"Ah! the governor has a daughter, and Donna Antonia has beautiful eyes," observed the visitor with a meaning smile, which it was well that Inez did not see.
"The evil eye, the evil eye!" exclaimed the poor girl with pa.s.sionate emotion; "would that Alcala had never, never met their basilisk glance! It is not her wealth that he cares for,--that wealth which draws round Antonia so many idle worshippers, like moths round a flame!"
"I have heard that one of these suitors insulted De Aguilera in her presence," said Donna Maria.
"One whose ancestors would have deemed it an honour to hold the stirrup of an Aguilera disputed with Alcala the privilege of handing Donna Antonia into her galley on the Guadalquivir," said Inez. ""The hand that had accepted payment for clerk"s work," sneered the courtier, "has no right to touch a lady"s white glove." Then Alcala fired up at the taunt; it had stung him to the quick. He was roused to speak of his fathers, of their triumphs over the Moors, and to tell how one of our race had gained a chain of gold from Queen Joanna for spearing a huge bull at a _gran foncion_ held in her presence. "It is pity," said the mocking Don Riaz, "that in these days caballeros are content to win money, though their fathers only cared to win fame."
Alcala was goaded by the taunt into saying that he was as ready as was ever an Aguilera to ride in the bull-ring, and break a lance for the smile of a lady."
"And they actually nailed him to a word so hastily spoken?" asked the visitor eagerly.
"Ay," replied Inez bitterly; "though every one knows that caballeros never now encounter the bull, that the desperate struggle is left to picador and matador[7] trained and paid to expose their lives for the sport of the crowd."
"Did not Donna Antonia forbid her cavalier to attempt so rash an exploit?" asked Donna Maria.
"Forbid! oh no!" exclaimed the indignant Inez; "for an Aguilera to risk or to lose his life for her sake would be to her proud nature as the crowning triumph of her beauty! She will be there--Antonia will be in the Plaza de Toros, and she will look on with those calm, cruel eyes, whilst Alcala, my pride--my darling,"--Inez could not finish the sentence, but buried her face in her hands.
"Do not despair, _cara amiga_," said Donna Maria, laying her hand caressingly on the shoulder of the sobbing girl; "Donna Antonia de Rivadeo may see the triumph of your brother. Don Alcala is a good horseman, and a brave cavalier."
"Brave as a lion, and he rides like the Cid!" exclaimed Inez, raising her head, and speaking with animation. "But what will that avail him?"
she added sadly. "Alcala has had no training for the bull-ring, as had knights and gentlemen of old. They had active and powerful steeds; Alcala has but poor old Campeador, who bore our father ten years ago--good faithful Campeador, whom I have often fed from my hand!"
"But your brother will not be alone in the arena," suggested Donna Maria; "there will be the matadors, the picadors, the chulos,[8] to divert the bull"s attention, or to give him the _coup-de-grace_."
"May they come to the rescue! the blessing of all the saints be on them if they do!" cried Inez with fervour. "But oh! _amiga mia_, I hope little from those who make this horrible sport a profession. They are natural enemies of the caballero who dares to do for honour what they are trained to do for gold. These men are jealous, and they are cruel; is it not their very trade to torture and to kill? I never saw a bull-fight but once," continued Inez, speaking rapidly. "My father took me when I was a child; but he never ventured to take me again.
The sight--the horrible sight of the poor gored horses madly rushing round the circus in their agony haunted me for weeks,--it brought on a nervous fever! And how the scene comes back on my memory now in terrible distinctness! I long lay awake last night trying, but trying in vain, to drive away thought by repeating _aves_ and _credos_, till I dropped asleep at last, and then--and then," added Inez with a shudder, "I was in the dreadful arena! I saw the bull tearing onwards, the banderillas in his thick strong neck; with bloodshot eye, and head bent down, he made his furious charge! I shrieked so loud that I awoke my grandmother, who usually sleeps so soundly! I used to pity and grieve over her feebleness of mind,--I could almost envy it now; she is spared the horrors of my dream, and the worse misery of my waking!"
There was an oppressive silence for several seconds and then Donna Maria said, "Have you attempted to dissuade your brother from prosecuting this wild adventure?"
"Have I not?" exclaimed Donna Inez; "have I not knelt and clasped his knees, and implored as if for my life? I pained, but I could not move him; Alcala said that his honour was pledged."
"You have been preparing the picador costume," observed Donna Maria, glancing down at the embroidered jacket and scarlet scarf which lay beside her, faintly visible in the starlight.
"Yes; if Alcala must appear in the arena before all those gazing eyes, he shall appear as becomes an Aguilera," replied the Spanish maiden.
She did not dwell on the theme, or tell how much of her brother"s hardly-earned gains had been frittered away on that gaudy costume; nor how she had not only given the labour of her hands, but sacrificed every little silver ornament which she possessed to add to its value and beauty. Bitterly had the poor girl felt, as she plied her needle, that she was but, as it were, decking out a victim for slaughter.
"Don Alcala will look a goodly cavalier," observed Donna Maria in an encouraging tone. "We will pray the Madonna to give him success."
"I have wearied every saint with my prayers," sighed Inez de Aguilera, "and yet--hark! surely there is the sound of a ring!" and again she eagerly sprang to her feet.
"Your brother would not ring, but enter," suggested Donna Maria. "Poor child! how you are trembling!"
Inez was indeed trembling violently; she had to lean against a column for support, as the grating of the vestibule was unclosed, and not Alcala but Teresa appeared. The old servant bore in one hand a letter, in the other a lantern borrowed from Donna Maria"s attendant, who was waiting with her mule-carriage in the street. Inez had a presentiment that the missive was from her brother, and that his sending it was a sign that he was not coming himself. She took the letter from Teresa, and eagerly tore it open; for by the lantern"s light Inez recognized the handwriting of Alcala.
