ar service. A
cavern in the cliffs at Sark was called then, and is still called, the
"Shops" ("Les Boutiques"), from its being the place where these
smugglers made their bargains with the purchasers of their merchandise.
This sort of traffic had in the Channel a dialect of its own, a
vocabulary of contraband technicalities now forgotten, and which was to
the Spanish what the "Levantine" is to the Italian.

On many parts of the English coast smuggling had a secret but cordial
understanding with legitimate and open commerce. It had access to the
house of more than one great financier, by the back-stairs it is true;
and its influence extended itself mysteriously through all the
commercial world, and the intricate ramifications of manufacturing
industry. Merchant on one side, smuggler on the other; such was the key
to the secret of many great fortunes. Seguin affirmed it of Bourgain,
Bourgain of Seguin. We do not vouch for their accusations; it is
possible that they were calumniating each other. However this may have
been, it is certain that the contraband trade, though hunted down by the
law, was flourishing enough in certain financial circles. It had
relations with "the very best society." Thus the brigand Mandrin, in
other days, found himself occasionally _tete-a-tete_ with the Count of
Charolais; for this underhand trade often contrived to put on a very
respectable appearance; kept a house of its own with an irreproachable
exterior.

All this necessitated a host of manoeuvres and connivances, which
required impenetrable secrecy. A contrabandist was entrusted with a good
many things, and knew how to keep them secret. An inviolable confidence
was the condition of his existence. The first quality, in fact, in a
smuggler was strict honour in his own circle. No discreetness, no
smuggling. Fraud has its secrets like the priest's confessional.

These secrets were indeed, as a rule, faithfully kept. The contrabandist
swore to betray nothing, and he kept his word; nobody was more
trustworthy than the genuine smuggler. The Judge Alcade of Oyarzun
captured a smuggler one day, and put him to torture to compel him to
disclose the name of the capitalist who secretly supported him. The
smuggler refused to tell. The capitalist in question was the Judge
Alcade himself. Of these two accomplices, the judge and the smuggler,
the one had been compelled, in order to appear in the eyes of the world
to fulfil the law, to put the other to th