Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1874-04-23
THE HEROINE OF THE CURFEW.
BY MATILDA NJ. TURNER.

BY MATILDA Nj. TURNER.
IT lacked but half an hour of curfew
toll. The old bell-ringer came from under
the waited 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 metallic throbs OF the Cathe-
dral 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 tidings of the coronation of
James; Charles the First had been
crowned, reigned, and expiated his weak
nesses before all England in Jasper's
time; and now he who under his army
held all the Commonwealth III the hollow
of his hand ruled as more than monarch,
and still the old man, with the habit of a
long life upon him, rang his matin and
Curiew,
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly -dappled sky,
gathering but faint sense of the lovely
scene or of the incense-treighted air.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written over--so crossed and recrossed by
y
fore-that there seemed little room for
anything in the present Little rocked
he that Cromwells spearsmen were
camped on the moor beyond the village
that Cromwell himself rode with his
guardsmen but a league away; he only
knew that the bell had been hung in the
tower when William the Conqueror made
curiew a law, had been spared by Puritan
and Roundhead, and that his arm for
sixty years had never failed him at even
tide.
He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when woman came hurTiedly
in from the street and stood beside him !;
lovely woman, but with face so blanched
that it seemed carved in the whitest of
marble with all of lis roundness and dim
pies. Her great solemn eyes were raised
to the aged face in pitiiul appeal, and
the lips were forming words that he could
not understand.
"Speak up, lass am deaf, and cannot
hear your CHATTER"
The voice raised, and the hands clasped
and unclasped, and wrung themselves to-
gether, palm to palm.
For Heavens sake, good Jasper, do
not ring curfew tonight"
What, no ring curfew! Ye must be
daft, assie."
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 curtew 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 be yours for one curtew."
Would we bride me, Lily De We're ?
le're changeling. Yeve 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 could bring me! What is your
lover to me. Babes have been born and
strong men have died before now to the
ringing of my bell. AVA, awa'w
And out on The village green, with the
solemn shadows of the lindens lengthen.
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 than the tallest pikeman who guarded
him.
What had he done that he should die
Little it mattered in those days, when the
sword that the Great Cromwell welded
was so prone to fall, what he or others
mad 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 asking; while the gentle Lily
he We're, distant kinswoman and poor
companion to her, had, without seeking
round 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
nut by sign or symbol of Popery. But q
scorned woman's hatred had reached him
even there. Enemies and deep plots had
.g,,9mpassed him aboutand conquered him
tonight he was TO die.
The beautiful world lay as vivid pic
s9re before him. The dark green wood
above the rocky hill where Robin Hood
ma his merry men had dwelt; the frown