The spectators, men, women and children, closely watch every move and double of the fighters. A _picador_ is thrown. The horse, with a ghastly dripping wound in its flank, rushes around the ring. It is met by the bull, gored, and tossed in the air. The wounded nag cannot regain its feet. Again and again the infuriated _toro_ vents its rage on the struggling horse. Presently, the bull's attention is drawn from the steed, and it turns to face the gaudy _matador_. A thrust of a dagger ends the convulsive kicking of the dying horse.
With scientific precision, the swordsman flutters his _muleta_ in the bull's face. At each charge the _matador_ bounds aside, and the beast worries the red rag. At length, _toro_ stands snorting and pawing the ground. The magnificent brute surveys his enemy with hatred, and makes another rush. Again it is thwarted. Finally, the sword is plunged deftly into the creature's viscera. _Toro_ trembles, falls, and lies prone. The _coup de grace_ is administered with a big knife. There is deafening applause, the strains of the band, and the dead bull is dragged from the ring by a team of mules.
'When I see children at the _corrida_, I sigh and think of the future of Spain,' said my Spanish friend. Such expression of opinion is almost treasonable. Long live the bull fight! Humanitarian cant is not to be taken seriously. It is not only the Spanish people who love the sport. 'There are no more enthusiastic patrons of the bull ring in Madrid,' writes Mr. H. C. Chatfield Taylor, author of _The Land of the Castanet_, 'than many of the foreign diplomats, and one remembers clearly the Secretary of the United States Legation, stationed in Madrid at the time of a former visit, saying that he was an annual subscriber, and had not missed a _corrida_ during his entire term of office.'
In Great Britain our nobility and gentle-folk breed racehorses. In Spain the aristocracy and grandees rear bulls for the ring. The breeders of bulls are termed _ganaderos_. Around Seville, Jerez, Huelva and Valladolid are born the _toros bravos_. At the age of one year the bulls selected for the arena are branded, and sent on to the plains to graze, in charge of a _conocedor_, who is assisted by an _ayudante_. When the bulls are two years of age, they are tried for the first time to prove their pluck and pugnacity. At four years old they are put into huge enclosures of good pasturage, and in time of scarcity they are fed upon vetches, maize and wheat. From five to seven _toro_ is warrantable for the _lidia_. At his trial, at the age of two years, the owner of the herd invites a number of friends to the ranche. Young and clever horsemen attend these trials, and vie with one another in courage. The _caballeros_ are armed with the _garrochas_, lances about twelve feet in length, with short steel points. Visitors to Seville may often see parties of mounted sportsmen returning from these _tentadores_, or trials.