ons to accompany me on board, when the keys of every
chest in the ship should be placed in their hands and every place
thrown open to inspection, but that, if any of his anti-Brazilian
administration ventured to board the ship in perpetration of the
contemplated insult, they would certainly be regarded as pirates and
treated as such; adding at the same time, 'Depend upon it, they are
not more my enemies than the enemies of your Majesty and the empire,
and an intrusion so unwarrantable the officers and crew are bound
to resist.' 'Well,' replied his Majesty, 'you seem to be apprised of
everything; but the plot is not mine, being, as far as I am concerned,
convinced that no money would be found more than we already know of
from yourself.' I then entreated his Majesty to take such steps for
my justification as would be satisfactory to the public. 'There is no
necessity for any,' he replied. 'But how to dispense with the review
is the puzzle. I will be ill in the morning; so go home and think
no more of the matter. I give you my word, your flag shall not be
outraged.' The Emperor kept his word, and in the night was taken
suddenly ill. As his Majesty was really beloved by his Brazilian
subjects, all the native respectability of Rio was early next day on
its way to the palace to inquire after the royal health, and ordering
my carriage, I also proceeded to the palace, lest my absence might
seem singular. On my entering the room,--where the Emperor was in
the act of explaining the nature of his disease to the anxious
inquirers,--his Majesty burst into a fit of uncontrollable laughter,
in which I as heartily joined, the bystanders evidently, from the
gravity of their countenances, considering that we had both taken
leave of our senses. The ministers looked astounded, but said nothing.
His Majesty kept his secret, and I was silent."

That anecdote fairly illustrates the treatment adopted towards Lord
Cochrane, and the straits to which the Emperor was reduced in his
efforts to protect him from his enemies in power. The ill-treatment
both of himself and of the whole fleet continuing, he addressed an
indignant protest to his Majesty in July. "The time has at length
arrived," he there said, "when it is impossible to doubt that the
influence which the Portuguese faction has so long exerted, with the
view of depriving the officers and seamen of their stipulated rights,
has succeeded in its object, and has even prevailed against the
exp