376 Don Pedro and his Adherents. [APRIL, 



Don Pedro himself, who was seen disguised in the uniform of an officer of 

 the corps, personally directing the work of extermination. But it was 

 soon after the departure of his father, Don Joa5 the Sixth, and on his 

 assuming the regency of Brazil, that he threw off the mask, and stood 

 boldly forward to the world, as the violator of every sacred pledge, 

 human and divine. 



The prince kept up an active correspondence with his father. In 

 these letters, which do honour neither to the head or the heart of the 

 writer, and which were ordered to be printed at the time by the cortes 

 at Lisbon, Don Pedro dwells on the difficulties with which he was en- 

 vironed, and solicits his recal ; and, at a subsequent period, when his 

 own dark intrigues were on the eve of development, in order to lull 

 the suspicions of his betrayed father, he wrote to him a letter (of which 

 we shall make an extract), unique in its kind, even in the annals of 

 falsehood and duplicity : 



" They tell me that it is the general wish to proclaim me emperor. 

 Now, I protest to your majesty that I will never be perjured, that I 

 never will be false to you ; and should they attempt this madness, it 

 will only be after I and every other faithful Portuguese have been 

 hacked to pieces. This is what I swear to your majesty a solemn 

 oath, written in my blood, in the following words : ' I swear to be 

 always faithful to your majesty, and to the Portuguese nation and con- 

 stitution/ " 



" Queriao me e dizem que me querem acclamar Imperador. Protesto 

 a vossa majestade que nunca Ihe serei perjuro, que nunca Ihe serei falso, 

 e que elles farao esse locura, mas sera depois de Eu, e todos os Portu- 

 guezes estarem feitos em pedacos. He o que Juro a Vossa Majestade 1 

 escrevendo nesta com a meet sangre, estes sequintes palavras. Juro sem- 

 pre ser fiel a vossa majestade, o nacao, e ao constitui9ao Portugueza. 

 "4 de Octobre de 1821." " Palacio do Rio de Janeiro." 



The blood was scarcely dry with which this impious oath was writ- 

 ten, than this dutiful son and faithful subject expelled from the Rio, 

 the Portuguese garrison, under Jorge d'Avillez, whom he foresaw would 

 be barriers to his ambitious designs ; and ere the expiration of a year, 

 this perjured prince was emperor of Brazil, and that immense empire 

 forcibly separated from the crown of Portugal. A few months after 

 his elevation to the imperial throne, he forcibly overthrew that consti- 

 tution which he had solemnly sworn to defend ; and latterly, having by 

 his folly exhausted the patience, and alienated the affections of his 

 subjects, in attempting to depart from the fundamental principles of the 

 revolution, he lost at once his crown and his empire. 



THE MARQUIS DE PALME LLA. 



If we except the Austrian Metternich, or the Corsican Pozzo de 

 Borgo, in the well filled ranks of European diplomacy, we shall look 

 in vain for a more formidable enemy to the liberties of mankind than 

 Don Pedro Holstein, Marquis de Palmella one of the original 

 framers of the holy alliance. Europe, which sickens at his name, has 

 contemplated, with surprise and mistrust, this arch intriguer, this 

 ultra despot, for some months past, sacrificing at the shrine of consti- 



