The cathedral shone like a great jewel box, with gold and silver; a numerous and enthusiastic band played martial airs with all their might and main; and the Emperor, and the priests, and the dignitaries of the Empire, and the foreign ambassadors, standing meekly and foolishly in a row, like a class of school boys—and all the congregation, save and except some unterrified Californian, and the saints that stood in gold-and-silvery dignity around the sides of the cathedral, kept kneeling down and getting up again in the most unexpected manner.
After some time spent in this way, an ecclesiastic, richly dressed, climbed up into a sort of martin-house that stood on one side; and poking his head and shoulders out at the top, somewhat in the manner of those ingenious bouncing toys with which children are so deliciously frightened, he began to shout down to us below like a sweep on top of a chimney. But no one regarded him, though he doubtless talked very wisely, and in Latin, too; and, in fifteen minutes, he came down again, very warm and red in the face, and again the band struck up their music.
The long service being at length over, the Emperor left the cathedral, and passed through the whole length of his palace to the principal entrance, where a carriage was in readiness to convey him to his country-seat. Having handed his empress into the carriage as politely as if he had been only a private individual, he took his seat beside her; the door was closed, and the six horses instantly set off at full gallop, diagonally across the square, to the imminent danger of his loyal subjects, who had much ado to get out of the royal road. The whole scene reminded me very pleasantly of a picture I had often studied, with great interest, in somebody's geography, representing a nobleman—in Austria, I think—riding over a cripple, who held up his wooden leg bayonetwise against the frightened horses. When the emperor has thus swept away like a whirlwind, and his escort had gone galloping after him on diminutive horses, his suit also got into carriages, and followed, more soberly, in the same direction.
We spent Monday and Tuesday in wandering about the city, and in purchasing a few luxuries for use at sea. Wednesday morning, I went, with a small party, in one of the ship's boats, several miles up into one of the arms of the bay, for the purpose of buying oranges. Leaving the boat anchored a short distance from the beach, we struck into a narrow lane or footpath leading up into the country, and shut in, on both sides, by the queerest and most eccentric forest I had ever seen. Every tree, shrub, and flower was a most decided humourist, and had its own way of growing, entirely different from its neighbours. Instead of harmonizing with each other, like the twin quakers of a Northern forest, each one seemed trying to be as odd and outre as possible.
There were beauties there of every description, but they needed a cunning hand to sort and arrange them. The effect, though almost bewildering by its brilliancy, was not, in the end, agreeable to my plain republican notions. The eye is wearied by so much slovenly magnificence, such wasted prodigality, and ostentatious vanity; and would gladly turn to "the sober realm of leafless trees," even of our own November.
Walking a mile over the deep, fine sand, we came to the plantation to which we had been directed. The house, which was small and light, like a huge bird-cage of bamboo, stood in the midst of an orange orchard, where the fruit was hanging on the trees in the greatest profusion. The price demanded was twenty-five cents a hundred; we were to gather the oranges ourselves, and wherever we pleased, with the exception of half a dozen trees, the fruit of which, being of a higher flavour, was reserved by the owner for his own use. It was a very pleasant novelty—this picking oranges as though they had been apples—tasting one, here and there, and throwing it magnanimously away, if it were not quite first-rate; but we had little leisure for such pastimes. We selected the sweetest trees, and stopping only to pick the thickest of the fruit, we had collected by noon more than five thousand oranges, which we thought as many as our boat would hold.
After eating the dinner we had brought from the ship, we strolled off to a neighbouring plantation, where we found a similar bird-cage perched on a slight elevation, and its owner, a little, squat, bandy-legged Frenchman, engaged in drying coffee on mats spread before the door. He received us with the greatest cordiality; and after his heart was a little warmed by the wine he had compelled us to drink with him, he began to give us some account of his former history; and at length informed us that he had served in the armies of the great Emperor. Stripping up his sleeve, with characteristic vivacity, he exhibited the wounds he had received in his service, with as much pride and enthusiasm as if they had been the cross of the Legion of Honour. It seemed strangely incongruous to find one who had played a part, even though the humblest, in that stirring drama, mouldering away, like a forgotten firebrand, in this woody solitude, long after the fierce flame of battle had gone out on the field of Waterloo.
We were employed the whole afternoon in conveying our booty to the boat. After working hard all the morning, we found little romance in carrying one or two hundred oranges, in bags, on our heads, over the hot yielding sand; and there was a general exclamation of satisfaction when the last load came heavily down to the beach. We reached the ship long after sundown, and bid a final farewell to Rio the next morning.