Maryland independent. [volume] (Port Tobacco, Md.) 1874-current, 1892-02-05
THE SMUGGLERS.

ILL DIM
On the French frontier, opposit,
Spain, stands the town of Querterac
like a Watchdog guarding the en-
trance to tho valley, and on either
side, the mountains which seem tc
have been gashed just here, continue
their monotonous way as far as eye
can reach.
Querterac is very old town con-
tanning 5000 inhabitants; in former
days it was fortified. isolated and diff
ficult to approach.
Up in the neighboring mountains
live a people whose reputation is as
doubtful as their nationality-a much
mixed race, ten times crossed with
Gascons, Basques, Galatians and Bohc-
mians-and their favorite occupation
is highway robbery, or smuggling, to
say the least. For this reason, as well
us because of the situation of the
town, the custom-house of Querterac
is one of special Importance. Frontier
guards keep continual watch over the
narrow valley which forms the only
passage between the two countries.
there being nothing but lofty peaks
and dangerous ravines for many
leagues on either side.
Towards the middle of this century,
wind from Africa brought terror
France. Cholcral
The people were filled with con-
sternation. In Quertcrac, which was
one of the first to be attacked, nothing
was to be seen bnt empty, deserted
streets, and houses closed from Top to
bottom, as if in a state of siege. Those
persons who succumbed to the plague
received no help nor care, for Pity
was the first to die.
If a bcggar approached farm
house, he was greeted with a shower
of stones or gun-shots, and the dogs
were let loose upon him. Among the
peasantry, fear was complicated with
folly, and the people circulated absurd
:ales.
"The cholera is not as bad as il
Ieems," SAID they, "many persons be-
iieved to have Gied of it have in
reality been poisoned by enemies-a
mouthful of drugged water, slice of
bread sprinkled with arsenic-it does
not take much to kill one." Then the
people of the valley began to suspect
the mountaineers of being response lie
for the evil.
al hose vagabonds up there mean
to kill us ALL" they cried.
Among the custom-house officials
the pestilcnce found twenty victims in
a few days time. and those surviving,
stricken with fear, neglected their
duty of watching the frontier. One
of them only stood to his post, an old
sergeant named Valgenod. lie was
a born hunter, a customs-ofiicer by
nature, for he could scent smuggler
three hours in advance, and bundle
of contrab md tobacco three leagues
away would set him sneezing.
"lt would be absurd for an old
officer like me to die of the colicl" he
declared, and night and day lie
made his rounds as usual, doubled the
guards, took the place of those who
were struck down by the
general foe, and kept one eye I'M
ceasingly turned towards the noun
tains where the miscreants perchel,
hidden by their rocky homes. He knew
them very well and hundred times lie
had fired Oh them, when they had been
skulking about on dark nights. They
could not get the best of him, a.
though, perhaps, there was one he had
to watch continually, a gray beard
named Meritas. He and Valgenod had
had many a contest of wits together,
FOR Meritas was smuggler by tenn
permanent and instinct just as Valge-
nod was customs-ofiicers; it was his
vocation. 1t was impossible TO sur
prise him, and he had invented so
many tricks and strategems that he
was the acknowledged leader of the
whole band. Away up in the clefts
of the mountains he stored his mer-
chandise, tobacco, silks, skins, SPAN
ish laces anG spirits; and by little these
goods were brought into France.
"Confound that yalgenod-but fol
him-ah, but for himln the smugglcl
used TO say, longingly.
"That villain, Meritasl The day
after my death, he lie will bring the
whole of Madrid into Francel" was
the officers indignant exclamation,
And tho two men respected while they
! hated one another The Bohe'