Crossword-Solution: MULETA 6 letters, 10 clues 🏆 scrabble score: 8

The first great professional _espada_ (_i.e._ swordsman, the chief bull-fighter, who actually kills the bull) was Francisco Romero, of Ronda in Andalusia (about 1700), who introduced the _estoque_, the sword still used to kill the bull, and the _muleta_, the red flag carried by the _espada_ (see below), the spear falling into complete disuse.

The _espada_, taking his stand before the box of the president, holds aloft in his left hand sword and _muleta_ and in his right his hat, and in set phrases formally dedicates (_brinde_) the death of the bull to the president or some other personage of rank, finishing by tossing his hat behind his back and proceeding bareheaded to the work of killing the bull.

The _espada_, armed with the _estoque_, a sword with a heavy flat blade, brings the bull into the proper position by means of passes with the _muleta_, a small red silk flag mounted on a short staff, and then essays to kill him with a single thrust, delivered through the back of the neck close to the head and downward into the heart.

The _muleta_ is a straight two-foot stick over which the cape is draped, and, held in the _matador's_ left hand, usually is extended well to the right of his body.

But, with Sofia an onlooker, determined to make this the fight of his life, _El Tigre_ tossed aside the _muleta_, wrapped the crimson cape about his body, and stood alone awaiting the bull's charge, his malleable sword-blade bent slightly downward, sufficiently to give a true thrust behind the shoulder, a down-curve into heart or lungs.