CHAPTER XVIII.

HIGH MASS-THE CATHEDRAL-DOLORES-BULL-FIGHT.

THE day so anxiously looked for came, with a pure atmosphere, and bright sun, and every thing seemed propitious. At the breakfast-table I sat next to a worthy pillar of the Church of England, a' vicar of some position. Without any previous knowledge of each other, we had struck up an acquaintance. I found him welleducated and intelligent, of course; this morning our principal topic of conversation was the approaching bull-fight. He had felt, he said, the greatest difficulty in determining whether to go or stay away. His desire ardently urged him to attend, his religious convictions condemned such a desecration of the Sabbath. But then on no other day could such a spectacle be commanded, and how could he return to England without having seen a bull-fight? As his eye seemed to demand my opinion, I told him that Sundays did not run in Spain, no more than according to Callum Beg, they did in the Highlands: "Sunday seldom cam aboon the Pass of Bally-Brough." At least, they were not such Sundays as he was accustomed to in England, and that if he thought he should derive more gratification than he would incur sin in attending, he ought to go, from a sense of duty he owed himself. I did not think, when I entered Spain, that among the novel situations

THE ENGLISH CLERGYMAN.

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in which I might be placed, I should be called upon to advise a Vicar of the Church of England as to his religious duties. But after some years of travel one ceases to be surprized at any thing save his own former greenness. If my apostolic friend had not determined to "assist at" the bull-fight, I doubt if there were any thing in my argument to justify him in so doing, and he seemed to think so, for he made no response to my suggestions. I said that I presumed he would attend High Mass, that I understood it would be performed with more than customary splendor, as the Duke and Duchess of Montpensier would be present. He replied: "Certainly not. I may do wrong in witnessing this bull-fight. I know I should in approving, by my presence, this superstitious ceremony." Here was another of my angular prejudices rounded off! A clergyman of a Christian church risks the degradation of his office in witnessing the massacre of beasts on the Sabbath day, while he objects to participate in prayers and religious services, which, being without the pale of his own Church, are necessarily superstitious! Alas! that this self-conceit should be the besetting sin of so many members of a religious institution, most eminent for its piety, its eloquence, and learning.

The cathedral is the largest in the kingdom, being four hundred and thirty one feet in length by three hundred and fifteen feet in breadth. Its center nave is one hundred and forty-five feet high, while at the transept dome it is one hundred and seventy-one feet. The pavement of black and white checkered marble is magnificent. Carvings by Juan Martinez Montañes, Alonzo Cano, and other sculptors; paintings by Juan Valdes Leal, by his greater rival, MURILLO, and artists nearly as eminent decorate the transepts, the chapels, and courts of the cathedral. As I entered, the enor

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DUKE DE MONTPENSIER.

mous organs were giving forth their volumes of solemn music, and the deep-swelling tones of the largest, with its five thousand three hundred pipes and uncounted stops, made themselves heard above all sounds. All Seville was present; royalty and nobility, the beggar and the sinner, the virtuous and the frail woman were all there, and all seeming equally devout.

His and Her Royal Highness were separated from ordinary Christians, as if there might be a royal road to heaven, though there be not to geometry. They occupied an apartment or inclosure very much larger than a box at the opera, handsomely decorated, and facing the altar and the spectators, so that their genuflections and their signs of the cross might be seen and imitated. He had strong motives for devotion: his marriage with the infante, which had done more than any thing else to precipitate his father (Louis Philippe) from the throne and to drive his family out of France, had secured him a nice little snuggery here in Spain; a nice little wife withal, who looked not unlike a daughter of the late Judge W of New Hampshire, and I was glad to see that he was earnestly intent upon the service, as if he was conscious of the great obligations he was under to his Maker.

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Mass having been performed, I lost no time in attending the rendezvous of the friar; nor did he keep me waiting long. He had seen the ladies, he said, and they were expecting us. The mother had at first refused her daughters' companionship to me; but on his guaranty that I was hombre de bien," and a friend to the Faith, she had finally consented. The Spanish language is fertile in extravagant phrases, is full of "ponderaçion,” and our friar did not stint himself when he spoke of the difficulty of success. Of course, I knew he was speaking for "the poor of his

order," " and when he made an end of talking, I gave him some pesetas, which he bagged without an attempt at unconsciousness.

We soon arrived at our destination-a small but neatlooking stone-house, not far from the ancient Alameda. On our ringing the bell, and giving the usual answer"gente de paz," literally "peaceful persons"-the door, unfastened within by means of a string (generally pulled from the second floor), turned on its hinges, and we entered. The girls were pretty, very pretty. The youngest had the Moorish eye, and a hand that never could have been intended for any thing but kisses.

It is not the pleasantest thing in the world to be in company with two pretty girls and be unable to converse in their language; and after I had exhausted the few expressions I had been able to summon to my assistance, and had received Dolores's promise to be ready for me at two o'clock that afternoon, I took ceremonious leave of the ladies-the friar remaining behind.

I never intentionally was guilty of the crime of making a lady wait, and I took good care to have my carriage at Dolores's door a few minutes before the appointed hour. She was dressed, and looking radiant with expectation. Her mantilla, fan and gloves were all perfect, and her tiny feet, "like little mice, stole in and out, as if they feared the light." Her eyelashes, long and heavy, half-concealed the eyes, making them appear like Cupid's artillery in ambuscade. Upon the whole, I felt myself going.

In the carriage, with her tête-à-tête, I got along much better than when in company with her mother and sister. I got rid gradually of my mauvaise honte, and as I found she seemed to understand me, I poured out all my Spanish without fear of ridicule. It is much easier to speak Spanish than French, because in the

former language every syllable is pronounced, while in the latter many a terminating syllable seems to be retained for no other purpose than a caudal decoration.

I addressed her as "hija mia"-my child; an affectionate expression not unpleasant to the muchachasand said some pretty things, which made her smile and flush; for in Spain young girls like to be told they are beautiful. So that by the time we arrived at the Plaza de Toros we had established quite a pleasant relationship between each other.

Although we reached the place an hour before the time appointed for the commencement of the performance, so vast and dense was the crowd at the entrance that it was only with the greatest difficulty and with much loss of time we got through. The entrance for the seats in the balcony was fortunately not the same as that for the uncovered seats, or we might not have got in before the performance.

Such a sea of heads I never beheld in one inclosure. Fifteen thousand persons were by accurate computation within the walls of the amphitheater-of every shade of color and every variety of costume. I saw the turbaned and dusky Moor; the fixed stare of the careless gitano; the fair-haired European; the thick-lipped African; and the Seville majo in all the extravagance of his attire. He is the Spanish swell; the b'hoy of Andalusia; the connoisseur in tauromachia; the intimate of bull-fighters; the gospel of the "aficion," whose jokes, even when practical, must not be resented, and whose decisions, though contradictory, must never be questioned. I gained much sal Andaluça, as pungent if not as delicate as 66 Attic salt," ," from my intercourse with the Seville majo; the majo fino, and muy cocido, -the noble and "well-boiled" majo-as contra-distin