As she passed the
yacht, all our flags were dipped and the guns fired. Then we could see
her rolling on the bar, for, calm as the water was in the bay, there
was a heavy swell outside; and then, all too soon, we lost sight of
her, as she sank,
' ... with all we love, below the verge.'
We heard to-day that, the Saturday before our first arrival at Rio,
the bar was quite impassable, even for a man-of-war, and that,
although she succeeded the next day, the sea was extremely rough.
On our return to the 'Sunbeam,' I went to bed to rest, and the
remainder of the party went ashore. A great many visitors came on
board in the course of the afternoon; some remained to dine with us.
At half-past nine we all went on shore again to a ball at the Casino,
the grand public room in Rio, to which we had been invited some days
ago. It seemed a splendid place, beautifully decorated in white and
gold and crimson, with frescoes and pictures let into the walls, and
surrounded by galleries. It is capable of containing fifteen hundred
persons, and I believe that there were even more than that number
present on the occasion of the ball given to the Duke of Edinburgh
some years ago. The arrangement of the large cloakrooms,
refreshment-rooms, and passages downstairs, and the balconies and
supper-rooms upstairs, is very convenient.
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