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MOONFLEET

J. MEADE FALKNER

1898

We thought there was no more behind
But such a day tomorrow as today
And to be a boy eternal.

Shakespeare

TO ALL MOHUNESOF FLEET AND MOONFLEETIN AGRO DORCESTRENSILIVING OR DEAD

1 IN MOONFLEET VILLAGE

2 THE FLOODS

3 A DISCOVERY

4 IN THE VAULT

5 THE RESCUE

6 AN ASSAULT

7 AN AUCTION

8 THE LANDING

9 A JUDGEMENT

10 THE ESCAPE

11 THE SEA-CAVE

12 A FUNERAL

13 AN INTERVIEW

14 THE WELL-HOUSE

15 THE WELL

16 THE JEWEL

17 AT YMEGUEN

18 IN THE BAY

19 ON THE BEACH

Says the Cap'n to the Crew,
We have slipped the Revenue,
  I can see the cliffs of Dover on the lee:
Tip the signal to the Swan,
And anchor broadside on,
  And out with the kegs of Eau-de-Vie,
             Says the Cap'n:
  Out with the kegs of Eau-de-Vie.
Says the Lander to his men,
Get your grummets on the pin,
  There's a blue light burning out at sea.
The windward anchors creep,
And the Gauger's fast asleep,
  And the kegs are bobbing one, two, three,
               Says the Lander:
  The kegs are bobbing one, two, three.

But the bold Preventive man
Primes the powder in his pan
  And cries to the Posse, Follow me.
We will take this smuggling gang,
And those that fight shall hang
  Dingle dangle from the execution tree,
               Says the Gauger:
Dingle dangle with the weary moon to see.

CHAPTER 1

IN MOONFLEET VILLAGE

So sleeps the pride of former days—More

The village of Moonfleet lies half a mile from the sea on the right orwest bank of the Fleet stream. This rivulet, which is so narrow as itpasses the houses that I have known a good jumper clear it without apole, broadens out into salt marshes below the village, and loses itselfat last in a lake of brackish water. The lake is good for nothing exceptsea-fowl, herons, and oysters, and forms such a place as they call in theIndies a lagoon; being shut off from the open Channel by a monstrousgreat beach or dike of pebbles, of which I shall speak more hereafter.When I was a child I thought that this place was called Moonfleet,because on a still night, whether in summer, or in winter frosts, themoon shone very brightly on the lagoon; but learned afterwards that 'twasbut short for 'Mohune-fleet', from the Mohunes, a great family who wereonce lords of all these parts.

My name is John Trenchard, and I was fifteen years of age when this storybegins. My father and mother had both been dead for years, and I boardedwith my aunt, Miss Arnold, who was kind to me in her own fashion, but toostrict and precise ever to make me love her.

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