cadiz before the sport commenced.
My grandfather had made his entry in spectacles--appendages highly
provocative of the public mirth--and had looked wonderingly for a
minute or two through the obnoxious glasses on a sea of faces
upturned, sideturned, and downturned, all looking at him, and all
shouting some indistinguishable chorus; while the men beat time, each
with the long, forked, painted stick, without which no Spaniard
possessing sentiments of propriety ever comes to a bull-fight, in a
manner most embarrassing to a somewhat bashful stranger, till their
attention was luckily diverted to an unhappy man in a white hat, in
derision of whom they immediately sang a song, the burden of which
was "El del sombrero blanco," (he of the white hat), the multitude
conducting itself throughout like one man.
My grandfather and his friends occupied a distinguished position
in a box high above the multitude, and near that of the alcalde.
The Senorita Juana looked more lovely than ever in a white dress,
over which flowed a white gauzy mantilla, giving a kind of misty
indistinctness to the wavy outlines of her figure, and the warm tint
of her neck and arms. From her masses of black hair peeped one spot of
vivid white, a rosebud; and a green plumy leaf, a favourite ornament
with Spanish girls, drooped, bending, and soft as a feather, on one
side of her gold-and-tortoiseshell comb. The Major sat beside Carlota,
who, naturally frank, and looking upon him now as an old acquaintance,
would tap his arm most bewitchingly with her fan when she wanted to
direct his attention to any object of interest. So the Major sat by
her, all gallantry and smiles, gazing about him with wonder through
the double gold eyeglass, which still, in spite of the late expression
of popular feeling, bestrid his nose. He looked with the interest of a
child at everything--at the faces and dresses around him, distinct in
their proximity, and at those, confused in their details by distance,
on the opposite side of the arena. He shared in the distress of an
unfortunate person (a contractor for bulls, who had palmed some bad
ones on the public) who tried, as he walked conspicuously across
the ring, to smile off a torrent of popular execration about as
successfully as a lady might attempt to ward off Niagara with her
parasol, and who was, as it were, washed out at an opposite door,
drenched and sodden with jeers. And when the folding-gates were
opened, and the gay procession entered, my grandfather gazed on it
with delight, and shouted "Bravo!" as enthusiastically as if he had
been an habitual frequenter of bull-rings from his earliest youth.
First came the espadas or matadores, their hair clubbed behind like a
woman's, dressed in bright-coloured jackets, and breeches seamed with
broad silver lace, white stockings, shoes fastened with immense
rosettes, and having their waists girt with silk sashes, bearing on
their arms the blood-coloured cloaks that were to lure the bull upon
the sword-point. Next followed the chulos, similarly attired; then the
picadores, riding stiffly, with padded legs, on their doomed steeds;
and mules, whose office it was to drag off the dead bulls and horses,
harnessed three abreast as in classic chariots, and almost hidden
under a mass of gay housings, closed the procession. Marching across
the middle of the ring to the alcalde's box, they requested permission
to begin, and, it being granted, the picadores stationed themselves at
equal distances from each other round the circumference of the arena.
Then, at a signal from the alcalde, two trumpeters in scarlet, behind
him, stood up and sounded--a man, standing with his hand ready on a
bolt in a door underneath, drew it, and pulled the door swiftly back,
shutting himself into a niche, as the dark space thus opened was
filled by the formidable figure of a bull, who, with glancing horns
and tail erect, bounded out, and, looking around during one fierce
brief pause, made straight at the first picador. The cavalier,
standing straight in his stirrups, his lance tucked firmly under his
arm, fixed the point fairly in the shoulder of the brute, who, never
pausing for that, straightway upset man and horse. Then my grandfather
might be seen stretching far over the front of his box, his eyes
staring on the prostrate picador, and his hands clenched above his
head, while he shouted, "By the Lord, sir, he'll be killed!" And when
a chulo, darting alongside, waved his cloak before the bull's eyes and
lured him away, the Major, drawing a long breath, turned to a calm
Spaniard beside him, and said, "By heaven, sir, 'twas the mercy of
Providence!"--but the Spaniard, taking his cigar from his mouth, and
expelling the smoke through his nostrils, merely said, "Bien esta"
('tis very well.) Meanwhile, the bull (who, like his predecessor in
the china-shop, seemed to have it all his own way) had run his horn
into the heart of a second horse, and the picador, perceiving from the
shivering of the wounded creature that the hurt was mortal, dismounted
in all haste, while the horse, giving one long, blundering stagger,
fell over and died, and was immediately stript of his accoutrements.
This my grandfather didn't like at all; but, seeing no kindred disgust
in the faces round him, he nerved himself, considering that it was a
soldier's business to look on wounds and death. He even beheld, with
tolerable firmness, the spectacle of a horse dashing blindfold and
riderless, and mad with fear and pain, against the barrier--rebounding
whence to the earth with a broken shoulder, it was forced again on its
three legs, and led stumbling from the ring. But when he saw another
horse raised to its feet, and, all ript open as it was, spurred to a
second assault, the Major, who hadn't the heart himself to hurt a fly,
could stand it no longer, but, feeling unwell, retired precipitately
from the scene. On reaching the door, he wrote over the same, with a
bit of chalk, part of the speech of Henry V., "the royal imp of fame,"
to his soldiers at Agincourt:--
"He that hath not stomach for the fight,
Let him depart----"
to the great astonishment of the two Spanish sentries, who gazed on
the words as if they contained a magical spell.
Frank sat till it was over--"played out the play." Not that he saw
much of the fight, however; he had eyes and speech for nothing but
Juana, and was able to indulge his _penchant_ without interruption, as
the little Governor took great interest in the fight, and the lover
with the silver fishes was a connoisseur in the sport, and laid bets
on the number of horses that each particular bull would kill with
great accuracy. So the Ensign had it all his own way, and, being by no
means the sort of person to throw away this or any other opportunity
with which fortune might favour him, got on quite as well, probably,
as you or I might have done in his place.
