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At last, however,after a prolonged combat, during which several of the hobby-horseswere gored through and through, and, their riders dismounted, theyoung Count of Tierra-Nueva brought the bull to his knees, andhaving obtained permission from the Infanta to give the COUP DEGRACE, he plunged his wooden sword into the neck of the animal withsuch violence that the head came right off, and disclosed thelaughing face of little Monsieur de Lorraine, the son of the FrenchAmbassador at Madrid.

The arena was then cleared amidst much applause, and the dead hobbyhorses dragged solemnly away by two Moorish pages in yellow and black liveries, and after a short interlude, during which a French posture-master performed upon the tightrope, some Italian puppets appeared in the semi-classical tragedy of SOPHONISBA on the stage of a small theatre that had been built up for the purpose. They acted so well, and their gestures were so extremely natural, that at the close of the play the eyes of the Infanta were quite dim with tears. Indeed some of the children really cried, and had to be comfortable with sweetmeats, and the Grand Inquisitor himself was so affected that he could not help saying to Don Pedro that it seemed to him intolerable that things made simply out of wood and coloured wax, and worked mechanically by wires, should be so unhappy and meet with such terrible misfortunes.