Spain

Spain appears as a point of departure and return for a covert maritime operation, then as a destination for Comprachicos escaping legal persecution. The novel gives it significance through these movements rather than through a detailed description of the country itself.

The clandestine voyage

A hooker had apparently come from Spain and was preparing to return there. The vessel was engaged in a stealthy service between coasts, making Spain one endpoint of a journey whose purpose remained concealed.

Its company did not appear to represent a single nation: those boarding spoke in a shifting mixture of Spanish, German, French, Gaelic, and Basque, and seemed to belong to one band despite their varied origins. Spain is therefore established as the vessel’s apparent point of origin and intended destination, not as proof that its crew shared a Spanish identity.

Refuge after the anti-Comprachico laws

After measures taken by William III and Parliament targeted the Comprachicos, the resulting flight extended beyond the people directly accused of those crimes to vagabonds more generally. The novel describes this dispersal as a scramble to escape, with most of the Comprachicos returning to Spain; many were Basques.

The law intended to protect children had a grim immediate consequence. Since a child travelling with a wandering gang could expose it to suspicion, the presence of children became dangerous to the fugitives. Children were consequently abandoned, turning the effort to suppress the gangs into a cause of further abandonment. Spain marks the destination of many fleeing Comprachicos within this wider chain of flight and harm.