LITE IN RIO CONTINUED. 8l 
thrown out from a romantic-looking road, and as we found 
no carriage on the wharf, and ascertained that the boat did 
not return for two hours, we wandered up this road to see 
where chance would lead us. The afternoon would have 
been full of interest had it ended in the walk along the 
crescent-shaped bay, with the water rippling on the sands, 
and the mountains opposite all purple in the afternoon 
sunshine. The road brought us, however, to a magnifi- 
cent hospital for the insane, the hospital of Dom Pedro Se- 
gundo, which we had seen and admired from the deck of 
the steamer on the day of our arrival. We entered the 
grounds, and as the great door of the building was open 
and the official on guard looked by no means forbidding, 
we ascended the steps and went in. It is difficult to 
imagine an edifice more appropriate for the purpose to 
which it is devoted. It is true we saw only the public 
rooms and corridors, as a permit was required to enter 
the wards ; but a plan hanging near the entrance gave 
us an idea of the arrangement of the building, and its 
general aspect bore testimony to the cleanliness, cheerful- 
ness, and order of the establishment. Some of the public 
rooms were very handsome, especially one, at the end 
of which stands a statue of the boy Emperor, taken, 
no doubt, at the time of his coronation. In the man of 
forty you still recognize the frank, intelligent, manly face 
of the lad on whom such great responsibility was thrown 
at the age of fifteen. As we went up the spacious stair- 
case, the sound of music brought us to the door of the 
chapel, where the evening service was going on. Patients 
and nurses were kneeling together ; a choir of female 
voices was singing sweetly a calm, peaceful kind of 
music ; that somewhat monotonous chanting, so passion- 
4* F 
