The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-22
THE cURFEw HEROINE.

under the wattled roof of his cottage
stoop, 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 who listened this day marked no
faltering in the heavy, metalec thro' S
of the cathedral bell. Old Jasper had
lived through many changes. He had
tolled out his notes of mourning for
good Queen Bess and with tears
scarcely dry he had rung the glad It'd
ings 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 COM
monwealth in the hollow of his hand,
ruled as more than monarch, and still
the old man, with the habit of long
life upon him, rang his matin and sor-
row.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
sky.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written over-so crossed and re-crossed
by the annals of the years that had gone
before, that there seemed little room
for anything in the present. Little
rocked he that Cromwell's spearsmen
were camped on the moor beyond the
viIIage-that Cromwell himself rode
with his guardsmen a league away
he only knew that the bell that had
been ruDg in the tower when William
the Conqueror made curfew law, had
been spared by Puritan and Round
head. and that his arm for sixty years
had never failed him at eventide.
He was moving with slow step toward
| the gate, when a woman came hurriedly
| in from the street and stood beside him :;
a lovely woman, but with face SO
blauched that it seemed carved in the
whitest of marble with all of its round
ness and dimples. Her great solemn
eyes were raised to the aged face in
pitiful appeal, and the lips were form
ing words that he could not under
stand.
"Speak up, lass. am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter."
The voice raised, and the hands
clasped and unclasped, and wrung
themselves together, palm and palm.
For Heavens sake, good Jasper, do
not ring curfew tonight"
"What ma ring curfew Ye must be
daft, Iassie."
Jasper, for sweet Heavens sake, for
my sake, for one night in all your long
life forget to ring the bell Fail this
once and my lover shall live, whom
Cromwell says shall die at gcurfew toll.
Do you hear ?-my lover, Richard Tenn
pie. 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 be yours Tor one
curfew."
"WOuld We bride me, Lily De We're?
Ye're a chaDgeling. Ye've ma the blood
of the Plantaganets in we're veins as
your mother had. What corrupt me,
bell-riuger under her majesty, good
Queen Bess Not for all the gold that
Lady Maud could bring me I What is
your lover 10 me? Babes have been
born and strong men have died before
now at the ringing of my bell. AVA
AVA p
And out on the village green, with
the solemn shadows of the lindens
lengthening over it, strong man awaited
the curfew to toll for his death. He
stood, handsome, and brave, and tall
taller by an inch than the tallest pike
man who guarded him.
What had he done that he should
die? Little it mattered in those days
when the sword that the great Crom-
well 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 Lady Maud, forgetting that man
must WOO, and woman must wait, had
given her heart to him without the ask
ing while the gentle Lily De We're,
| distant kinswoman, and poor companion
to her, had, without seeking, found the
.z,fI I,o1l kI1y,,
| fast. Then he had Joined the army,
and made one of the pious soldiers
whose evil passions were never stirred
but by sign or symbol of popery. But
q scorned woman's hatred had reached
him even there. Enemies and deep
plots had comprised him about and
| conquered him. Tonight he was to diei
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, ah more wildly
| than all, he saw the great red sun with
| its hazy veil lingering above the trees,
as though it pitied him with more than
human pity!
He was a God fearing, and God serv-
| ing man. He had long made his peace
with heaven. Nothing stood between
him and death-nothing rose pleading
| between him and those who were to de-
strov 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 prayers, but all without avail.
Slowly now the great sun went down.
| Slowly the last red rim was hid behind
the greenwood. Thirty seconds more
and his soul would be with his God.
The color did not forsake his cheeks.
| The dark rings of hair lay upon a warm
| brow. 1t was his purpose to die as
martyrs and brave men die. What was
life that he should cling to it? He al
ways 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 eyes upon them, he
waited. The crimson banners In the
west were paling to pink. The klne
had ceased their lowing, and had been
| gathered into the brick-yards.
All nature had sounded her cur
Il iG" Du6 Olu WIS
The bell-linger with his gray head
| yet barred had traversed half the dis
lance that lay between his cottage and
the ivy covered tower, when a form
went fitting past him, with pale, shad-
owy robes floating around it, and hair
that the low western lights touched and
tinted as with a halo.
"Ah, Huldah, Huldah |" the old
man muttered chow swift she flies
1 will come soon, dear. My work is
| almost done" Huldsh was the good
wife, who had gone from him in her
early womanhood, and for whom he lad
mourned all his long life. But the
| fieeting form was not Huldah's, it was
Lily De We're, hurried by a sudden and
desperate purpose toward the old
cathedral.
$50 help me God, curfew shall not
ring tonight ! Cromwell and his dra-
goons come this way. Once more will
| kneel at his feet and plead"
She entered the ruined arch. She
wrer ched from its fastenings the carved
/ and wOrm-eaten door that barred the