Thousands of lights surrounded the posts, hung from the roof, or sowed the floor with pyramidal clusters.

An alguazil was looking after these, and when he came forward to attend to them the crowd shouted at him and whistled, "There he is! there he is!" In front of the curtain the orchestra players were tuning their instruments and playing preludes of airs.

Behind them was the space spoken of by the correspondent in his letter, where the leading citizens of the town, the Spaniards, and the rich visitors occupied rows of chairs.

The general public, the nameless rabble, filled up the rest of the place, some of them bringing benches on their shoulders not so much for seats as to make, up for their lack of stature.

This provoked noisy protests on the part of the benchless, so the offenders got down at once; but before long they were up again as if nothing had happened.
Goings and comings, cries, exclamations, bursts of laughter, a serpent-cracker turned loose, a firecracker set off--all contributed to swell the uproar.