“Our gang had turned this subterranean vault to very profitable account.
“Here they concealed the spoils plundered from the unfortunate farmers, and their booty taken on fair days.
“Here the cries of their prisoners were drowned in the shouts of drunken madness.
“The clumsy thief, closely pursued to this spot, disappeared as by enchantment.
“It was the asylum and pandemonium of the gang, the common refuge of the weak, the staff-office of the place, and the general workshop of the “Scorchers,” as we were generally called.
“The ‘little knacker,’ Peter, concealed there, or thereabouts, what might be called the ‘unattached members’ of our gang.
“He had always the barber, surgeon Baptiste, and some tailors in readiness, by whose aid our features and costume could be quickly changed.
“There were storekeepers, also; and a sort of post-office formed part of this establishment, as complete in its organization as any social government could require.
“The two ‘fences’ at Boisseaux and Remolu, kept by the brothers Thèvenot, were ostensibly store-houses for hides and skins.
“Their tariff never varied.