The Red Track: A Story of Social Life in Mexico

by Gustave Aimard

The Mexicans, much resembling in this respect another nation we are acquainted with, adore feathers, aiguillettes, and, before all, embroidered uniforms. Hence the President was warmly greeted by the enthusiastic crowd, and his arrival was converted into an ovation. General Guerrero had joined the President's staff in his full dress uniform, as Colonel Lupo and other conspirators had also done; the rest, dispersed among the crowd, and well armed under their cloaks, were giving drink to the already half-intoxicated leperos, and secretly exciting them to begin an insurrection.

In the meanwhile the review went on without any hitch. It is true that the President restricted himself to riding along the front, and then ordering the troops to march past, for he did not dare, owing to the notorious ignorance of the officers and soldiers, risk the execution of any manoeuvre, for it would not have been understood, and would have broken the charm under which the spectators were fascinated. Then the President, still followed by his staff, proceeded to the cathedral. We will not say anything about the official receptions, etc., which occupied all the morning.

The hour for the bullfight arrived. Since the review no one troubled himself about the troops, who seemed to have suddenly disappeared—not a soldier was visible in the streets; but the people did not think of them, for they were letting off fireworks, laughing and shouting, which was quite sufficient to amuse them. It was only noticed that these soldiers, though invisible about the city, had apparently passed the word to each other to be present at the bullfight. Nearly the whole of the palcos de sol in the circus, that is to say, the parts exposed to the sun, were thronged with soldiers, grouped pell-mell with the leperos, and offering the most pleasant contrast with these ragged scamps, who were yelling and whistling.

The President arrived, and the circus was, in a second, invaded by the mob. Since an early hour the Jamaica had begun, that is to say, the framework of verdure raised in the centre of the arena, forming refreshment rooms, had, since daybreak, been filled with a countless number of leperos, who ate and drank with cries of ferocious delight.

Suddenly, at a given signal, the gate of the torril was opened, and a bull, embolado, rushed into the arena. Then began an extraordinary indescribable scene, resembling one of those diabolical meetings so admirably designed by Callot.

The leperos, surprised by the arrival of the bull, darted, shouting, pushing, and upsetting each other, over the framework, which they threw down and trampled underfoot in their terror, while seeking to escape the pursuit of the embolado, who, also excited by the tumult, hunted them vigorously. In a second the arena was deserted, the refreshment rooms swept clean, and the performers in the Jamaica sought any shelter they could find on the edge of the palcos or upon the columns, from which they hung in hideous yelling and grimacing clusters.

A few leperos, however, bolder than the rest, had darted to the Monte Parnasso, not only to find a shelter there, but also to tear away all the coloured handkerchiefs fastened to the branches. In a twinkling the thick foliage was hidden by the crowd of leperos who invaded it.

The bull, after amusing itself for some minutes in tossing about the remains of the framework, stopped and looked cunningly around, and soon noticed the tree, the only obstacle left to remove, in order to completely empty the arena.

It remained motionless for an instant, as if hesitating ere it formed a resolution; then it bowed its head, made the sand fly with its fore-feet, lashed its tail violently, and, rushing at the tree, dealt it repeated and powerful blows.

The leperos uttered a cry of despair. The tree, which was overladen, and incessantly sapped at its base by the bull, swayed, and at last fell sideways, carrying down in its fall the leperos clinging to the branches. The audience clapped their hands and broke into frenzied bravos, which changed into perfect yells of delight when a poor fellow, who was limping away, was suddenly caught up by the bull, and tossed ten feet high in the air.