upon her
bosom with increased rapidity.

The cries of the spectators roused Juancho from his stupor: he drew
hastily back, and waved the scarlet folds of the _muleta_ before the
eyes of the bull. The instinct of self-preservation, the pride of the
gladiator, struggled in his breast with the desire to watch Militona; a
moment's neglect, a glance on one side, might cost him his life. It was
an infernal predicament for a jealous man. To behold, beside the woman
he loved, a gay, handsome, and attentive rival, while he, in the middle
of a circus, the eyes of twelve thousand spectators riveted upon him,
had, within a few inches of his breast, the sharp horns of a ferocious
beast which, under pain of dishonour, he could only kill in a certain
manner and by a wound in a certain place.

The torero, once more master of the _jurisdiction_, as it is said in
tauromachian slang, settled himself firmly on his heels, and
manoeuvred with the muleta to make the bull lower his head.

"What could he say to her," thought Jauncho, "that young fellow on whom
she smiled so sweetly?" Swayed by the reflection, he again forgot his
formidable antagonist, and involuntarily raised his eyes. The bull,
profiting by the momentary inattention, rushed upon the man; the latter,
taken unawares, leaped backwards, and, by a mechanical movement, made a
thrust with his sword. Several inches of the blade entered, but in the
wrong place. The weapon met the bone; a furious movement of the bull
made it rebound from the wound amidst a spout of blood, and fall to the
ground some paces off. Juancho was disarmed, and the bull more dangerous
than ever, for the misdirected thrust had served but to exasperate him.
The chulos ran to the rescue, waving their pink and blue cloaks.
Militona grew pale; the old woman uttered lamentable ejaculations, and
sighed like a stranded whale. The public, beholding Juancho's
inconceivable awkwardness, commenced one of those tremendous uproars in
which the Spanish people excel: a perfect hurricane of insulting
epithets, of vociferations and maledictions. "Away with the dog!" was
shouted on all sides; "Down with the thief, the assassin! To the galleys
with him! To Ceuta! The clumsy butcher, to spoil such a noble beast!"
And so on, through the entire vocabulary of abuse which the Spanish
tongue so abundantly supplies. Juancho stood erect under the storm of
insult, biting his lips, and tearing with his right hand the lace frills
of his sh