The demented woman stopped. The orderly muttered "Bah!" and exclaimed "She knows how to patá Tagalog!" and stood looking at the señora full of surprise. The Muse understood that she had been caught, and was ashamed. As her nature was not that of a woman, her shame took the form of rage and hatred. She pointed out the door to the impudent orderly and with a kick closed it behind him. She took several turns about the room, twisting a whip between her nervous hands, and then, stopping suddenly in front of the demented woman, said in Spanish: "Dance!" The demented one did not move. "Dance! Dance!" she repeated in a threatening voice. The poor woman looked at the Señora, her eyes devoid of expression. The alfereza raised one arm and then the other, shaking them in a menacing way. She then leaped up in the air, and jumped around urging the other woman to imitate her. The band in the procession could be heard playing a slow, majestic march, but the Señora, leaping about furiously was keeping time to different music than that the band was playing, that music which resounded within her. A curious look appeared in the madwoman's eyes, and a weak smile moved her pale lips. She liked the Señora's dancing. The alfereza stopped dancing as if ashamed. She raised the whip, that terrible whip made in Ulango and improved by the alferez by winding wire around it, that same terrible whip which the ladrones and soldiers knew so well. "Now it is your turn to dance ... dance!" And she began to whip lightly the demented woman's bare feet. The pale face contracted with pain, and she was obliged to defend herself from the blows by her hands. "Come! Go ahead!" she exclaimed with savage delight, and she passed from lento to allegro-vivace in the use of her whip. The unhappy woman screamed and quickly raised her feet. "You have got to dance, you d----d Indian!" exclaimed the Señora and the whip whizzed and whistled. The woman let herself sink to the floor and tried to cover her legs with her hands, at the same time looking with wild eyes at her tormentor. Two heavy lashes on her back made her rise again. Now it was no longer a scream; it was a howl which escaped from the unfortunate woman. The thin shirt was torn, the skin broke open and the blood oozed out. The sight of blood excites a tiger; so, too, the sight of the blood of her victim infuriated Doña Consolacion. "Dance! dance! Curse you! D----n you! Dance! Cursed be the mother who bore you!" she cried. "Dance, or I'll kill you by whipping you to death!" Then the alfereza, taking the woman with one hand and whipping her with another, began to jump and dance.