The Spanish Cavalier

ich, ten minutes previously, had passed the herd of fighting-bulls destined for the arena. Alcala saw the print of their hoofs in the dust; he noticed at no great distance the gleam of their horns a

asselled head, and pricked

d so, "does instinct tell you that there is death in that sound? You too will suffer from my

is brief and unsatisfactory colloquy with the herdsman, had turned off in a different direction, or he must have encountered h

ly have noticed the muleteer, had not the man, when the

er's stirrup, "I bear to you a letter from a se?orita." And the muletee

r gentle and yielding as was the nature of Inez, her brother had never yet known her fail in keeping her word, even in the face of opposition. If anything could have added to the misery of the young Spaniard, it was such a letter as this. For a moment it almost shook his firm resolution to brave out the consequences of his rash boast; for a m

message for me to tak

her own epistle; that token of her affection he would bear with him to the last. The muleteer guessed from his gesture that the cavalier wished to write, and saw that he had no writing materials save the pencil-case in his hand. The man supplied the want, in his own rough way, by stooping and picking up from the road a dusty fragment of paper which happened to be lying upon it. There was no opportu

pon her whose only fault is that of loving an ungrateful brother too well,

an auto-da-fé had ever gone to the stake erected in the Plaza more hopeless of deliverance than Alcala felt at that moment. His embroidered vestments were to him as t

. They recognized him as a picador by his peculiar dress, turned eagerly to loo

plendid he looks!" crie

spear deep into the tough hide of a bull,

I warrant you the picador knows how to manage his h

he ears of Alcala; he had urged his steed to a