the
candle-light, there was nothing to be seen except a few verses from the
Psalms of David. The paper was yellow, and showed a lattice of folds
where it had been pressed into the locket; but the handwriting, though
small, was clear and neat, and there was no mistaking a word of what was
there set down. 'Twas so short, I could read it at once:

The days of our age are threescore years and ten;
And though men be so strong that they come
To fourscore years, yet is their strength then
But labour and sorrow, so soon passeth it
Away, and we are gone.
--Psalm 90, 21

And as for me, my feet are almost gone;
My treadings are wellnigh slipped.
--73, 6

But let not the waterflood drown me; neither let
The deep swallow me up.
--69, 11

So, going through the vale of misery, I shall
Use it for a well, till the pools are filled
With water.
--84, 14

For thou hast made the North and the South:
Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in thy name.
--89, 6

So here was an end to great hopes, and I was after all to leave the vault
no richer than I had entered it. For look at it as I might, I could not
see that these verses could ever lead to any diamond; and though I might
otherwise have thought of ciphers or secret writing, yet, remembering
what Mr. Glennie had said, that Blackbeard after his wicked life desired
to make a good end, and sent for a parson to confess him, I guessed that
such pious words had been hung round his neck as a charm to keep the
spirits of evil away from his tomb. I was disappointed enough, but before
I left picked up the beard from the floor, though it sent a shiver
through me to touch it, and put it back in its place on the dead man's
breast. I restored also such pieces of the coffin as I could get at, but
could not make much of it; so left things as they were, trusting that
those who came there next would think the wood had fallen to pieces by
natural decay. But the locket I kept, and hung about my neck under my
shirt; both as being a curious thing in itself, and because I thought
that if the good words inside it were strong enough to keep off bad
spirits from Blackbeard, they would be also strong enough to keep
Blackbeard from me.

When this was done the candle had burnt so low, that I could no longer
hold it in my fingers, and was forced to stick it on a piece of the
broken wood, and so carry it before me. But, after all, I was not to
escape from Blackbeard's clutches so easily; for when I came to the e