and a serious agitation, which
now began, shortly after received the support of the army.

General Deodoro da Fonseca and General Floriano Peixoto placed
themselves at the head of the military malcontents, and it became clear
to the inhabitants of Brazil that a crisis was not far off. On November
14, 1889, some fifteen months after the Emperor had returned to his
country, the Imperial residence at Petropolis was surrounded by
soldiers, while the palace at Rio was taken possession of by other
troops.

The revolution was conducted in the simplest fashion. Beyond the arrest
of the Emperor and the wounding of the Baron de Ladario, the solitary
Minister who resisted, nothing happened--nothing, that is to say, of a
dramatic nature. Indeed, after the arrest, the chief work of the
revolutionists appears to have lain in the obliteration of Imperial
badges and the cutting out of similar tokens from their uniforms and
flags. The main population of the country appears to have regarded the
change with a most complete indifference.

Dom Pedro's personality appears to have retained somewhat of its
popularity up to the very last. He was sent to Portugal a few days after
the successful revolt, it is true, but it seems that this move was taken
rather because it appeared to be the traditional and proper thing to do
than from any dread of plotting on the part of the deposed monarch, who
was allowed to retain the whole of his property. In fact, in order to
show that no personal malice was intended, the new Republic pressed a
pension on the deposed monarch, which, however, was refused. Pedro II.
quitted the harbour of Rio on November 16, 1889, and with his person the
last trace of Iberian Monarchy vanished from South America.

CHAPTER XXI

MODERN BRAZIL

After the deportation of their third Monarch, the Brazilians settled
down to enjoy the advantages of an ideal and much-exalted Republican
Government; but it was not long before they encountered some sharp
disillusions. Their first President, General Don Manuel Deodoro de
Fonseca, who had been mainly responsible for the expulsion of the
Emperor, was installed immediately after Pedro's departure as head of
the Brazilian Government. He began by proving that a Republic in the
midst of unsettled political circumstances is, from its very nature,
almost invariably more autocratic than the ordinary empire.

Fonseca, a character sufficiently striking to merit individual mention,
was