The Republican and ultra-Liberal party, awed by the salutary treatment meted out to the Andradas, grew furious at the further energetic measures of the Emperor, for they saw in Dom Pedro's policy an attempt to gain absolute dominance. Open rebellion broke out all over the country, and a Republic was actually proclaimed in Pernambuco, Ceara, the northern provinces generally, and in the south. Uruguay for the last time revolted, and severed the tie which bound her to the Empire, having never since been subject to Brazil. [Illustration: PALACE AND GREAT SQUARE IN RIO DE JANEIRO. A century ago.] The moderate people wavered between the two sides. They saw in Republicanism only anarchy, while the Emperor's _coup d'etat_ inspired them with fear of his government. He himself, seeing that a striking move was necessary, sought the assistance of the Town Council of Rio, and with their aid adopted the Constitution he had drawn up, without submitting it to the Assembly. On March 24, 1824, he swore to the Constitution in public, trusting to the freedom and fairness which it embodied to gain him adherence. This move was perfectly successful, for wherever the Constitution was proclaimed the Republican party fell to pieces. The principles of the document were so simple, liberal, and practical, that the Republican party could not ask more than the Emperor gave. By this Pedro saved his throne, beyond doubt, and gradually the provincial authorities and the people of the country accepted the situation, and swore to observe the new Constitution. In the meanwhile a species of minor maritime warfare was carried on in the River Plate between the Brazilian fleet and the Argentine vessels commanded by Admiral Brown, in the course of which the Brazilians suffered not a little, and the prestige of the Imperial fleet in consequence diminished. On December 11, 1826, the Empress died in childbirth at the early age of twenty-nine. She had come out from Austria determined to make the ways of Brazil her own. On her first arrival she was considered lovely, and there is no doubt that her fair, clear complexion, blue eyes, and golden hair were immensely admired by folk themselves almost invariably possessed of raven locks. Some while after she had arrived in the country of her adoption the Empress is said to have neglected her personal appearance to a rather regrettable extent, adopting the ways of the Brazilian country-side rather than those of the capital. Thus she accustomed herself to large heavy boots adorned with enormous spurs, and would ride astride on a horse, her hair being suffered to hang loose about her face and shoulders. In fact, she paid not the slightest attention to those attractions with which Nature had endowed her. She was a being of intense charity and love, polished to a degree, an accomplished letter-writer, and a lover of the fine arts in general.