LIFE IN RIO CONTINUED. 81 



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* * 



