Litchfield enquirer., 1872-06-06
ALEcEMo OF cssRALTER.
CHAPTER III.

A whole city full of people condensed
 Into one broad aInphitheater, all bearing
 Q national resemblance to each other m
 countenance and costume, all apparently
 animated by the same spirit-for nothing
 could h&mcre unanimous than the ap-
 plause which greeted favorite smilingly
 crossing the arena, the abuse which over-
 whelmed an object offensive to the eye
 of the many-headed or the ridicule Which
 descended Ill joyous uproarious flood
 on the hapless individual in whose ap-
 pearence, dress or manner, any thing was
 detected calculated to appeal to the high
 ly sensitive risible faculty of Spanish
 assembly:-a gay and picturesque mix
 ture of eolors, waving and tossing like a
 garden in 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, blue and white soldier
 standing stifiy up, were agitated by each
 new emotiOn-such was the scene that
 met the eyes of our travellers on their en-
 tering the bull-ring at Cadiz before the
 sport commenced.
 My grandfather had made his entry in
 spectacies-appendages highly provoca-
 tive of the public mirth-and had looked
 wonderingly for minute or two through
 the obnoxious glasses on 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 whi0 no Spaniard possessing sentiments of propriety ever comes to bull fight, in a manner most embarrassing to Q somewhat bashful stranger, till their attention was luckily diverted to an unhappy man in a white hat, in derision of whom the immediately sang a song, the burthen of which was
 ''El de sombrero blanco," Che of the white hat,) the multitude conducting itself throughout like one man. -e>.+. -s
 My grandfather and his friends occu- pied distinguished position in a box high above the multitude, and near that of the alcalde. The Senorita Juana look ed more lovely than ever in white dress, over which flowed white gauzy mantilla, giving 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, @ rosebud; and 8 green plumy leaf, a favorite ornament with Spanish girls, dropped, bending, and soft as feather, on one side of hertgeid-andx comb. The Major sat Neside Carlota, who naturally frank, and locking upon him now as an old acquaintAne& would tap his arm most bewitchi4gly wis& her fan when she wanted to direct his, at tention to any object of interest. So the Major sat by her, all gallantry and smiles gazing about him with wonder through the double gold eyeglasses, which still, in spite of the late expression of popular feeling, bestrode his nose He looked with the interest of child at every thing at the. faces and dresses around him, distinct in theNproximity, and at those, confused in their details by distance, on the opposide of the arena He shared in the distress of an unfortunate person Ca. for bulls, who had palmed some bad ones on the pubhc) who t#ied, as he walked conspicuously across the ring, to smile off a, torrent of popular execration about as successfully as lady might at tempt to ward off Niagara with her para sol, and who was, as 1t were, washed out at an opposite door, drenched and sodden with jeers. And when the folding gates were opened, and the gay procession en- tered, ,.my grandfather gazed on it with delight, and shouted "Bravoi'' as if he had been a labitual frequenter of bull rings from his earliest youth. First came the espades or matadores, their hair club bed behind like a woman's, dressed in bright colored jackets and Meeches seam- ed 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 colored cloaks that were to lure the bull upon the sword point. Next followed the chulos, attired; then the picadores, rid ing stifiiy, 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 char iots, and almost hidden under a mass of gay housings, closed the procession. across the middle of the ring to the alcalde's box, they requested permis- sion to begin, and, it being granted, the picadores stationed themselves at equal distances from each other around the are na. Then, at signal from the. alcalde, two trumpeters in scarlet, behind him, stood up and sounded-a man, standing with his hand ready on holt in door drew 1t, and pulled the door swiftly back shutting himself into niche, as the dark space thus opened was filled by the formidable figure of bull, who. with glancing horns and tail erect, bound ed out, and, looking around during one brief pause, made straight at the first pic adore. The cavalier, standing straight in his stirrups, his lance tn cked 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 far over the front of his box. his eyes staring on the prostrate picadore and his hands clenched above his head. while he shouted, ssRy the Lord, sir, he1l be killed?" And when chulo, darting waved his cloak before the bulls eyes and lured him away, the Ma ior, drawing long breath, turned to a calm Spaniard beside him, and, and said,
 "By heaven sir, twas the mercy of Proyi- dence i'-but the Spaniard, taking his ci- gar from his mouth, and expelling the nostrils, merely said, 'sBien esta," ('tis very we'll Meanwhile the bull (wlio. like his predecessor in the china-shop. seemed to have it all our own way) had run his horn into the heart of second horse, and the picadore pereeiving 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 stripped of his accoutre- ments. This my grandfather didn't like al all; but, seeing no kindred disgust in the faces round him, considered that it was soldiers business to look on wounds and death. He even beheld, with tolera- ble firmness, thespectacle of a horse dash ing blindfold and lidefless, and mad with fear and pain, against the barrier-re- bounding whence to the earth with broken shoulder, it was forced again on it's 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 second assault, the Major, who hadn't the heart himself to hurt fly, could stand it no longer, but feeling un- we'll, retired precipitately from the scene.
 On reaching the, door he wrote over the same, with 8 bit of chalk, part of the speech of Henry V, ssthe royal imp of
 fame, to his soldiers at Agincourt: e s,
 s.He that hath not stomach for the fight.