The imperial couple then placed themselves at a window
of the palace, while the troops defiled before them, with their
bands playing the most lively airs. It would be difficult to find
better dressed soldiers than those here: every private might easily
be mistaken for a lieutenant, or at least a non-commissioned
officer; but unluckily, their bearing, size, and colour, are greatly
out of keeping with the splendour of their uniform--a mere boy of
fourteen standing next to a full-grown, well-made man, a white
coming after a black, and so on.
The men are pressed into the service; the time of serving is from
four to six years.
I had heard and read a great deal in Europe of the natural
magnificence and luxury of the Brazils--of the ever clear and
smiling sky, and the extraordinary charm of the continual spring;
but though it is true that the vegetation is perhaps richer, and the
fruitfulness of the soil more luxuriant and vigorous than in any
other part of the world, and that every one who desires to see the
working of nature in its greatest force and incessant activity, must
come to Brazil; still it must not be thought that all is good and
beautiful, and that there is nothing which will not weaken the
magical effect of the first impression.
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