The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1874-05-08

TIE HEROINE OF THE CURFEw.
EY MATILDA NJ. TURNER.

IL iaC-,,rl hut hnif an hour OF curfey
: toll Tie n!i b-.ll-ringer came from un.
r der IL wattleI roof of his cottage, ,stoop
: ed and stood with uncovered head in the
: clear sweet scented air. He had grown
blind and deaf in the service, but his old
} arm was as muscular as ever, and he
vino listened this day marked no falter-
, ing in the heavy, metallic throbs of the
Cathedral bell. Old Jasper had lived
through many changes. He had tOlled
out his notes mourning for Good Queen
Bess; and with tears scarcely dry he had
rung the glad tidings of the coronation
of James; Charles the First had been
crowned, reigned, and expiated his
weakness before all England in Jasper's
time; and now he who under his army
held all the Commonwealth in the hollow
of his hand, ruled as more than mon
arch, and still the old man, with the
habit of a life upon him, rang his mat
in and curfew
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimIned eyes up to the softly y-dappled
sky. gathering but faint sense of the
lovely scene, or of the incense freighted
air
The walls of his memory seemed so
written over-so crossed and recrossed
by the annals of the years that had gone
before-that there seemed but little
room for anything in the present. Lit
tie reckoned he that Cromwelrs spears
men were camped on the moor beyond
the village-that Cromwell himself rode
with his guardsInen but a league away;
he only knew that the bell had been
hung in the tower when William the
| Conquer made curfew a law, had been
spared by Puritan and Roundhead, and
that his arm for sixty years had not fail
him at eventide.
He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when woman came hurriedly
in from the street and stood beside him,
lovely woman, but face so blanehed
that it seemed carven in the whitest of
marble, with all of its roundness and
dimples. Her great solemn eyes were
raised to the aged face in pitiful appeal,
and her lips were forming words which
his lips could not understand.
''Speak up, lass. am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter."
The voice raised, and the hands clasp
ed and unclasped, and wrung themselves
together, palm to palm.
''For Heavens sake, good Jasper, do |
not ring curfew tonight" "
What, not ring curfewl Ye must be |
daft, lassie"
Jasper for sweet Heavens sake, for |
my sake, for one night in all your long |
life, forget to ring the bellI Fail this once |
and my lover shall live, whom Cromwell |
says shall die at curfew toll. Do you |
hear!-my lover, brave Richard Temple. |
See, Jasper, here is money to make your |
old age happy sold my Jewels that
the Lady Maud gave me, and the gold |
shall all ha yours fer nna ofrrfaur
Would you bribe me, Lily De Verel |
Ye're a changeling Ye've ma the blood |
of the Plantagenets in ye're veins as your |
mother had. What. corrupt me, bell |
ringer under Her Majesty, Good Queen |
BesS. Not for all the gold that Lady |
Maud would bring me, Babes have been |
born, and strong men have died before |
now to the ringing of my bell AVA, |
awa'."
And out on the village green, with the !
solemn shadows of the linden lengthen- |
ing over it, a strong man awaited the cur |
few to toll for his death. He stood hand |
some, and brave, and tall-taller by an |
inch than the tallest pikeman who guard |
ed him.
What had he done that he should die2 |
Little did it matter in those days when |
the sword that the Great Cromwell |
welded was so prone to fall, what he or
others had done He had been scribe |
to the late lord up at the castle, and La
dy Maud, forgetting that man must WOO
and woman must wait, had given her
heart TO him without his asking; whils
the gentle Lily De We're, distant kins-
woman, and poor companion to her, had,
without seeking, found the treasures of
his true love, and held them fast. Then
hsal l.s,I sraV, fIaaa 1
of the pious soldiers whose evil passions
were never stirred but by sign or symbol
of POpery. But a scorned woman's ha-
tired had reached him even there Enc
mics and deep plots had compassed him
about, and conquered him. Tonight
he was to die
The beautiful world lay as a vivid
picture before him. The dark green
wood above the rocky hill where Robin
Hood and his merry men had dwelt; the
frowning castle with its drawbridge and
square towers. the long stretch of moor
with the purple shadows upon it; the
green, straight walks of the village; the
birds overhead, even the daisies at his
feet, he saw. But, ahl more vividly !
than all, he saw the great red sun with
its hay vail lingering above the trees as
though it pitied him with more than hu-
man pity.
He was God-fearing and God-serving
man. He had long ago made his peace
with Heaven. Nothing stood between
him and death-nOthing rose pleadingly
between him and those who were to de-
stroy him, but the sweet face of Lily De
We're, whom he loved. She had knelt at
Cromwell's feet and pleaded for his life.
She had wearied heaven with her pray
ers, but all without avail
Slowly now the great sun went down.
Slowly the last red rim was hidden be-
hind the green wood. Thirty seconds
more and the curfew would ring. Thir-
ty seconds more and his soul would be
with his God. The color did not for
sake his cheeks. The dark rings of hair
lay upon a warm brow. 1t was his pur-
pose to die a. martyrs and brave men
die What was life that ne should cling
to itl What was death that he should
shrink from it? He almost felt the air
pulsate with the first heavy roll of the
death knell. But no sound came. Still
facing the soldiers with his clear, gray
eye upon them, he waited. The crimson
banners in the west were paling to pink.
The kline had ceased their lowing and
had gathered into the rick yards.
All nature had sounded her curfew;
but old Jasper was silent!
The beIl-ringer with his gray head yet
barred traversed half the distance that
lay between his cottage and the ice-cov-
cred tower, when a form went fitting /
past him, with pale, shadowy robes float
ing around it, and hair that the low
western lights touched and tinted as with |
halo.
'.Ah. Huldah, Huldah,' the old man
muttered; ''how swift she flies. will |
come soon. dear Ny work is almost j
done" lIuldah was the good wife who /
had gone from him in her early WOMAN
hood, and for whom he had nourned /
all his long life. But the fleeing form
was not Huldah's; it was Lily Devere, |
hurried by a sudden and desperate pur- |
pose toward the old Cathedral
$50 help Inc God, curfew shall not |
ring tonight, Cromwell and his dra- |
gcOns come this way. Once more ! will |
kneel at his feet end plead"
She entered the ruined arch. She |
wrenched from its fBstenings the carved |
and worIn-eaten door that barred the |
way to the tower. She acsended with
flying and frenzied feet the steps, her
heart lifted up to God for Richards de-
liverance from peril The bats flew out
and shook the dust of centuries from
the black carvings. As she went up she
caught glimpses of the interor of the
great building with its groined roof, its
yhevrons and clustered columns: its pict-
urod saint and earyad i.naoa o.f rha VI.