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I mean to dedicate it to the Emperor of Brazil, who will soon receive copies of my last three operas, and all this will, I trust, realise enough to keep me out of harm's way for a time. Whether, after that, my "Nibelungen" will appeal to me again I cannot foresee; it depends upon moods over which I have no control. For once I have used violence against myself.
I have experienced, it has been solely from an anxious desire to promote his Majesty's real interests. Indeed, to struggle against prejudices, and at the same time against those in power whose prepossessions are at variance with the interests of his Majesty and the tranquillity and independence of Brazil, is a task to which I am by no means equal.
In the year 1822, he declared Brazil independent of the mother-country, promised the people a Constitution, and was at last proclaimed Emperor, by the title of Pedro the First. From the day when the nation tendered its allegiance, the Emperor and all patriots have worn on the left arm a green cockade inscribed with the words, "Independence or Death."
His services to Brazil, like his services to Chili, adding much to his renown as a disinterested champion of liberty and an unrivalled seaman and warrior, brought upon him personally little but trouble and misfortune. Only near the end of his life, when a worthy Emperor and honest ministers succeeded to power, was any recompence accorded to him.
More than that, in May, 1822, he accepted from the municipality of Rio de Janeiro the title of "Perpetual and Constitutional Defender of Brazil," and in a series of proclamations urged the people of the country to begin the great work of emancipation by forcibly resisting, if needful, any attempt at coercion. Pedro now believed the moment had come to take the final step.
I recollect; and a good man you are, I've been told, Barney; but I have lost sight of you for some years. Been on a long voyage, I suppose?" "Well, not 'xactly; but I've been on a long cruise, an' no mistake, in the woods o' Brazil I wos wrecked on the coast there, in the Firefly." "Ah, to be sure. I remember. And your young messmate here, was he with you?"
At their last session Congress were informed that some of the naval officers of that Empire had advanced and practiced upon principles in relation to blockades and to neutral navigation which we could not sanction, and which our commanders found it necessary to resist. It appears that they have not been sustained by the Government of Brazil itself.
While all this was happening in Brazil, the French had been finally driven out from Portugal, and King João VI. determined to return once more to his native country. On April 24 he sailed with the Royal Family, leaving his son, Dom Pedro, as Governor of Brazil. Only a day or two before a disturbance had broken out in the capital.
Contrasted with these lamp-lustres of Barons of Brazil, how waned the gold lace of our barons of the frigate, the officers of the gun-room! and compared with the long, jewel-hilted rapiers of the Marquises, the little dirks of our cadets of noble houses the middies looked like gilded tenpenny nails in their girdles. But there they stood!
The strength of the Brazil water, which he took immediately before his appearance on the stage, grows fainter and fainter. This glass, like the first glass in which he brings forth his claret, is washed, the better to represent the colour of the wine therein. The next he drinks comes forth sack from him, or according to that complexion.
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