The Republican. [volume] (Maryville, Tenn.) 187?-187?, 1874-05-30

bue BreehWOOu. thirty seconds NOR
aud his soul would be with his God
The color did not forsake his cheeks
The dark rings of hair lay upon warn
brow. 1t was his purpose to die O,
martyrs and brave men die. What wal
life that he should cling to it? He al
ways felt the air pulsate with the frs
heavy roll of the death-knell. But nc
sound came. Still facing the soldiers
with his clear gray eyes upon them, hC
waited. The crimson banners in the
west were paling to pink. The kinC
had ceased their lowing, and had beer
gathered into the brick-yards.
All nature had sounded her cur
few but old Jasper was silenti
Tho ball-Iinger with hB gray head
yet barred had traversed half the dis
tancs that lay between his cottage aud
the ivy covered tower, when a form
went fitting past him, with pale, shad,
owy robes floating around it, and hail
that the low western lights touched and
tinted as with halo.
"Ah, Huldah, Huldah !" the old
man muttered show swift she flies
| will come soon, dear. My work is
almost done" Huldah was the good
wife, who had gone from him in hel
early womanhood, and for whom he lad
mourned all his long life. But the
heeting 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 Col, 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
way to the tower. She assembled with
flying and irenzied 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 interior Of
the great building, with its groined
roof, its chevrons and clustered col
umns its pictured saint and carved
image of the Virgin, which the pillagers
of ages had spared to be dealt with by
time, the most relentless Vandal of all.
Up-still up-beyond the rainbow
tints thrown by the stained glass across
her death-white brow; up-still up
past open arcade and arch, with griffin
and gargoyls staring at her from under
bracket and cornice, with all the hide
business of medieval carving; the stairs,
flight by flight, growing Trailer beneath
her Young feet now but slender net
but still up.
Her breath was coming short and
She saw, through an open
space, old Jasper cross the road at the
foot of the tower. Oh, how far ! The
seconds were treasures which Cromwell,
with all his blood. bought common
wealth, could not purchase from her.
Up-ah-there, just above her, with its
great brazen mouth aud wicked tongue,
the bell hung
A worm.eaten block for a step, and
one small white hand had clasped itself
above the clapper-the other prepared,
at the tremble, to rise aud clasp its
mate, and the feet to swing off; and
thus she waited. jasper was old and
he was sure, and it came at
last. A faint quiver, and the young
feet swung from their rest, and the ten
der hands clasped for more THAI their
precious life, the wreathing thing.
There was groaning and creaking of the
rude pulleys above, and then the strokes
came heavy and strong. Jasper's hand
had not forgot its cunning, nor his arm
its strength. The tender, soft form
was swu and dashed to and fro. But
she clung to and caressed the cold, cruel
thing. Let one stroke come aud a
thousand might follow-for its fatal
work would be done. She wreathed
her white arms about it, so that at every
pull of the great ropes it crushed into
the flesh. 1t tore her, and wounded
and bruised-but there in the solemn
twilight the brave woman swung, and
fought with the curfew and God gave
her victory
The old bell ringer said to himself
"Aye, Huldah, my work is done. The
pulleys are getting too heavy for my
old arms. My ears, too, have failed me
at last. / dinna hear one stroke Of the
curfew. Dear old bell, it is my ears
that have gone false, and not thou.
Farewell. old friond."
And just beyond the worn pavement
a shadowy form again went fitting past
him. There were drops of blood upon
the white garments and the face was
like the face of one who walked in her
sleep, and the hands hung wounded and
powerless at her side.
Cromwell paused with his horsemen
under the dismantled may-pole before
the village green. He saw the man who
was to die at sunset standing up in the
dusky air, tall as n king and beautiful
as Absalom. He gazed with knitted
brow and angry eye; but his lips did
not give utterance to the quick COM
mand that trembled on them, for girl
came flying toward him. Plkeman and
archer stepped aside to let her pass.
She threw herself upon the turf at bis
horses feet: she lifted her bleeding
and tortured hands to his gaze, and
once more poured out her prayer fol
the life of her lover; with trembling
lips she told him why Richard still lived
why the curfew had never sounded.
Lady Maud, looking out of her lat
ticed window at the castle, saw the great
Protector dismount, lift the faintine
form in his arms, aud bear her to hel
lover. She saw the guards release tho
prisoner, and she heard the shouts o.
JOY at his deliverance; then she wei
coined the night that shut the scene ou
from her envious eye and sepulturet
her in IFS gloom.
At the next matin bell old Jaspel
died, and at curfew toll he was laid be
side the wife who had died in his youth
but the memory,,of whom had been will
him always.