plified in a spirited and picturesque, but very _French_
narrative, of an extensive ramble in Spain, published about four years
ago. He has now again drawn upon his Peninsular experience to produce a
tale illustrative of Spanish life and manners, chiefly in the lower
classes of society. His hero is a bull-fighter, his heroine a
_grisette_. Of bull-fights, especially within the last few years, one
has heard enough and to spare, since every literary traveller in Spain
thinks it incumbent on him to describe them. But this is the first
instance we remember where the incidents of the bull-ring, and the
exploits and peculiarities of its gladiators, are taken as groundwork
for a romantic tale. The attempt has been crowned with very considerable
success.

The construction of M. Gautier's little romance is simple and
inartificial, the incidents are spirited, the style is fresh and
pleasant. Its character is quite Spanish, and one cannot doubt the
author's personal acquaintance with the scenes and types he
sketches--although here and there he has smoothed down with a little
French polish the rugged angles of Spanish nationality, and in other
places he may be accused of melodramatising rather over much. Through
the varnish which it is the novelist's privilege to lay on with a more
or less sparing brush, we obtain many interesting and correct glimpses
of classes of people whose habits and customs are unknown to foreigners,
and are likely to continue so, in great measure, until the appearance of
Spanish writers able and willing to depict them. The three principal
personages of the tale--the only important ones--are, a young gentleman
of Madrid, a bull-fighter named Juancho, and an orphan girl of humble
birth and great beauty. The story hinges upon the rivalry of the
gentleman and the _torero_ for the good graces of the grisette. There is
a secondary plot, associated and partly interwoven with the principal
one, but which serves little purpose, save that of prolonging a short
tale into a volume. It will scarcely be necessary to refer to it in
sketching the trials of the gentle Militona, and the feats and
misfortunes of the intrepid and unhappy Juancho.

It was on a June afternoon of the year 184--that Don Andres de
Salcedo--a cavalier of good family, competent fortune, handsome
exterior, amiable character, and four-and-twenty years of age--emerged
from a house in the Calle San Bernardo at Madrid, where he had passed a
wearisome hou