Pascual Millan describes the bull-fight as “a grand spectacle in which art, bravery, nobility, light, sun, colour, animation, and beauty” all play a part. This writer asserts that the theories of bull-fighting can rarely be carried into practice, as there is nothing stable or fixed in the art. Pepe-Illo, a famous _espada_, wrote a treatise on the conduct of the fighter in the arena, which was highly interesting; but, had his views been put into practice, they would “have excluded every bull-fighter from the arena.” Señor Millan thinks that rules are impossible; that everything done in the ring is the outcome of inspiration on the spur of the moment. Lagartijo sums up the matter thus: “Bull-fighting is very simple: you place yourself in front of the bull, the bull comes and you move away; you do not move away, then the bull moves you away. And there you are.”
The directions as to moving aside when the bull charges are plain enough, and the counsel is obvious. But in the method of avoiding the horns of the bull lies the art of the _espada_, and in this movement he reveals his genius, and displays adroitness, grace, and daring. No proficient performer ever allows _toro_ to chase him about the ring. He bounds aside as the bull bears down upon him, and receives the furious attack of the beast upon the fluttering _muleta_. Sometimes the red cloth is waved aloft, high over the bull’s horns, causing the animal to rear upon his hind legs in a savage effort to wreak his rage on the offending _muleta_. An expert _torero_ knows perfectly well that the bull directs his fury at the fluttering cloth or cloak rather than at the man who manipulates it.
The boldest of bull-fighters, Espartero, stood so pluckily in the path of a charging bull that he was more than once thrown several yards by a violent butt from the beast’s horns. This fighter used to employ his fists upon the bull’s head, and his method was always to fight at the closest quarters. It was said that Espartero suffered more fear of hunger than of death by the horns of a bull; and in his desire for fame and wealth, he continually courted tragedy in the ring and behaved with reckless daring. Espartero was killed in 1894 during a fight with the first bull of the day.