a padre, who
had just arrived at the village. I was curious to know who could be the
proprietor of the vacant seat, when the gentleman himself (an
acquaintance) entered, and asked me to take it. I did not require much
urging and, in taking it, turned first to the padre to acknowledge my
good fortune in obtaining it, which communication I thought he did not
receive quite as graciously as he might have done. The corrida opened
bravely; bulls were speared, blood flowed and men were tumbled over. I
had never taken so much pleasure in the opening scenes; but a storm was
gathering; the heavens put on black; clouds whirled through the air;
the men stood up, seeming anxious and vexed, and the ladies were uneasy
about their mantillas and headdresses. Darkness increased, but man and
beast went on fighting in the ring, and it had a wild and strange
effect, with the black clouds scudding above us, to look from the
fierce struggle up to the sea of anxious faxes on the other side of the
scaffold, and beyond, over the top, to the brilliant arch of a rainbow
illuminating with a single line the blackness of the sky. I pointed out
the rainbow to the lady as an indication that there would be no rain;
but the sign disappeared, a furious gust of wind swept over the frail
scaffold, the scalloped papers fluttered, shawls and handkerchief flew,
a few drops of rain fell, and in three minutes the Plaza de Toros was
empty. I had no umbrella to offer the lady; some ill-natured person
carried her off; and the matador de cochinos extended his poncha over
my head, and escorted me to a house, where I made a great discovery,
which everybody in the village knew except myself. The lady, whom I had
supposed to be a senorita, was a comprometida, or compromised, or, to
speak precisely, she was the compagnera of the padre who sat on the
other side of me.

I have omitted to mention that a great change, or, as it is sometimes
called in the country, a new reformation, is now going on in Yucatan,
not like the reformations got up by disorganizing laymen, which have,
at times, convulsed the whole Christian world, but peculiar and local,
and touching only the domestic relations of the padres. It may be known
to many of my readers that in the early ages of the Catholic Church
priests were not forbidden to marry. In process of time the pope, to
wean them from wordly ties, enjoined celibacy, and separation where
marriage had already taken place. The priests resisted,