These inconsistencies belong to the ebb and flow of royal caprice.

"For such is our pleasure." A rolling stone and a roving trade gather no moss.

The Comprachicos were poor.

They might have said what the lean and ragged witch observed, when she saw them setting fire to the stake, "Le jeu n'en vaut pas la chandelle." It is possible, nay probable (their chiefs remaining unknown), that the wholesale contractors in the trade were rich.

After the lapse of two centuries, it would be difficult to throw any light on this point.
It was, as we have said, a fellowship.