"In a jungle in southern Brazil, an emperor who would prefer to be a teacher or a librarian watches in horror as a young soldier, who has just been slain, is carried off on the shoulders of a Guarani Indian.

This and other events in a brutal war that lasts for five years are among the important formative experiences in the life of a modern "prince of peace" who successfully resolves the problems of transforming a primitive empire into a modern republic, then abdicates his throne rather than face the prospect of a civil war that would pit Brazilian against Brazilian."--BOOK JACKET.