o well, alone with that
silent friend who had died to save me, I mourned him none the less, but
yet sorrowed not as one without hope.

* * * * *

What need to tell this tale at any more length, since you may know, by my
telling it, that all went well? for what man would sit down to write a
history that ended in his own discomfiture? All that great wealth came to
my hands, and if I do not say how great it was, 'tis that I may not wake
envy, for it was far more than ever I could have thought. And of that
money I never touched penny piece, having learnt a bitter lesson in the
past, but laid it out in good works, with Mr. Glennie and Grace to help
me. First, we rebuilt and enlarged the almshouses beyond all that Colonel
John Mohune could ever think of, and so established them as to be a haven
for ever for all worn-out sailors of that coast. Next, we sought the
guidance of the Brethren of the Trinity, and built a lighthouse on the
Snout, to be a Channel beacon for sea-going ships, as Maskew's match had
been a light for our fishing-boats in the past. Lastly, we beautified the
church, turning out the cumbrous seats of oak, and neatly pewing it with
deal and baize, that made it most commodious to sit in of the Sabbath.
There was also much old glass which we removed, and reglazed all the
windows tight against the wind, so that what with a high pulpit,
reading-desk, and seat for Master Clerk and new Commandment boards each
side of the Holy Table, there was not a church could vie with ours in the
countryside. But that great vault below it, with its memories, was set in
order, and then safely walled up, and after that nothing was more ever
heard of Blackbeard and his lost Mohunes. And as for the landers, I
cannot say where they went; and if a cargo is still run of a dark night
upon the beach, I know nothing of it, being both Lord of the Manor and
Justice of the Peace.

The village, too, renewed itself with the new almshouses and church.
There were old houses rebuilt and fresh ones reared, and all are ours,
except the Why Not? which still remains the Duchy Inn. And that was let
again, and men left the Choughs at Ringstave and came back to their old
haunt, and any shipwrecked or travel-worn sailor found board and welcome
within its doors.

And of the Mohune Hospital--for that was what the alms-houses were now
called--Master Glennie was first warden, with fair rooms and a full
library, and Master Rat