d are said
to have insulted several persons, particularly the members of the
council which existed immediately before the revolution; and in order to
save three of them from the fury of the mob, they were placed in
confinement for three days, and then liberated, with a proclamation
tending to exculpate them from all criminal charges, and explaining the
motives of their arrest.

The King meanwhile had resolved on returning to Lisbon, and on the 7th
of March he published a proclamation announcing his resolution, together
with an order for such deputies as should be elected by the time of his
departure, to go with him to attend the Cortes, and promising to find
means of conveying the rest when they should be ready.

Every thing now appeared to proceed in quiet. The preparations for His
Majesty's departure went on, and he resolved to take the opportunity of
the assembling of the electors on the 21st of April, to choose the
deputies to the Cortes, to submit to them the plan for the government of
Brazil which he had laid down, in order to receive their sanction.
These electors were assembled in the exchange, a handsome new building
on the shore, and thither a great concourse of people had flocked, some
purely from curiosity, some from a desire, imagining they had a right,
to express their opinion on so important a subject. The result of that
meeting was a deputation sent to the king, insisting on the adoption of
the entire Spanish constitution. The decree of the assembly received the
signature of the King. But the members of that assembly met again on the
22d, many of whom had no legal title to be present, and proceeded to
propose to stop the ships prepared for the King's return to Portugal.
Some went so far as to propose an examination of the vessels, in order
to stop the exportation of the quantity of wealth known to be on board
of them, and the meeting at length assumed so alarming an aspect, that
His Majesty revoked his royal consent to the act passed on the 21st, and
sent a body of soldiers to intimidate the assembly. Unhappily, an order
proceeding from some quarter, never known or never acknowledged, caused
the soldiers to fire into the exchange, where the unarmed and innocent
electors, as well as the others who had crowded thither, it might be,
with less pure motives, were assembled, but all were there on the faith
of the royal invitation given through the judge of the district.

About thirty persons were killed, man