Bertuccio bowed and continued his story.
"Partly to drown the memories of the past that haunted me, and partly to support the poor widow, I eagerly returned to my smuggling trade. It had become easier since laws always relax after a revolution. The southern regions were particularly poorly monitored because of the constant disturbances in various cities. We took advantage of this government neglect to make connections everywhere.
Since my brother's murder in Nîmes, I'd never entered that city again. As a result, the innkeeper we'd worked with, seeing we'd no longer come to him, was forced to come to us. He established a branch of his inn on the road between two towns, at a place called the Pont du Gard. We now had about a dozen locations where we left our goods and where we could hide from police and customs officers if necessary.
