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[249] but little of the Duchess de Cadaval, the most distinguished and the most extraordinary woman in Portugal. She is daughter of the Duke of Luxembourg, and married the Duke de Cadaval, who was of the Braganza blood, and who, with the family of Lafoes and the family of the Duke of Wellington, had the only dukedoms in Portugal. . . .

The name of Cadaval is the great name in Portugal, and the people already look to it, as they did to the name of Braganza in the time of the Philips; and the intention of the wild conspiracy of Gomez Freire, in June, 1817, was to take the Duke of Cadaval, inexperienced as he is, and place him by violence upon the vacant throne. The Duchess, however, who is now, I suppose, about fifty years old, pale and feeble, but with an animated, original countenance, and strong, cautious talents covered by great elegance of manners and gentleness of disposition, has thus far kept all suspicion from finally attaching to herself or her son. Still, however, her very conduct and caution alarm the government. She sees no Portuguese society, and teaches her son to hold himself aloof from intercourse and observation; she keeps still more removed from foreigners; and though she received me with politeness and attention, because I brought her a pressing letter from her near relation, the Prince Laval, there was a sort of calculated elegance in her manner whenever I saw her, which was clearly intended for effect. . . . .

The only Portuguese families to which I could have gone with pleasure would have been Count d'alba's, that was too far off, and the Lacerdas, that had not come in from Cintra when I left Lisbon. But when I had a moment of time during the day, it was only necessary to go out and climb some of the hills in the city, and the beautiful prospects that everywhere abound came upon my heart like intimacy and kindness. Among other favorite spots, I went several times to the English burying-ground, beautiful in itself from its solemn neatness and from the cypresses, poplars, and elms with which it is planted, and still more so from the prospects it commands. It was stipulated for in the treaty Cromwell made in 1655, and all Protestants are now buried there. I saw a few names that I knew, among others those of Mrs. Humpbrey's father and mother, and that of Dr. Doddridge; but I sought in vain for Fielding's, who died here in 1754, and the tradition of whose grave is preserved only by Mr. Bell, and two or three other Englishmen in Lisbon, who take an interest in letters.1


1 The preceding thirty-five pages consist of Journal made up from notebooks, at his first leisure after the dates, as was his wont. See p. 86.

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