Needless to add, a counter-association of bull-breeders had been forced into existence, which eventually, despite varied and particular personal interests unworthy of definition, united the opposition. Oh! it was a pretty quarrel and one in its essence peculiar to Spain. But it held the whole country engaged all winter in the throes of a semi-civil war!
At the first _corrida_ of the following season--held at Alicante January 18, 1909, and graced by the presence of King Alfonso XIII. in person--the public delivered their verdict, filling the Plaza to overflowing, although the whole of the six champions were of the condemned Miura breed and the matadors, Quinito and Rerre, belonged to the recalcitrant Seven. The bull-fighters' guild had received a fatal blow.
Such was the situation, the mental equilibrium between the fiercely contending factions, as the crucial period approached--the Easter _corridas_ at Seville. The _impresarios_ of that function, having full grip of the circumstance, engaged matadors of minor repute--Pepete, Moréno de Alcalá, and Martin Vasquez. All three, although but of second rank, were popular and regarded as coming men.
Flaming posters announced that six champions of the Miura breed would face the swordsmen.
The occasion was unique, and D. Eduardo Miura rose to meet it, presenting six bulls of incomparable beauty, magnificent in fine lines, in dash, brute-strength, and valour, yet utterly devoid (as the event proved) of guile or lurking treachery. Such animals as these six demanded a Romero, a Montes, or a Guerrita as equals; instead, these young _Toréros_ who faced them, courageous though they were, lacked calibre for such an undertaking. This _corrida_ marked an epoch, but it acquired the proportions of a catastrophe. The bye-word that "where there are bulls there are no matadors" became that afternoon an axiom.
A _gettatura_, or atmosphere of superstition, surrounded the bulls and unnerved or confounded their opponents. Pepete was caught by the first bull, Moréno de Alcalá by the fourth, while Martin Vasquez (already thrice caught) succumbed to the fifth.
The sixth bull thus remained unopposed champion of the Plaza--not a matador survived to face him, and it became necessary to entice an unfought bull (by means of trained oxen) to quit the arena--an event unprecedented in the age-long annals of Tauromachy!