There Were
Virtue, Valour, And Victory Saluting Don Emanuel:
Reading,
Writing, and Arithmetic (for what I know, or some mythologic
nymphs) dancing before Don Miguel - the picture is there still, at
the Ajuda; and ah me!
Where is poor Mig? Well, it is these State
lies and ceremonies that we persist in going to see; whereas a man
would have a much better insight into Portuguese manners, by
planting himself at a corner, like yonder beggar, and watching the
real transactions of the day.
A drive to Belem is the regular route practised by the traveller
who has to make only a short stay, and accordingly a couple of
carriages were provided for our party, and we were driven through
the long merry street of Belem, peopled by endless strings of
mules, - by thousands of gallegos, with water-barrels on their
shoulders, or lounging by the fountains to hire, - by the Lisbon and
Belem omnibuses, with four mules, jingling along at a good pace;
and it seemed to me to present a far more lively and cheerful,
though not so regular, an appearance as the stately quarters of the
city we had left behind us. The little shops were at full work -
the men brown, well-dressed, manly, and handsome: so much cannot,
I am sorry to say, be said for the ladies, of whom, with every
anxiety to do so, our party could not perceive a single good-
looking specimen all day. The noble blue Tagus accompanies you all
along these three miles of busy pleasant street, whereof the chief
charm, as I thought, was its look of genuine business - that
appearance of comfort which the cleverest Court-architect never
knows how to give.
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