The brief note was as follows:--
"It is better, dearest, that we meet not again till all is over. Send Chico at dawn with Campeador and my dress to the Posada[9] de Quesada; he knows the place well. Kiss for me the hand of our venerable parent.
Farewell! a brother"s blessing be with you! Inez, you have been more than a sister to Alcala."
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The full costume of a picador.
[7] The picador is he who encounters the bull on horse-back. The matador meets him on foot, and gives the last stroke.
[8] Those who irritate the bull by sticking into him small darts with flags attached, called banderillas.
[9] An inn
CHAPTER V.
ANNOUNCEMENTS.
It has been seen that rumours of Alcala"s proposed venture had reached the ears of Lucius Lepine, but he had not been disposed to give full credence to such reports. Lucius had been long enough in Spain to be aware that in the nineteenth century it is as unusual for a Spanish n.o.bleman to take an active part in the bull-circus, as it would be for an English one to show off his strength in the prize-ring. The strange report was, however, painfully confirmed in the mind of Lucius when on that Sat.u.r.day evening he was proceeding on his way to the house of Mr.
Pa.s.smore, where he was engaged to take dinner.
A large lamp burning before an image of the Virgin Mary, at the corner of one of the narrow lanes through which Lucius was pa.s.sing, threw light on the opposite side, where a large s.p.a.ce of boarding had been taken advantage of by the bill-posters of Seville. It would have required less light to have deciphered the large red capital letters in which appeared the following announcement:--
"GRAND AND EXTRAORDINARY ATTRACTION.
"To-morrow, August --, 1868, the most n.o.ble and ill.u.s.trious caballero, Don Alcala de Aguilera, mounted on his superb charger, will encounter a bull of unequalled size and fierceness in the circus of the Coliseo."
The red letters seemed to swim before the eyes of Lucius Lepine. He stood as if rooted to the ground, till roused by a light touch on the shoulder. Turning round, he saw a stout personage, who from his black robe, huge hat with flaps turned up at the sides, and rosary with crucifix suspended from his neck, he knew to be one of the Spanish priests.
"Inglesito, mark _that_ well!" said the priest emphatically, pointing, ere he pa.s.sed on, to another placard which, printed in black and in smaller type, and therefore not so conspicuous, appeared close to the announcement of the bull-fight in the Plaza de Toros. The attention of Lucius being thus directed towards it, he read with surprise the following extraordinary charge from the Lord Bishop of Cadiz:--[10]
"The Enemy of mankind desists not from his infernal task of sowing tares in the field of the Great Husbandman, and to us it belongs, as sentinels of the advanced post of the house of Israel, to sound the alarm, lest his frauds and machinations should prevail. We say this, because we have read with profound grief, in a periodical lately published, that the Protestant Bible Societies and a.s.sociations for the distribution of bad books are redoubling their efforts for inoculating our Catholic Spain with the venom of their errors and destructive doctrines, selecting, in particular, our religious Andalusia as the field of their operations," &c. &c.
At another time such a placard as this would have been read by Lucius with intense interest, and would have wholly engrossed his thoughts for the time. Even under present circ.u.mstances, with his mind painfully preoccupied by anxiety for his friend, the charge of the Bishop of Cadiz left a deep impression on Lucius. Others then were actually doing the work from which he had shrunk. Others were coming forward, like Gideon"s three hundred heroes moving bravely on through the darkness. Already the lights which they bore must be flashing here and there; for Rome would not sound such a cry of alarm had she not heard the tramp of an enemy"s feet in her camp, and caught sight of gleams of evangelical truth carried into the midst of her hosts.
"There must be a movement going on, even in Seville," thought Lucius, "of which I never knew till this moment. Not all of my countrymen have been cold-hearted laggards like me."
Lucius, for once, arrived late for dinner, found the company already seated at table, and forgot to make an apology. Mr. Pa.s.smore, at the head of a board loaded with a repast more profuse than elegant, was too much engaged with his double occupation of eating and talking even to notice the entrance of his clerk. The familiar sound of the snorting laugh of his employer reached Lucius before he came into the room.
"Ho, ho, ho! it was a shabby trick in the cavalier to engage himself as a butcher, without giving due notice that he intended to leave the ironware business! And I paid the fine gentleman his quarter"s salary only last week! Don Alcala de Aguilera is no great loss to the firm, for he took his very pay with an air which seemed to say, "I"m a hidalgo, a gentleman born; I honour you too much by soiling my fingers with an Englishman"s dirty cash.""
"Aguilera has not a bad headpiece, though," observed one of the party.
"Oh, for a Spaniard he"s clever enough," replied Pa.s.smore, speaking with his mouth full; "had it not been for his ridiculous Spanish pride, the don would have made a fair man of business. Save in that matter of the translation yesterday;--I told you that capital story!
ho, ho, ho! I see now how twenty dozen bulls came to be running in the poor fellow"s head; no wonder that he looked pale at the idea of such an awful squad of the beasts!" Peter Pa.s.smore leant back in his chair, and laughed till he seemed to be in danger of suffocation.
"Aguilera will find one of them enough, and too much, I"m afraid,"
said the former speaker.
"Perhaps the don thought that he"d do a sharp bit of business,"
resumed Mr. Pa.s.smore, as soon as his explosive mirth had sufficiently subsided; "he"d contrive to get double pay for double work, by writing on week-days and fighting on Sundays. I wonder now what he"ll receive for sticking his bull!"