We drove back to the hotel through two beautiful parks, “Del Retiro” and “Reservado.” After dinner we went to the Apollo to see a modern play “La Grande Via,” about which the town was raving. The theatre was packed to the very ceiling. I perceived in one of the boxes a very ugly Matador who did not at all resemble Carmen’s Toreador. After the second act I began to yawn, for the play was rather a bore, and the actors’ appearance very unattractive. Sergy proposed to go and spend the rest of the evening in a Music Hall where painted women were sitting in a circle, singing and shrieking in oriental fashion, accompanied on guitars by suspicious-looking individuals. The audience consisted of rather ferocious-looking Spaniards with hair which seemed to have never been touched by the comb and eyes blazing under their wide black sombreros, who had the air of demanding “Your money or your life!” The next morning we were again present at the ceremony of the change of watch, and saw General Pavia, the commandant of the town, enter the Palace, directing his steps to Queen Maria Christina’s private apartments, with his report in his hand. To-day it was the Red Hussars, mounted on white horses, and a detachment of infantry, who relieved the guard. When the big Palace clock struck half-past eleven, a piercing horn gave the signal for the beginning of the ceremony which lasted about an hour, whilst a military band played selections from “Faust” on the Square before the Palace. Fair women are in favour on the other side of the Pyrenees, as it appears; I was the only blonde person in the place and most of the officers were paying attention to me, especially one of them, a very good-looking chap who was throwing fiery glances at me all the time, but I pretended not to notice him and he got nothing for his pains. After luncheon, we left Madrid for Saragossa, where we arrived in the middle of the night. CHAPTER XLIII SARAGOSSA