Legend of Moulin Huet

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Legend of Moulin Huet

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Title: Legend of Moulin Huet
Author: Lizzie A. Freeth
Release Date: November 22, 2004 [eBook #14118]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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MOULIN HUET***
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LEGEND OF MOULIN HUET

by
LIZZIE A. FREETH
Author Of The Adventures of Carl Skinflint among the Fairies
Guernsey: Le Lievre, Printer, Star-Office, 10, Bordage Street.
1872

DEDICATED TO "THE CONWAY BOYS."

DEDICATION.
Though the story contained in the following pages has no connection
with them, yet it is my wish to dedicate this little work to "The Conway
Boys," and all those connected with that most invaluable institution,
"H.M.S. Conway," lying at Rockferry, Birkenhead.
I have particular reason to speak well of the "Conway," as any "Boy"
may know who may have been on board for the last five or six years,
from the fact that two of my brothers, after passing a successful career
under the careful teaching of the Rev. Henry O'Brien; L.L.D., Cork,
continued to build on the good foundation laid, and left the "Conway"
with credit both to their teachers and themselves. I shall always have
pleasure in meeting with any "Conway Boy," and hearing of the good
old ship to which I wish a long continuance of her success in preparing
Boys creditably for one of the great sources of our national strength and
wealth--"Our Merchant Navy."
I must just add a word of thanks to my friends in Guernsey and
elsewhere, who so kindly encouraged and supported me when
publishing on a former occasion, and whom I see, by reference to the
subscription list, coming forward again--among some new
friends--with a repetition of their kindness.

Montpelier, Guernsey, 1872.
CHAPTER I.
In the year 165-, when Cromwell had gained ascendancy in England
and over the greater portion of the Channel Islands, there lived in
Guernsey, at the Bay of Moulin Huêt, a miller of the name of Pierre
Moullin. Unlike his class generally, he was a very morose man, hard in
his dealings with the poor around him, and exceedingly
unsympathizing in all his domestic relations, as will appear as our story
unwinds itself. Before speaking of the family surroundings of Pierre
Moullin we will glance at the circumstance which forms the basis of
the present tale. Visitors to the Bay of Moulin Huêt, as well as to other
parts of this and the surrounding Islands, may have observed a crimson
appearance on the rocks, suggesting very sanguinary ideas, but for
which, geologists doubtless, would be able to account in a very
satisfactory manner. Looking at a portion of the original gully through
which the water runs after passing through the mill wheel, we find that
this crimson appearance is very visible, and as our purpose is not to
raise scientific enquiries, we will take one of the fanciful reasons (of
which there are two or three in existence), for this coloring on by the
hand of Nature, which has so abundantly bedecked Guernsey in general,
and Moulin Huêt in particular. Dipping into the Fairy lore of that part
of the island, we find that many believe that some mischievous Fairies
who annoyed the miller much with their nightly pranks were ground to
pieces by the mill wheel becoming unfastened, and that their blood
remains there to this day, as a warning to all others among the "good
people" who might wish to vent their superfluous mischief in a like
manner.
So much for the Fairy lore in the Moulin Huêt Chronicles; but we must
turn our attention elsewhere to find out whose blood it was that thus
dyed the watercourse of the Moulin Huêt Mill.
At the time of which we are speaking, (the opening of the year 165-)
Pierre Moullin and his two children, a son and a daughter, lived in a
house adjoining the mill, in fact, the same roof covered both mill and

house, which were built facing the sea. The stream of water which
turned the wheel was far more powerful than the present, as the old
marks (still partially visible) denote. Pierre Moullin, like many of his
fellow-islanders, was a strong adherent of Cromwell; his son Hirzel
was also,--though perhaps he did not go quite as far as his father in his
hatred of the Royalist party. He