Montes the Matador | Page 7

to kill, was not tired and
wouldn't keep quiet. Yet I went on trying. The game had a fascination
for me. A few days later, provided with a makeshift red capa, I got a
bull far away from the others. Then I played with him till he was tired
out. First I played as a chulo, and avoided his rushes by an inch or two
only; then, as banderillero, I escaped his stroke, and, as I did so, struck
his neck with two sticks. When he was tired I approached him with the
capa and found I could make him do what I pleased, stand crooked or
square in a moment, just as I liked. For I learned at once that as a rule
the bull rushes at the capa and not at the man who holds it. Some bulls,
however, are clever enough to charge the man. For weeks I kept up this
game, till one day my father expressed his surprise at the thin and

wretched appearance of the bulls. No wonder! The pasture ground had
been a ring to them and me for many a week.
"After this I had to play matador--the only part which had any interest
for me--without first tiring them. Then came a long series of new
experiences, which in time made me what I was, a real espada, but
which I can scarcely describe to you.
"For power over wild animals comes to a man, as it were, by leaps and
bounds. Of a sudden one finds he can make a bull do something which
the day before he could not make him do. It is all a matter of intimate
knowledge of the nature of the animal. Just as the shepherd, as I've
been told, knows the face of each sheep in a flock of a thousand,
though I can see no difference between the faces of sheep, which are all
alike stupid to me, so I came to know bulls, with a complete
understanding of the nature and temper of each one. It's just because I
can't tell you how I acquired this part of my knowledge that I was so
long-winded in explaining to you my first steps. What I knew more
than I have told you, will appear as I go on with my story, and that you
must believe or disbelieve as you think best."
"Oh," I cried, "you've explained everything so clearly, and thrown light
on so many things I didn't understand, that I shall believe whatever you
tell me."
Old Montes went on as if he hadn't heard my protestation:
"The next three years were intolerable to me: my stepmother repaid my
dislike with interest and found a hundred ways of making me
uncomfortable, without doing anything I could complain of and get
altered. In the spring of my nineteenth year I told my father I intended
to go to Madrid and become an espada. When he found he couldn't
induce me to stay, he said I might go. We parted, and I walked to
Seville; there I did odd jobs for a few weeks in connection with the
bull-ring, such as feeding the bulls, helping to separate them, and so
forth; and there I made an acquaintance who was afterwards a friend.
Juan Valdera was one of the cuadrilla of Girvalda, a matador of the
ordinary type. Juan was from Estramadura, and we could scarcely

understand each other at first; but he was kindly and careless and I took
a great liking to him. He was a fine man; tall, strong and handsome,
with short, dark, wavy hair and dark moustache, and great black eyes.
He liked me, I suppose, because I admired him and because I never
wearied of hearing him tell of his conquests among women and even
great ladies.
Of course I told him I wished to enter the ring, and he promised to help
me to get a place in Madrid where he knew many of the officials. 'You
may do well with the capa,' I remember he said condescendingly, 'or
even as a banderillero, but you'll never go further. You see, to be an
espada, as I intend to be, you must have height and strength,' and he
stretched his fine figure as he spoke. I acquiesced humbly enough. I felt
that perhaps he and my father were right, and I didn't know whether I
should ever have strength enough for the task of an espada. To be brief,
I saved a little money, and managed to get to Madrid late in the year,
too late for the bull-ring. Thinking over the matter I resolved to get
work in a blacksmith's shop, and at length succeeded. As I had thought,
the labour strengthened me greatly, and in the spring of my