Leaving Cadiz next morning, they resumed the order of march they had
adopted in coming--Don Pablo riding, as before, in front with the
knight of the silver fishes, discussing with him the incidents of the
bull-ring. The old gentleman, though very courteous when addressing
the two Englishmen, had but little to say to them--neither did he
trouble himself to talk much to the ladies; and when he did, a sharp
expression would sometimes slip out, convincing Owen that he was
something of a domestic tyrant in private--a character by no means
inconsistent with the blandest demeanour in public. The Ensign was at
great pains to encourage the Major to be gracious to Carlota. "Get a
little more tropical in your looks, Major," he would say; "these
Spanish ladies are not accustomed to frigid glances. She's desperately
in love with you--pity she can't express what she feels; and she
mightn't like to trust an interpreter with her sentiments."
"Pooh, nonsense, boy," said the Major, colouring with pleasure, "she
doesn't care for an old fellow like me."
"Doesn't she?--see what her eyes say--that's what I call ocular
demonstration," quoth the Ensign. "If you don't return it, you're a
stock, a stone." Then he would say something to Carlota, causing her
eyes to sparkle, and canter on to rejoin Juana.
It was genial summer-time with Carlota--she had passed the age of
maiden diffidence, without having attained that of soured and faded
spinsterhood. She had a sort of jovial confidence in herself, and an
easy demeanour towards the male sex, such as is seen in widows. These
supposed advances of the Major were accordingly met by her rather more
than half-way. None but the Major was permitted to assist her into the
saddle, or to receive her plump form descending from it. None but the
Major was beckoned to her rein when the path was broken and perilous,
or caught on his protecting arm the pressure of her outstretched hand,
when her steed stumbled over the loose pebbles. None was repaid for a
slight courtesy by so many warm, confiding smiles as he. These,
following fast one on another, began to penetrate the rusty casing of
the Major's heart. On his own ground--that is, in his own quarters--he
could have given battle, successfully, to a score of such insidious
enemies: his books, his flowers, his pipe, his slippers, and a hundred
other Penates would have encircled him; but here, with all his strong
palisading of habit torn up and scattered, all his wonted trains of
ideas upset and routed by the novelty of situation and scenery, he lay
totally defenceless, and open to attack. The circumstance of himself
and Carlota being ignorant of each other's language, far from being an
obstacle to their mutual good-will, rather favoured its progress. In
company with an Englishwoman, in similar circumstances, my grandfather
would have considered himself bound to entertain her with his
conversation, and, perhaps, have spoiled all by trying to make himself
agreeable--it would have been a tax on the patience of both: but being
absolved from any such duty in the present instance, he could without
awkwardness ride onward in full and silent communion with his own
thoughts, and enjoy the pleasure of being smiled upon without being
at any pains to earn it.
His note-book, containing an account of the expedition, which I have
seen--and whence, indeed, the greater part of this chronicle is
gathered--exhibits, at this period of the journey, sufficient proof
that the Major enjoyed this new state of being extremely, and felt
his intellect, his heart, and his stomach all stimulated at once.
"Spain," says my grandfather, in a compendious descriptive sentence,
"is a country of garlicky odours, of dirty contentment, of XXXX
overburthened donkeys, and of excellent pork; but a fine air in the
hills, and the country much sweeter than the towns. The people don't
seem to know what comfort is, or cleanliness, but are nevertheless
very contented in their ignorance. My saddle is bad, I think, for
I dismounted very sore to-day. The Senorita mighty pleasant and
gracious. I entertain a great regard for her--no doubt a sensible
woman, as well as a handsome. A pig to-day at breakfast, the best
I have tasted in Spain."
The desultory style of the composition of these notes prevents me
from quoting largely from them. Statistics, incidents of travel,
philosophic reflections, and the state of his digestive organs, are
all chronicled indiscriminately. But, from the above mixture of
sentiments, it will be perceived that the Major's admiration for
Carlota was of a sober nature, by no means ardent or Quixotic, and
pretty much on a par with his passion for pig.
This was far from being the case with Garry, who became more and more
enamoured every hour. The Spanish lover continued to conduct himself
as if he had been married to Juana for twenty years, never troubling
himself to be particularly agreeable or attentive, for which obliging
conduct Garry felt very grateful to him. The Major had been too long
accustomed to witness Owen's philanderings to see anything peculiar in
the present case, till his attention was attracted by a little
incident he accidentally witnessed. After the last halt they made
before reaching Tarifa, Garry was, as usual, at hand, to assist Juana
to her saddle. Her horse was fastened in a thicket of oleanders, whose
flowers and leaves formed a screen such as Cupid himself might have
planted. Garry seized the charming opportunity to offer to re-tie the
ribbons of her hat, which was very considerate; for, to tie them
herself, she would have been obliged to take off her gloves, which
would have been a great trouble. Having done so, still retaining his
hold of the strings, he glanced quickly around, and then drew her
blooming face towards his own till their lips met--for which piece of
impudence he only suffered the slight penalty of a gentle tap with her
whip. My grandfather discreetly and modestly withdrew his eyes, but he
was not the only observer. He of the silver fishes was regarding them
with a fixed look from among some neighbouring trees, where he had
tethered his horse. Probably the Spaniard, with all his indifference,
thought this was carrying matters a little too far, for, after
conversing a moment with the Governor, he took his place at Juana's
side, and did not again quit it till they arrived at Tarifa. Then both
he and the Governor took leave of our travellers with a cold civility,
defying all Garry's attempts to thaw it, and seeming to forbid all
prospect of a speedy renewal of the acquaintance.