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

I'LL CUhfEW HEROINE,
1t lacked but half an hour of Curfew
toll. The old bell-ringer came from
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 oyer-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 Cromwells spearsmen
were camped on the moor beyond the
village ge-that Cromwell himself rode
with bis guardsmen a league away
he only knew that the bell that had
been rung in the tower when William
the Conqueror made curfew law, had
been spared by Puritan and Round
head, and that his arm for sixty wears
had never failed him at eventide.
He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when woman came hurriedly
in from the street and stood beside him
a lovely woman, but with face so
blanched 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. 1 am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter."
The voice raised, and the hands
clasped and unclasped, and wrung
themselves together, palm aud palm.
For Heavens sake, good Jasper, do
not ring curfew to night"
"What ma ring curfew 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 bill Fail this
once and my lover shall live, whom
Cromwell says shall die at Fcurfew toll.
Do You hear p-my lover, Richard Tenn
pie. See, Jasper, here is money to
make your old age happy. l sold my
| Jewels that the Lady Maud gave me +;
and the gold shall all be yours ior one
curfew."
"Would ye bribe me, Lily De We're
Ye're changeling. Ye've ma the blood
of the Plantaganets 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 could bring me 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 r'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
treasures of his true love, and held them
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. Bnt
a scorned woman's hatred had reached
him even there. Enemies and deer
plots had comra'sed him about ant
conquered him. Tonight he was to die
The beautiful world lay as a vivic
picture before him. The dark greer
wood above the rocky hill where Robir
Hood and his merry men had dwelt
the frowning castle with its drawbridgt
and square towers the long stretch o.
moor with the purple sh$f0ws upon it
the green, straight walks of the village
the birds overhead, even the daisies a
his feet he saw. But, all more vividl,
than all, he saw the great red sun will
its hazy veil lingering above the trees
as though it pitied him with more thai
human PITY
He was q God fearing, and God Serv
ing man. He had loDFnSde his peac
with heaven. Nothing stood between
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