They were more than Christians, they were Catholics; they were more than Catholics, they were Romans, and so touchy in their faith, and so pure, that they refused to associate with the Hungarian nomads of the comitate of Pesth, commanded and led by an old man, having for sceptre a wand with a silver ball, surmounted by the double-headed Austrian eagle.  It is true that these Hungarians were schismatics, to the extent of celebrating the Assumption on the 29th August, which is an abomination.

In England, so long as the Stuarts reigned, the confederation of the Comprachicos was (for motives of which we have already given you a glimpse) to a certain extent protected.  James II., a devout man, who persecuted the Jews and trampled out the gipsies, was a good prince to the Comprachicos.  We have seen why.  The Comprachicos were buyers of the human wares in which he was dealer.  They excelled in disappearances.  Disappearances are occasionally necessary for the good of the state.  An inconvenient heir of tender age whom they took and handled lost his shape.  This facilitated confiscation; the tranfer of titles to favourites was simplified.  The Comprachicos were, moreover, very discreet and very taciturn.  They bound themselves to silence, and kept their word, which is necessary in affairs of state.  There was scarcely an example of their having betrayed the secrets of the king.  This was, it is true, for their interest; and if the king had lost confidence in them, they would have been in great danger.  They were thus of use in a political point of view.  Moreover these artists furnished singers for the Holy Father.  The Comprachicos were useful for the Miserere of Allegri.  They were particularly devoted to Mary.  All this pleased the papistry of the Stuarts.  James II. could not be hostile to holy men who pushed their devotion to the Virgin to the extent of manufacturing eunuchs.  In 1688 there was a change of dynasty in England:  Orange supplanted Stuart.  William III. replaced James II.

James II. went away to die in exile, miracles were performed on his tomb, and his relics cured the Bishop of Autun of fistula—­a worthy recompense of the Christian virtues of the prince.

William, having neither the same ideas nor the same practices as James, was severe to the Comprachicos.  He did his best to crush out the vermin.

A statute of the early part of William and Mary’s reign hit the association of child-buyers hard.  It was as the blow of a club to the Comprachicos, who were from that time pulverized.  By the terms of this statute those of the fellowship taken and duly convicted were to be branded with a red-hot iron, imprinting R. on the shoulder, signifying rogue; on the left hand T, signifying thief; and on the right hand M, signifying man-slayer.  The chiefs, “supposed to be rich, although beggars in appearance,” were to be punished in the collistrigium—­that is, the pillory—­and branded on the forehead