第8章 THE BIRTHDAY OF THE INFANTA(3)

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 comforted 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.

An African juggler followed,who brought in a large flat basket covered with a red cloth,and having placed it in the centre of the arena,he took from his turban a curious reed pipe,and blew through it.In a few moments the cloth began to move,and as the pipe grew shriller and shriller two green and gold snakes put out their strange wedge-shaped heads and rose slowly up,swaying to and fro with the music as a plant sways in the water.The children,however,were rather frightened at their spotted hoods and quick darting tongues,and were much more pleased when the juggler made a tiny orange-tree grow out of the sand and bear pretty white blossoms and clusters of real fruit;and when he took the fan of the little daughter of the Marquess de Las-Torres,and changed it into a blue bird that flew all round the pavilion and sang,their delight and amazement knew no bounds.The solemn minuet,too,performed by the dancing boys from the church of Nuestra Senora Del Pilar,was charming.The Infanta had never before seen this wonderful ceremony which takes place every year at Maytime in front of the high altar of the Virgin,and in her honour;and indeed none of the royal family of Spain had entered the great cathedral of Saragossa since a mad priest,supposed by many to have been in the pay of Elizabeth of England,had tried to administer a poisoned wafer to the Prince of the Asturias.So she had known only by hearsay of 'Our Lady's Dance,'as it was called,and it certainly was a beautiful sight.The boys wore old-fashioned court dresses of white velvet,and their curious three-cornered hats were fringed with silver and surmounted with huge plumes of ostrich feathers,the dazzling whiteness of their costumes,as they moved about in the sunlight,being still more accentuated by their swarthy faces and long black hair.Everybody was fascinated by the grave dignity with which they moved through the intricate figures of the dance,and by the elaborate grace of their slow gestures,and stately bows,and when they had finished their performance and doffed their great plumed hats to the Infanta,she acknowledged their reverence with much courtesy,and made a vow that she would send a large wax candle to the shrine of Our Lady of Pilar in return for the pleasure that she had given her.

A troop of handsome Egyptians -as the gipsies were termed in those days -then advanced into the arena,and sitting down cross-legs,in a circle,began to play softly upon their zithers,moving their bodies to the tune,and humming,almost below their breath,a low dreamy air.When they caught sight of Don Pedro they scowled at him,and some of them looked terrified,for only a few weeks before he had had two of their tribe hanged for sorcery in the market-place at Seville,but the pretty Infanta charmed them as she leaned back peeping over her fan with her great blue eyes,and they felt sure that one so lovely as she was could never be cruel to anybody.

So they played on very gently and just touching the cords of the zithers with their long pointed nails,and their heads began to nod as though they were falling asleep.Suddenly,with a cry so shrill that all the children were startled and Don Pedro's hand clutched at the agate pommel of his dagger,they leapt to their feet and whirled madly round the enclosure beating their tambourines,and chaunting some wild love-song in their strange guttural language.

Then at another signal they all flung themselves again to the ground and lay there quite still,the dull strumming of the zithers being the only sound that broke the silence.After that they had done this several times,they disappeared for a moment and came back leading a brown shaggy bear by a chain,and carrying on their shoulders some little Barbary apes.The bear stood upon his head with the utmost gravity,and the wizened apes played all kinds of amusing tricks with two gipsy boys who seemed to be their masters,and fought with tiny swords,and fired off guns,and went through a regular soldier's drill just like the King's own bodyguard.In fact the gipsies were a great success.