ys armed with wooden muskets and pasteboard cartridge-boxes, and
followed by a squadron of hussars, also boys, with drawn sabres of wood,
not riding, but carrying pasteboard horses: each of these had a hole cut
in its saddle, through which the hussar thrust his feet, relieving the
charger from any actual necessity of making use of his own--though, to
show its high blood and mettlesome quality, each emulated his fellow in
prancing, rearing, and kicking with front and hind-legs, to the no small
danger of discomfiting the parade order of the squadron. To this
redoubtable army succeeded a party of giants two fathoms high, dressed
in the very extremity of fashion, the upper part of their bodies being
represented in pasteboard, accompanied by ladies elegantly attired, and
of nearly equal dimensions, and by some very small dwarfs: the business
of this whole group was to entertain the populace with pantomimic
gestures, and comic dances. Next came all sorts of animals, lions,
bears, oxen, &c. of a size sufficiently gigantic to conceal a man in
each leg. Then, with grave and dignified deportment, marched Don Quixote
and his faithful Sancho. To the question, what the honourable Knight of
the Rueful Countenance was doing there, somebody replied that he
represented the inhabitants of Manilla, who were just then mistaking a
windmill for a giant. The hero of Cervantes was followed by a body of
military, seemingly marching under his command; and after them came two
hundred young girls from the different provinces of the Philippine
Islands, richly and tastefully attired in their various local costumes.
Fifty of these young graces drew the triumphal car, richly gilt, and
hung with scarlet velvet, which contained the picture of Ferdinand. Not
content with the mantle the painter had given him, they had hung round
him a real mantle of purple velvet embroidered with gold. By his side,
and seated on a globe, was a tall female form dressed in white, with an
open book in one hand, and in the other a wand, pointing towards the
portrait. This figure was to represent the Muse of History:--may she one
day cast a glance of friendly retrospection on the prototype of her
pictured companion! A body of cavalry followed the car, and the
carriages of the most distinguished inhabitants of the place closed the
procession. Several Chinese triumphal arches crossed the streets,
through which the retinue passed; they were temporary erections of wood,
occupying th