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 clear it without a
pole, broadens out into salt marshes below the village, and loses itself
at last in a lake of brackish water. The lake is good for nothing except
sea-fowl, herons, and oysters, and forms such a place as they call in the
Indies a lagoon; being shut off from the open Channel by a monstrous
great beach or dike of pebbles, of which I shall speak more hereafter.
When I was a child I thought that this place was called Moonfleet,
because on a still night, whether in summer, or in winter frosts, the
moon shone very brightly on the lagoon; but learned afterwards that 'twas
but short for 'Mohune-fleet', from the Mohunes, a great family who were
once lords of all these parts.

My name is John Trenchard, and I was fifteen years of age when this story