Page:Moonfleet - John Meade Falkner.pdf/73

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
Psalm xc. 21.Away, and we are gone.

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

But let not the waterflood drown me; neither let
Psalm lxix. 11.The deep swallow me up.

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

For Thou hast made the North and the South:
Tabor and Hermon shall rejoice in Thy name.
Psalm lxxxix. 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