Chapter 11 The Sea-Cave

The dull loneness, the black shade,

That these hanging vaults have made:

The strange music of the waves

Beating on these hollow caves

Wither

"I (John Trenchard) grew timid, and fearful of the wild night, and the loneliness, and the darkness. And all sorts of evil tales came to mind, and I thought much of balefuo heathen gods that St. Aldhelm had banished to these underground cellars, and of the Mandrive who leapt on people in the dark and strangled them. ‘Abite a me in ignem etenum qui paratus est diabolo at angelis ejus’-‘Depart from me into internal fire prepared for the devil and his angels’. "

The displacement cipher is cracked: fourscore-feet-deep-well-north. A simple, but effective cipher was used to hide the location of a fabulous diamond. The references to the scripture verses in the cipher were misplaced by one or more places. The number of the displacement represented a word in each verse that was to be highlighted.

Chapter 10 The Escape

            … How fearful

And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!

   … I'll look no more

Lest my brain turn—Shakespeare

Chapter 9 A Judgment

“Let them fight it out, friend. Things have gone too far,
God must judge the couple: leave them as they are.”—Browning

Chapter 8-The Landing

Let my lamp at midnight hour
Be seen in some high lonely tower—Milton

A Meal Set before some Dignitaries while at the Why Not

A meal set before the honorable Mr. Baliliff and Clerk by Elzevir of the Why Not:

Hot rabbit pie

Cold round of brawn

Blue Vinny

Bottle of Ararat Milk

Falgon of ale

Moonfleet, Chapter 4

Chapter 7-An Auction

What if my house be troubled with a rat,

And I be pleased to give ten thousand ducats

To have it baned—Shakespeare

Chapter 6-An Assault

                   Surely after all,

The noblest answer unto such

Is perfect stillness when they brawl—Tennyson

Chapter 5-The Rescue

Shades of the dead, have I not heard your voices

Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale?

—Byron

Chapter 4-In the Vault

Let us hob and nob with Death—Tennyson

A Lost Treasure

The following inscription was found in a golden locket that was around the neck of Black Beard. Once the cipher was broken the instructions tell of the location of a fabulous diamond.

“ 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”

Chapter 3-A Discovery

“Some bold adventurers disdain

The limits of their little reign,

  And unknown regions dare descry;

Still, as they run, they look behind,

They hear a voice in every wind

  And snatch a fearful joy—Gray”

Latin Inscription on Backgammon Board at the “Why Not?” Inn

Elzevir’s  backgammon board was generations old and held the following inscription inlaid in light wood:

“Ita in vita ut in lusu alae pessima jactura arte corrigenda est.

As in life, so in a game of hazard, skill will make something of the worst of throws.”

This quote first mentioned in the second chapter was later quoted toward the end of the novel, after the two protagonists endured the vigor’s of their adventures.

The Third of November

"Then banks came down with ruin and rout,
Then beaten spray flew round about,
Then all the mighty floods were out,
And all the world was in the sea"

Jean Ingelow

The Floods, Chapter 2, Moonfleet

Sacred To the Memory of David Block

Inscription found on a tombstone in Moonfleet churchyard for one David Block:  Aged 15, who was killed by a shot fired from the Elector Schooner, 21 June 1757.

"Of life bereft (by fell design),

  I mingle with my fellow clay.

On God's protection I recline

  To save me in the Judgement Day.

There too must you, cruel man, appear,

  Repent ere it be all too late;

Or else a dreadful sentence fear,

  For God will sure revenge my fate."

Chapter 1, Moonfleet

Prelude to J. Meade Falkner's Moonfleet

"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."