V.
James II. tolerated the Comprachicos for the good reason that he madeuse of them; at least it happened that he did so more than once. We donot always disdain to use what we despise. This low trade, an excellentexpedient sometimes for the higher one which is called state policy, waswillingly left in a miserable state, but was not persecuted. There wasno surveillance, but a certain amount of attention. Thus much might beuseful--the law closed one eye, the king opened the other.
Sometimes the king went so far as to avow his complicity. These areaudacities of monarchical terrorism. The disfigured one was marked withthe fleur-de-lis; they took from him the mark of God; they put on himthe mark of the king. Jacob Astley, knight and baronet, lord of MeltonConstable, in the county of Norfolk, had in his family a child who hadbeen sold, and upon whose forehead the dealer had imprinted afleur-de-lis with a hot iron. In certain cases in which it was helddesirable to register for some reason the royal origin of the newposition made for the child, they used such means. England has alwaysdone us the honour to utilize, for her personal service, thefleur-de-lis.
The Comprachicos, allowing for the shade which divides a trade from afanaticism, were analogous to the Stranglers of India. They lived amongthemselves in gangs, and to facilitate their progress, affected somewhatof the merry-andrew. They encamped here and there, but they were graveand religious, bearing no affinity to other nomads, and incapable oftheft. The people for a long time wrongly confounded them with the Moorsof Spain and the Moors of China. The Moors of Spain were coiners, theMoors of China were thieves. There was nothing of the sort about theComprachicos; they were honest folk. Whatever you may think of them,they were sometimes sincerely scrupulous. They pushed open a door,entered, bargained for a child, paid, and departed. All was done withpropriety.
They were of all countries. Under the name of Comprachicos fraternizedEnglish, French, Castilians, Germans, Italians. A unity of idea, a unityof superstition, the pursuit of the same calling, make such fusions. Inthis fraternity of vagabonds, those of the Mediterranean seaboardrepresented the East, those of the Atlantic seaboard the West. ManyBasques conversed with many Irishmen. The Basque and the Irishmanunderstand each other--they speak the old Punic jargon; add to this theintimate relations of Catholic Ireland with Catholic Spain--relationssuch that they terminated by bringing to the gallows in London onealmost King of Ireland, the Celtic Lord de Brany; from which resultedthe conquest of the county of Leitrim.
The Comprachicos were rather a fellowship than a tribe; rather aresiduum than a fellowship. It was all the riffraff of the universe,having for their trade a crime. It was a sort of harlequin people, allcomposed of rags. To recruit a man was to sew on a tatter.
To wander was the Comprachicos' law of existence--to appear anddisappear. What is barely tolerated cannot take root. Even in thekingdoms where their business supplied the courts, and, on occasions,served as an auxiliary to the royal power, they were now and thensuddenly ill-treated. Kings made use of their art, and sent the artiststo the galleys. These inconsistencies belong to the ebb and flow ofroyal caprice. "For such is our pleasure."
A rolling stone and a roving trade gather no moss. The Comprachicos werepoor. They might have said what the lean and ragged witch observed, whenshe saw them setting fire to the stake, "Le jeu n'en vaut pas lachandelle." It is possible, nay probable (their chiefs remainingunknown), that the wholesale contractors in the trade were rich. Afterthe lapse of two centuries, it would be difficult to throw any light onthis point.
It was, as we have said, a fellowship. It had its laws, its oaths, itsformulae--it had almost its cabala. Any one nowadays wishing to know allabout the Comprachicos need only go into Biscaya or Galicia; there weremany Basques among them, and it is in those mountains that one hearstheir history. To this day the Comprachicos are spoken of at Oyarzun, atUrbistondo, at Leso, at Astigarraga. _Aguardate nino, que voy a llamaral Comprachicos_--Take care, child, or I'll call the Comprachicos--isthe cry with which mothers frighten their children in that country.
The Comprachicos, like the Zigeuner and the Gipsies, had appointedplaces for periodical meetings. From time to time their leadersconferred together. In the seventeenth century they had four principalpoints of rendezvous: one in Spain--the pass of Pancorbo; one inGermany--the glade called the Wicked Woman, near Diekirsch, where thereare two enigmatic bas-reliefs, representing a woman with a head and aman without one; one in France--the hill where was the colossal statueof Massue-la-Promesse in the old sacred wood of Borvo Tomona, nearBourbonne les Bains; one in England--behind the garden wall of WilliamChalloner, Squire of Gisborough in Cleveland, Yorkshire, behind thesquare tower and the great wing which is entered by an arched door.