But thou
hast often talked of Blackbeard and his end with Parson Glennie; so speak
up, lad, and let us hear all that thou know'st of these tales. Maybe
'twill help us to come to some judgement.'
So I told him all that Mr. Glennie had told me, how that Colonel John
Mohune, whom men called Blackbeard, was a wastrel from his youth, and
squandered all his substance in riotous living. Thus being at his last
turn, he changed from royalist to rebel, and was set to guard the king in
the castle of Carisbrooke. But there he stooped to a bribe, and took from
his royal prisoner a splendid diamond of the crown to let him go; then,
with the jewel in his pocket, turned traitor again, and showed a file of
soldiers into the room where the king was stuck between the window bars,
escaping. But no one trusted Blackbeard after that, and so he lost his
post, and came back in his age, a broken man, to Moonfleet. There he
rusted out his life, but when he neared his end was filled with fear, and
sent for a clergyman to give him consolation. And 'twas at the parson's
instance that he made a will, and bequeathed the diamond, which was the
only thing he had left, to the Mohune almshouses at Moonfleet. These were
the very houses that he had robbed and let go to ruin, and they never
benefited by his testament, for when it was opened there was the bequest
plain enough, but not a word to say where was the jewel.
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