our noses were
assailed more and more violently by that most evil smell. The priests, I
observed, had cotton stuffed in their nostrils; but for us there was
nothing for it but to hold our noses tightly with our hands.

El Sabio, who had a most generous and broadly open nose, and who was not
blest with hands to hold it fast with, grew restive as the first whiff
struck him; which resulted less, I suppose, from the intrinsic vileness
of the smell than from the fact that he, in common with all peace-loving
animals, had aroused in him an instinctive terror by the odor of blood.
Pablo's voice, and Pablo's touch, possibly might have soothed and
quieted him; but the efforts which the priests who were leading him made
to restrain him only served the more to terrify him, and so to increase
his violence. And the priests, who now for a considerable time had seen
him daily, and had known him only as the most gentle and biddable of
creatures, were mightily astonished, and evidently were terrified, by
this sudden outbreak of a fierce temper that most reasonably took them
entirely by surprise. Partly by pulling at the rope that they had about
his neck, and partly by such pushes as they dared to give him while he
was momentarily at rest, they succeeded in forcing him down the steps;
and so at last into the large circular space at the bottom of the
amphitheatre, in the midst of which stood the stone of sacrifice and
where the smell of blood was overpoweringly strong. But by the time that
this victory was won El Sabio had ceased to be a quiet orderly donkey,
accustomed to conform to the usages of human society, and had become a
veritable crazy creature, inflamed by the madness of fear and rage.

[Illustration: EL SABIO'S DEFIANCE]

By some miracle--a very happy miracle for those whom the poor ass most
naturally regarded as his tormentors--El Sabio's nimble heels had until
this moment lashed the air harmlessly; but just as the last step
downward was accomplished he let out both of his hind-legs together, and
with such precision that both of his hoofs struck a remarkably tall
priest who had taken a very active part in persecuting him. The blow was
landed fairly on the tall priest's stomach, and instantly the two long
halves of that priest shut together like a jack-knife, and he fell to
the ground with a gasp that told how thoroughly the wind was knocked out
of him. Doubtless this outburst of violence served but to increase El
Sabio's ter