the arena, and the herd of
onlookers climb feverishly back into safety.

There are three picadors on their sorry mounts standing round the fence,
but before these come a little knot of chulos, men with cloaks, inviting
the bull to a species of game of "touch." The chances are largely in
favour of the men here, for the cloaks are large, and can be fluttered
in the bull's face while the holder is two or three yards away. Besides,
a bull charges with closed eyes, and always attacks the cloak, not the
man. There are exceptions to this, but such exceptions give a new turn
to the fight, and moreover give work to the little surgeon in the
whitewashed room beyond the stables, and to the priest who attends
without for the peace of soul of those that may need him before the
sixth bull is slain.

Here, again, a matador, he who kills, will often take a cloak and show
the audience three or four artistic passes with it, as distinct from the
go-as-you-please way in which cloaks are wielded by the chulo. These
passes only allow the cloaker to miss the bull by a short breadth, and
are well defined and recognised by all connoisseurs. The bull has now
given up those wild rushes from a distance, and fences warily, evidently
much annoyed at the fruitlessness of his charges, and the impossibility
of driving his horns home in solid flesh. So out comes the picador on
his halting steed, and plants himself well away from the barrier, so
that he may not be thrown against it in the fall. His legs are cased
beneath the yellow leggings with sheet iron, for he cannot shield them
from the enemy's rush. Horsemanship is absent--there is no need for it.
To plant his lance, and fall without hurting himself, is the whole art
of a picador, and this part is the greatest blot on the performance. It
is merely an act of deliberate slaughter, for the horse is intended to
be killed, and will be kept there till it is killed.

[Illustration: "IT IS ONE OF THE MOST PERILOUS FEATS, THIS PLACING OF
DARTS."]

The horse always seems vaguely conscious of something wrong, though it
is not generally unmanageable. The other horses, while their comrade is
being done to death, often grow restive and frightened, though they are
unable to see what goes on. The bull seldom appears anxious to attack
the horse, but it is pushed forward under his nose, and the big picador
on top poises his lance aggressively. Then comes the short, plunging
charge, the shock of the short lance-p