The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1874-05-14
THE CURFEW HEROINE.
BY MATILDA NJ. TURNER.

It lacked but half an hour Of curfeW
toll. The old bell-ringer came ficm m"
der the waited roof Of his cottage stoop,
and stood with uncovered head ia the
clear sweet scented air. He had grown
blind and deaf in the service, but his old
arm was as muscular as evor; and he who
listened this day marked no taltering In
the heavy, metallic throbs of the Cattle
dral bell Ola Jasper had lived through
many changes He had told our his notes
Of mourning for good Queen Bess; End
with tears scarcely dry he had rung the
glad tidings of the coronation of James;
Charles the First had been crowned,
reigned and explated his weakness before
all England in Jaspers time; and now he,
who under his army held all the Common
wealth 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 watin and sorrow.
Jasper stood alone row, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
sky
The walls O. his memory seemed so
written oyer-so crossed and recrossed by
the annals of the years that had gone be-
fore, that There seemed Little room for
anything in the present. Little rocked
he that Cromwell's spearsmen were camp
ed on the moor beyond the village-that
Cromwell himself rode with his guards
men but league away; he only knew
that the bell that had been rung IN the
tower when William the Conquerer made
curfew law, had been spared by Puritan
and Roundhead and th~e Ills arm for
SIXTY years lad never failed BIN at even
tide.
He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when a woman came hurriedly
in from the street ard stood beside him.
a lovely woman. but with face so blanched
that it seemed carved in the whitest OF
marble with all of its roundness ard dim
pies. Her great solemn eyes were raised
to the aged face in pitiful appeal. and the
lips were forming words that ne could
not understand. "ea
speak up lass am deaf, and cannot
hear your CHATTER"
The voice raised, and the hanGs clasped
and unclasped, and wrung themselves to-
getter, palm and palm.
"For Heavens sake good Jasper, do
not ring curtew tonight"
what ma ring curfew! Ye must be
daft, lassie."
Jasper, for sweet Heavens SADIE, for
my sake, for one night in all yoar long
life forget to ring the bell! Fail this
once and my lover shall live,whom Crom-
we'll says shall die At curfew toll. Do you
hear?-my lover. Richard Temple. See,
Jasper, here il money to make your old
age happy. I sold my jewels that the
lady Maud gave me; and the gold shall
all be yours for one curtew."
"Would ye bride me, Lily De Vere2
Yere changellng. we've ma the blood
of the Plsntaganets in ye're veins as your
mother had Wha'! 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 to me? Babes have been born and
strong men nave died before now ut the
ringing of my bell. A wa avail" 49,
And out on the village green, with the
solemn shadows of the lindens alengthea-
ing over it, strong man awaited the cur
! few to toll for his death. He stood hand
some, and brave, and tall--taller by an
Inch tnan the latest PIKE man VINO guard
ed him, . sal d baeaj a5di Aaolot
What had he done that he should die!
Little itmattered in those days when tie
sword that the Great Cromwell welded
was SO prone to fall, wha. he or Others
had done. he had been scribe to the
laie lord up at the castle; and Lady Maud
forgetting tnat man must woo, and womer
must wait, had given her heart to hin
without the asking; while the gentle lii,
De Vere, distant kinswoman, and poo
!; companion to her, had, without seeking
, found the treasures Of his true love, an(
held them fast. Then he had Joined tn
army, and made one Of the pioua soldier
txuk ona ox,{1 x&aaasnnn ~uoro unvnA rls-.~.