The Project Gutenberg EBook of Moonfleet, by J. Meade Falkner

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Title: Moonfleet

Author: J. Meade Falkner

Release Date: January 18, 2004 [EBook #10743]
Last updated: March 2, 2009

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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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 MOHUNES
OF FLEET AND MOONFLEET
IN AGRO DORCESTRENSI
LIVING OR DEAD

CONTENTS

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 or
west bank of the Fleet stream. This rivulet, which is so narrow as it
passes the houses that I have known a good jumper cle