His Royal Highness, therefore, entered Villa Rica on the 9th of April, and on the magistrates and people attending to compliment him, he addressed them thus:-- "Brave Mineros! The shackles of despotism, which began to be loosened on the 24th of August in Porto, are now bursting in this province. Be free,--be constitutional! Unite with me, and proceed constitutionally. I rely entirely on you. Do you depend on me. Let not yourselves be deluded by those who seek the ruin of your province, and of the whole nation. Viva, The Constitutional King! Viva, Our Religion! Viva, All honest men! Viva, The Mineros!" [Note 95: On the 25th of May following a solemn mass was performed for the souls of those who had fallen on both sides, at the expense of the Bahians resident at Rio, in the church of San Francesco de Paulo. The cenotaph raised in the church was surrounded by inscriptions, in Latin and Portuguese; one of the most striking is, "Eternal glory to those who give their blood for their country." ("He quha dies for his cuntre Sal herbyrit intil bewyn be," says _Barbour_.) The day was one of those Brazilian rainy days, when it should seem another deluge was coming: but the Prince and Princess were the first at the ceremony.] The next day the Prince held a general court, and remained eleven days at Villa Rica. The only punishment inflicted on the conspirators, was suspension from their offices; and this royal visit attached this province to him, as firmly as those of St. Paul's and Rio. He returned to Rio de Janeiro on the 25th, where he was received in the most flattering manner, and where he became daily more popular; and on the 13th of May, King John's birth-day, the senate and people bestowed on him the title of Perpetual Defender of Brazil, and thenceforward his style was, CONSTITUTIONAL PRINCE REGENT, AND PERPETUAL DEFENDER OF THE KINGDOM OF BRAZIL. The impossibility of continuing united to Portugal had become daily more apparent. All the southern provinces were eager to declare their independence. Pernambuco and its dependencies had long manifested a similar feeling, and the province of Bahia was equally inclined to freedom although the city was full of Portuguese troops under Madeira, and receiving constant reinforcements and supplies from Lisbon. The Cortes seemed resolved on bringing matters to extremities; the language used in their sessions, with respect to the Prince, was highly indecent. Such commanders either by sea or land as obeyed him, unless by force, were declared traitors, and he was ordered home anew within four months, under pain of submitting to the future disposition of the Cortes; and they decreed that the whole means of government should be employed to enforce obedience. The Brazilian members did indeed remonstrate and protest formally against these proceedings; but they were over-ruled; and the spectators in the galleries, on one occasion, went so far as to cry, "Down with the Brazilian!"