THE SMUGGLER. 241 



the decline when they met with the disaster which has been 

 lately recorded ; and their defeat and dispersion was held by the 

 inhabitants of Woodchurch as an augury of better times, when 

 their women would be able to pass from village to village, even 

 after dusk, in safety and free from insult, and their cattle might 

 be left out in the fields all night, without being injured, either 

 by wantonness, or in lawless uses. It will be understood that 

 in thus speaking, I allude alone to the land smugglers, a race 

 altogether different from their fellow labourers of the sea, 

 whom the people looked upon with a much more favourable 

 eye, and who, though rash and daring men enough, were 

 generally a good-humoured, free-hearted body, spending the 

 money that they had gained at the peril of their lives or their 

 freedom, with a liberal hand and in a kindly spirit. 



Almost every inhabitant of Woodchurch had some cause of 

 complaint against the Kamleys' gang; and, to say the truth, 

 Mr. Radford himself was by no means popular in the county. 

 A selfish and a cunning man is almost always speedily found 

 out by the lower classes, even when he makes an effort to 

 conceal it. But Mr. Radford took no such trouble, for he 

 gloried in his acuteness, and if he had chosen a motto, it pro- 

 bably would have been " Every man for himself." His selfish- 

 ness, too, took several of the most offensive forms. He was 

 ostentatious, he was haughty, and on the strength of riches 

 acquired, every one knew how, he looked upon himself as a 

 very great man, and treated all the inferior classes, except 

 those of whom he had need, to use their own expression, " as 

 dirt under his feet." All the villagers, therefore, were well 

 satisfied to think that he had met with a check at last; and 

 many of the good folks of Woodchurch speculated upon the 

 probability of two or three, out of so great a number of pri- 

 soners, giving such evidence as would bring that worthy 

 gentleman within the gripe of the law. 



Such were the feelings of the people of that place, as well 

 as those of many a neighbouring village ; and the scene pre- 

 sented by the captive and wounded smugglers, as they were 

 led along, was viewed with indifference by some, and with 

 pleasure by others. Two or three of the women, indeed, be- 

 stowed kindly attention upon the wounded men, moved by that 

 beautiful compassion which is rarely if ever wanting in a 

 female heart; but the male part of the population took little 



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