The _cazuela_, or gallery, is similar to the one at Astley's, except that it is not so large. It is appropriated to females alone. The keeping females thus crowded together in a theatre, and separated from their natural protectors, seems an abominable practice. A stranger is apt to form erroneous opinions of the fair occupants of the cazuela, and can scarcely believe that the most respectable are to be found there: but it is so; and husbands, brothers, and friends, wait for them at the gallery door. This custom, it is said, they inherit from the Moors. The _goddesses_ of the cazuela behave in the most orderly manner; much more so, I suspect, than my countrywomen would, similarly situated. Over the stage is inscribed the words--"_Es la Comedia Espejo de la Vida_." The Governor's box was close to the stage, on what in the London theatres is denominated the Prince's side of the house; and the _cabildo_, or box of the chief magistracy, was in front. But now the Governor's box is removed to what was the _cabildo_, and the English consul occupies the one lately the Governor's. The Governor, except on national days, seldom attends the theatre. That important personage, the prompter, has his little tub, as usual, in the middle of the stage, destroying all the illusion of the scene, and, from necessity, obliging the audience to hear him as well as the performers. Senor Zappucci, an Italian, intent, one evening, upon impressing the audience with the drollery of a comic song, fell through the prompter's hole; and the spectators began to consider whether this was a part of his song. Fortunately he was not hurt. The superior arrangement, in this respect, of the English theatres, might afford a lesson to the most prejudiced foreigners. The admittance is two reals to all parts of the house: but this does not include a seat. It is, therefore, necessary to take a whole box, or a single place in the pit (which costs three reals), in addition to the admission. Soldiers, who constitute every where the police of the city, were formerly stationed both inside and outside of the theatre; but this is no longer the case; and the eye of the republican citizen is not offended by their presence at places of public amusement. No refreshments are sold in the theatre; we never hear the "Choice fruit, ladies and gentlemen, and a bill of the play!" and the spectators in the pit are saved the nuisance of having the peelings of oranges and apples dropped upon them. But then they are not condemned to sit five or six hours, as in our theatres; three hours and a half is the utmost. The pit audience generally walk out between the acts, and reassume their seats without disturbance or difficulty. Smoking in the theatre is not allowed; but such charms has the segar, that they watch the opportunity of the absence of the police to smoke in the lobbies. The theatre continues open all the year round, with the exception of Lent; and then music is permitted.