Moonfleet | Page 9

to hear the dead men moving under our feet.'
'Tut, tut,' answered the minister, 'it is only their own fears that make
such noises terrible to the vulgar. As for Blackbeard, I am not here to
say whether guilty spirits sometimes cannot rest and are seen
wandering by men; but for these noises, they are certainly Nature's
work as is the noise of waves upon the beach. The floods have filled the

vault with water, and so the coffins getting afloat, move in some eddies
that we know not of, and jostle one another. Then being hollow, they
give forth those sounds you hear, and these are your evil angels. 'Tis
very true the dead do move beneath our feet, but 'tis because they
cannot help themselves, being carried hither and thither by the water.
Fie, Ratsey man, you should know better than to fright a boy with silly
talk of spirits when the truth is bad enough.'
The parson's words had the ring of truth in them to me, and I never
doubted that he was right. So this mystery was explained, and yet it
was a dreadful thing, and made me shiver, to think of the Mohunes all
adrift in their coffins, and jostling one another in the dark. I pictured
them to myself, the many generations, old men and children, man and
maid, all bones now, each afloat in his little box of rotting wood; and
Blackbeard himself in a great coffin bigger than all the rest, coming
crashing into the weaker ones, as a ship in a heavy sea comes crashing
down sometimes in the trough, on a small boat that is trying to board
her. And then there was the outer darkness of the vault itself to think of,
and the close air, and the black putrid water nearly up to the roof on
which such sorry ships were sailing.
Ratsey looked a little crestfallen at what Mr. Glennie said, but put a
good face on it, and answered--
'Well, master, I am but a plain man, and know nothing about floods and
these eddies and hidden workings of Nature of which you speak; but,
saving your presence, I hold it a fond thing to make light of such
warnings as are given us. 'Tis always said, "When the Moons move,
then Moonfleet mourns"; and I have heard my father tell that the last
time they stirred was in Queen Anne's second year, when the great
storm blew men's homes about their heads. And as for frighting
children, 'tis well that heady boys should learn to stand in awe, and not
pry into what does not concern them--or they may come to harm.' He
added the last words with what I felt sure was a nod of warning to
myself, though I did not then understand what he meant. So he walked
off in a huff with Elzevir, who was waiting for him outside, and I went
with Mr. Glennie and carried his gown for him back to his lodging in

the village.
Mr. Glennie was always very friendly, making much of me, and talking
to me as though I were his equal; which was due, I think, to there being
no one of his own knowledge in the neighbourhood, and so he had as
lief talk to an ignorant boy as to an ignorant man. After we had passed
the churchyard turnstile and were crossing the sludgy meadows, I asked
him again what he knew of Blackbeard and his lost treasure.
'My son,' he answered, 'all that I have been able to gather is, that this
Colonel John Mohune (foolishly called Blackbeard) was the first to
impair the family fortunes by his excesses, and even let the almshouses
fall to ruin, and turned the poor away. Unless report strangely belies
him, he was an evil man, and besides numberless lesser crimes, had on
his hands the blood of a faithful servant, whom he made away with
because chance had brought to the man's ears some guilty secret of the
master. Then, at the end of his life, being filled with fear and remorse
(as must always happen with evil livers at the last), he sent for Rector
Kindersley of Dorchester to confess him, though a Protestant, and
wished to make amends by leaving that treasure so ill-gotten from King
Charles (which was all that he had to leave) for the repair and support
of the almshouses. He made a last will, which I have seen, to this effect,
but without describing the treasure further than to call it a diamond, nor
saying where it was to be found. Doubtless he meant to get it himself,
sell it, and afterwards apply the profit to his good purpose, but before
he could do so death called him suddenly