Page:Forget Me Not (1824).djvu/347

As a diligence, containing several passengers, was lately approaching the French frontier, the search of the douaniers became the topic of conversation. A talkative female, conceiving that she might rely on the silence of her fellow-travellers, admitted that she had a new cachemir shawl wrapped round her underneath her clothes, and that she hoped by this stratagem to escape the scrutiny of the officers. The other passengers praised her ingenuity, and chuckled at the idea of the trick about to be played upon the douaniers; but one of them alone took no share in the conversation, and when the diligence stopped at the custom-house, he alighted and went in, instead of waiting for the summons of the officers. The latter immediately came forward and commenced the search with the lady, whom they desired to go into the house, for the purpose of being examined by persons of her own sex. In vain she insisted that it was obvious she could not have any contraband goods about her; she was obliged to comply;