breast is swell'd with pride,
Our arms all regular
Hanging down on either side.

With the guard on duty going,
Marching onward, here we are!
Sound, trumpets merrily blowing,
Ta ra ta ta ta ra ta ta!]

That is the way it goes, and this is the way it happens:

ACT I

Once upon a time there was a pretty girl named Michaela, and she was
as good as she was beautiful. She loved a corporal in the Spanish army
whose name was Don Jose. Now the corporal was a fairly good chap, but
he had been born thoughtless, and as a matter of fact he had lived
away from home for so long that he had half-forgotten his old mother
who lived a lonely life with Michaela.

One day, about noontime, the guard, waiting to be relieved by their
comrades, were on duty near the guard-house, which was situated in a
public square of Seville. As the soldiers sat about, or walked with
muskets over shoulders, their service was not especially wearisome,
because people were continually passing through the square, and
besides there was a cigarette factory on the other side of the
square, and when the factory hands tumbled out, about noon, there was
plenty of carousing and gaiety for an hour. Here in the square were
little donkeys with tinkling bells upon them, and donkeys carrying
packs upon their backs, and gentlemen in black velvet cloaks which
were thrown artistically over one shoulder, and with plumes on their
hats. Then, too, there were ragged folks who looked rather well,
nevertheless, since their rags were Spanish rags, and made a fine show
of bright colours.

Just as Morales, the officer of the guard, was finding the hot morning
rather slow, and wishing the factory bell would ring, and his brother
officer march his men in to relieve him, Michaela appeared. She had
come into the city from the home of Jose's mother, which was somewhere
near, in the hills. His old mother had become so lonely and worried,
not having heard from Jose for so long, that at last the girl had
undertaken to come down into the city, bearing a note from his mother,
and to seek him out at his barracks. She had inquired her way till she
found the square where the guard was quartered, and now, when she
entered it, Morales was the first to see her.

"That is a pretty girl," Morales decided as he watched her. "Seems to
be looking for some one--little strange in this part of the town,
probably. Can I do anything for you?" he called to her, as