e followed
another, the vivacity of the party increased. Many of the officers and
some of their fair friends were from Andalusia, where music and the
castinets are never heard in vain. Presently the tune was changed, and
the excited dancers slid over into the fandango and volero, danced out
to the life in so demonstrative, voluptuous and seducing a style, that
Mrs. Shortridge declared such exhibitions abominable, and that they
should be prohibited by law; while Lady Mabel shrinkingly looked on in
bewildered astonishment. She had herself danced many a time, though
not as often as she wished; but such dancing she had never dreamed of
before.

At this moment the sun set, and the bells of the churches and convents
across the water gave the signal for repeating the evening prayer to
the Virgin. In an instant the gay crowd was arrested as if by
magic. The music ceased; the dancers stood still; the women veiled
their faces with their fans; the men took off their hats; and all
breathed out or seemed to breathe a prayer to the protecting power who
had brought them to the close of another day--all but the English
officers, who, mingled with the devout dancers, stood looking like
profane fools caught without a prayer for the occasion. After a short
solemn pause, the men put on their hats, the women uncovered their
faces, the music again struck up, and the throng glided off into
gayety and revelry as before.

"I would not have lost this for any thing," Lady Mabel exclaimed; "It
is so sudden and extraordinary a transition from the wild abandonment
of revelry to absorbing devotion and back again to the revels. Without
seeing it, I could not have imagined it. I have before witnessed and,
at times, been impressed with this solemn call to the evening prayer,
misdirected though it be. But here the effect is utterly ridiculous,
to say the least."

"This may give you an insight into the Spanish character on more than
one point," said L'Isle. "As to their love of dancing, and of the
fandango in particular, it is said, though I do not vouch for it, that
the Church of Rome, scandalized that a country so renowned for the
purity of its faith, had not long ago proscribed so profane a dance,
resolved to pronounce the solemn condemnation of it. A consistory
assembled; the prosecution of the fandango was begun according to
rule, and a sentence was about to be thundered against it. But there
was a wise Spanish prelate present who knew his countr