g on one side, or, if too closely pressed, these
practiced athletes with a handspring leaped over the high board fence.
Whichever way he turned the bull met a fresh enemy and another device
of torment, until at last the poor creature was frantically mad. The
fight then became more earnest, the bull rushing first at one and
then another of his enemies, but the practiced fighters were too wary
for him; he could not change position so quickly as they could.
Finally, the bull turned his attention to the horses and made madly
first at the one which was nearest, and though he received a tearing
wound along his spine from the horseman's spear, he ripped the horse's
bowels open with his horns and threw him upon the ground, with his
rider under him. The men on foot rushed to the rescue and drew off the
bull by fresh attacks and by flaunting the flags before his eyes. In
the mean time, the rider was got out from beneath the horse, which lay
dying. The bull, finding that he could revenge himself on the horses,
transferred his attention to the other and threw him to the ground
with his rider, but received another long wound upon his own back.
Leaving the two horses lying nearly dead, the bull again turned upon
the banderilleros, rushing with such headlong speed at them that he
buried his sharp horns several inches in the timbers of the fence. It
was even a struggle for him to extract them. The purpose is not to
give the bull any fatal wounds, but to worry and torment him to the
last degree of endurance. This struggle was kept up for twenty minutes
or more, when the poor creature, bleeding from a hundred wounds,
seemed nearly exhausted. Then, at a sign from the director, there was
a grand flourish of trumpets, and the matador, a skillful swordsman
and the hero of the occasion, entered the ring to close with the bull,
singly. The other fighters withdrew and the matador advanced with a
scarlet flag in one hand and his naked sword in the other. The bull
stood at bay, too much worn by the fight and loss of blood to
voluntarily attack this single enemy. The matador advanced and lured
him to an attack by flaunting his flag. A few feeble rushes were made
by the bleeding animal, until, in a last effort to drive his horns
into this new enemy, he staggered heavily forward. This time the
matador did not leap to one side, but received the bull upon the point
of his Toledo blade, which was aimed at a spot just back of the horns,
where the brain m