The Steam-Packet: A Tale of the River and the Ocean — page 124: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

THE STEAM PACKET. O} Mount Cassel, which was already visible in the distance, a couple of sturdy-looking fellows, with blue smocks on their bodies, and huge sticks in their hands, suddenly crossed the road, followed by five or six dogs of a peculiar appearance. At the same moment two mounted gendarmes appeared in sight at an angle of the road; their bright sabre-sheaths, the trappings of their strong black horses, and their silver lace Btione: in the rays of themorning sun. The moment the two men in the blue smocks beheld the police-officers, they shook their sticks at them in a menacing manner, and then, pointing to their dogs, burst out into an ironical laugh. The gendarmes nodded their heads contemptuously and pursued their way; while the men struck into the fields which lay between the road and the Belgian frontier. Captain Pentonville had observed all that we have just related; and he now sought an explanation of the driver of the vehicle sated of which he was seated. The substance of the man’s answer was as follows :— ‘‘ Those two men with the blue smocks, sir, are smugglers ; and the gendarmes belong to the corps organised for the protection of the frontiers of the Department of the North, which joins Belgium. The smugglers import into France immense quantities of Belgian tobacco, which is considered to be better than our own: at all events it meets with a more ready sale. But the way in which the contraband system is carried on is extraordinary. Those smugglers seldom visit Belgium themselves: they train their dogs ina certain manner, so that — those poor dumb animals act the parts of go-between. The moment they get to within a mile or two of the frontier, those dogs are fed and caressed, and then sent into Belgium to some particular point, with which their instinct has made them familiar from practice. Arrived at that point, some Belgian confederates tie immense packages of tobacco upon the backs and under the bellies of the dogs, and then start them home again. By these means the customs are plundered to an immense extent; and the principal agents in the fraud are seldom discovered. The two men whom we saw just now are contrabandists ; but, as you perceived, they all at the gendarmes, whom they defy to bring the crime home to them.” Scarcely was this explanation given when the height of Mount Cassel developed itself in bold outline in the horizon. A number of large windmills upon the summit of the hill met the eyes of our travellers ; and as they advanced more nearly towards the place of their destination, the beauty of the adjacent country and distant scenery seemed to borrow new charms. At length, just as the clock of the town struck seven, the vehicles rolled along that part of the road which runs round the northern base of the lofty mountain; and in ten minutes more they. Gomicbooks (E(0)