Page:Vagabond life in Mexico.djvu/17

Rh get possession of such handkerchiefs as took their fancy; but the struggles of the one impeded the efforts of the other; the tree still remained standing, and not a single claimant had yet succeeded in even touching its trunk. At the same moment the bugle sounded in the box of the alcalde, the door of the toril was thrown open, and a magnificent bull, the best that the neighboring haciendas could furnish, came thundering into the arena. The spectators, who expected a more formidable animal, were somewhat disappointed when they saw an embolado. The aspiring laureates of Monte Parnaso were nevertheless somewhat scared and frightened. The bull, after standing with some hesitation, bounded with a gallop toward the tree, which was still standing. Some of the léperos ran away, and the others took refuge, one after another, in the branches of Monte Parnaso. The bull, having come to the foot of the tree, butted at it with repeated blows of his horns; it tottered; and at the very moment Perico was busily engaged in reaping an abundant harvest of pocket-handkerchiefs, it fell, dragging with it the men who were entangled in the branches. Roars of laughter and enthusiastic cheering arose from the ten thousand spectators in the galleries and boxes at sight of the unfortunate wretches, who, bruised and lamed, were seeking to escape from each other's grasp, and from the branches in which they were entangled. To add to the confusion, the bull, seeking no doubt to separate the black mass struggling on the ground, butted several of the unfortunate léperos with his horns, and, to my great sorrow, I saw Perico, launched ten feet into the air, fall to the ground in such a state of insensibility as to deprive me of all hope of completing my studies of Mexican life under so skillful a master.