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One could still read, twenty-three years ago, on a stone of the gate of
Otero, an untranslatable inscription--the words of the code outraging
propriety. In it, however, the shade of difference which existed between
the buyers and the stealers of children is very strongly marked. Here is
part of the inscription in somewhat rough Castillan, Aqui quedan las
orejas de los Comprachicos, y las bolsas de los robaniños, mientras que
se van ellos al trabajo de mar. You see the confiscation of ears, etc.,
did not prevent the owners going to the galleys. Whence followed a
general rout among all vagabonds. They started frightened; they arrived
trembling. On every shore in Europe their furtive advent was watched.
Impossible for such a band to embark with a child, since to disembark
with one was dangerous.
To lose the child was much simpler of accomplishment.
And this child, of whom we have caught a glimpse in the shadow of the
solitudes of Portland, by whom had he been cast away?
To all appearance by Comprachicos.
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