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The officials advised us to bring the American consul and have him straighten matters; but his office was shut, as it was Sunday. Meantime, we saw the train, which we had expected to take at 11:30, leave for Mérida, and at twelve o'clock the customs-house offices were closed, and we were forced to leave the business for another day.
The workmen made her a smelling-bottle and me several pipes and a walking-stick of glass, for us to see the process. From Shields we proceeded to Leith, and landed, and all our baggage being examined at the customs-house, I thought what a capital thing it was that I had sold my dress.
In their own case, if a foreign ship came empty and succeeded in evading the fire of the "customs-house," as sometimes occurred, she was permitted to take away a cargo. It is obvious that such a system was distinctly evil, but it must be confessed our uncertainty regarding the whole matter of "Protection" does not justify us in assigning it a definite place among the causes of national decay.
Axes were produced and wielded to good effect. Down came the miniature customs-house in a flash. Little pieces of the ruin were elevated on sticks and carried by some of the rabble as standards with the cry "I have it I have it." As they marched the procession was constantly augmented and the cries become more decidedly revolutionary: "Kill, kill these craven spoilers of God and of the world.
'Wasn't that a wild whirl down the other side! he continued, delightedly. 'But you should have come into the Customs-house with me when I went to declare my cigars. You see it wouldn't do for me, who might one day get a coastguard appointment, to try on any smuggling. But I did remonstrate.
The great heat of midday would soon be on me, I had yet nearly thirty miles to go, and my bad night began to oppress me. I crossed the frontier, which is here an imaginary line. Two slovenly customs-house men asked me if I had anything dutiable on me. I said No, and it was evident enough, for in my little sack or pocket was nothing but a piece of bread.
Borrow had scarcely been in Lisbon an hour before he heartily wished himself "back in Russia . . . where I had left cherished friends and warm affections." The Customs-house officers irritated him, first with their dilatoriness, then by the minuteness with which they examined every article of which he was possessed.
Then, in smart tailored suit and hat, interpreter in tow, a prayer in her heart, and excitement blazing in cheeks and eyes, she made her way to the dock, through the customs, into a cab that was to take her to her arena, the broad Avenida. Exactly two hours later, there dashed into the customs-house a well-dressed woman whose hat was very much over one ear.
In face of these infamies it is good to read of how they dealt with informers at Newcastle-upon-Tyne. There the role was one fraught with peculiar danger. Rewards were paid by the Collector of Customs, and when a Newcastle man went to the Customs-House to claim the price of some sailor's betrayal, the people set upon him and incontinently broke his head.
Maria and Jose would have accompanied them down to the boat the next morning, but Dias pointed out to them that they were apparently only going out for a day's sail, and that if there were any partings on the shore it would at once attract the suspicions of the customs-house officials there.
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