Picadores and Matador 



thrusting for safety and for vengeance at either end. When 

 the struggle lasts long it is called " dormir sobre cl palo " 

 (to sleep upon the stick). 



At last the bull either goes away disheartened, or forcing 

 in the picador's guard, gores the horse deeply in the flank 

 as he swerves away. The other picadores do likewise. The 

 noble, patient horses go on at this work, bleeding bucketfuls 

 all the time, and some of them with their torn-out entrails 

 in festoons, till they drop down fainting from loss of blood. 

 Lying flat they do not bleed so fast, and recover their con- 

 sciousness to receive an occasional lift from the sharp horns, 

 as the bull in pursuit of his persecutors recognises in his 

 path the corse of a fallen foe. 



When the bull is getting tired the company call for the 

 matador. He is the smartest of the party. He marches 

 solemnly forward to make his bow in front of the 

 president's balcony, throws away his hat, and goes forth to 

 slay and make an end. His victim, sated with fruitless 

 victory over superior numbers, and weary of bloodshed, has 

 to be provoked with many flouts and indignities before he 

 will deign to engage in this single-handed and, seemingly, 

 insignificant combat. 



At last he comes. The matador whips a long gleaming 

 rapier out of the scarlet flag with which he draws the beast's 

 attention to his left, while, stepping to the right, he plunges 

 his sword through the left shoulder down into the heart. 

 For a few moments the bull staggers about, snorting little 

 crimson clouds, seeming bewildered by the new sensation 

 of dying. He soon feels how it is, and goes majestically 

 down on his knees, with his bold, broad face of honest 

 defiance towards his destroyer. 



The butcher now runs up behind, and strikes him with 

 his knife in the back of the head : the spine is separated 



114 



