Page:The Burton Holmes lectures; (IA burtonholmeslect04holm).pdf/326

 RESCUING A PICADOR

us murmur "cavallo muerto," "a dead horse," and we turn aside our faces, and then we look again that we may know the worst. The horse and rider are pushed by the blinded bull to the very limits of the ring; the picador is crushed against the barrier, and then lifted over it, unconscious, by his comrades, while the horse, at least free from his assailant, begins a frantic death-race around the arena, his entrails dragging, leaping high in his agony at every bound. Thrice does the bull arrest that mad career, charging and tossing the mutilated horse each time it dashes blindly past him. And this incident is considered comic by the vast audience. The people rise to their feet and laugh until the tears come to their eyes. The papers next day allude to it as an "original and amusing incident." Meantime the picador, recovering from a fainting spell, is led past us. Some one reproaches him for leaving