Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1874-04-23
THE HEROINE OF THE CURFEw,
By MATILDA n. TURNER.

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 mir. 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, ,metalio throbs
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 explated his weaknesses before Ill
England in Jasper's time !; and now he,
who under his army held al the Com
monwealth in, the hollow of his hand,
ruled as more. than monarch, and still
the old man with the habit Of + lone
life upon him, rang his matin and sor-
row. ,~. 3; -:> :.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
sky. :. :. y: 5., @.. ..' ..''.,7'.
The wallis Of his memory seemed 90
written over-so crossed and reorossed
by ,ths. annals Of the years that had gone
before, that there seemed little room
for, anything in: the present. Little
rocked he that Cromwell's spearsmeu
were camped on the. moor beyond the
villsge-that Cromwell himself rode
with his guardsmen but a league away
he only knew that the bell: that. had
been rung in the tower when William
tho Conquerer made curfew a 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
thergate, when q woman came hurriedly
in from the street and stood beside him
lovely women, but with face so
blahched, that it seemed carved in the
whitest of marble with all of it's 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. I am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter." y
| The voice raised, and the hand,
clasped and nnclasped, and wrune
themselves together, palm and palm.
"For Heavens sake, good Jasper, Dc
not ring curfsw tonight"
"What na ring c,ufew! Ye must b,
daft, lassie."
"Jasper, for sweet Heavens sake
for my sake, for one night in all you
long life forget to ring the bell Fai
this once and my lover shall live, whom
Cromwell says shall die at curfew toll
Do you hear ?-my lover, Richard Tenn
pie. See, Jasper, here is money Il
make your old age happy. I sold m.
Jewels that the Lady Maud gave me
and the gold shall all be yours for on
curfew.' y
...Would ye bribe me, Lily De We're
.Ye're changeling. Ye've na the blco,
of the .Plantaganets in ye're veins q
your mother had. What! corrupt me
bell-ringer under Her Majesty, Goo>
Queen Bess! Not for all the gold tina
Lady Maud could bring me What i
your lover to me? Babes have beel
born and strong men have died befor,
now at the ringing Of my bell. Ava
AVA -
And out on the village green, will
the solemn shadows of the linden
lengthening over it, . strong man await
ed the curfew to toll for his death. II
stood handsome, and brave, and tall
taller by an inch than the tallest pike
man who guarded him.
What had he done that he shoul,
die? Little it mattered in those day
when the sword that the Great Crom
we'll welded was SO prone to full, wha
he or others had done. He had bee
scribe 10 The late lord up at the castle