The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1876-12-22
The Heroine Of the Ourfew

ana STOOD with uncovered head IN the
clear, sweet-scented air. He had grown
blind aud deaf in the service, but his
old arm was as muscular as ever; and
he who listened this day re emaTked 10
faltering in the heavy, metallic 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 scarce
ly dry he had rung the glad tidings of
the coronation of James; Charles the
First had been crowned, reigned, and
eXpiated his weaknesses before all Eng
land in Jasper's 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 matin and curfew.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
sky, gathering but a faint sense of the
lovely scene or of the incense-freighted
air.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written Over--sO crossed aud recrosseG
by the annals of the years that had
gone before, that there seemed little
room for anything in the present. Lit
tie rocked he that Cromwell's spears
men 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 that had
been hung in the tower when William
the COnquerOr made curfew a law, had
been spared by Puritan and ROundhead,
and that his arm for sixty years had
never failed him at eventide.
He was moving with a slow steI
toward the gaze, when a woman came in
hUrriedly from the street and stood be-
side him; a lovely woman, but with
face so blanched that it seemed carved
in the whitest of marble with all of its
roundness and dimples. Her great sol
emn eyes were raised to the aged face
in pitiful appeal, and the lips We're form
ing words that he could net understand
Speak up, lass. ! am deaf, and cal
not hear you clatter."
For Heavens sake, good Jasper, dc
not ring curfew tonight"
"What, na ring curfew! Ye must bt
daft, lassiew
Jasper, for sweet Heavens sake, fol
one night in all your long life forget t
ring the bell! Fail this once and my
lover shall live, whom Cromwell says
shall die at curfew toll. Do you hear
my lover, brave Richard Temple
See, Jasper, here is money to make you
old age happy. l sold my jewels tha
Lady Maud gave me, and the gold shal
all he yours for one cUrfew."
"Would We bribe me, Lily De We're
YOU'RE a Changeling. Ne've ia Tia,
blood of the Plantaganets in ye're veini
as your mother had. What! corrup
me, bell-ringer under Her Majesty, goot
Queen Bess! Not for all the gold tha
Lady Maud could bring me! What i
your lover to me? Babes have beel
born and strong men have died befor
now to the ringing Of the bell. AVA
awa'u
And out on the village green, will
the solemn shadows lengtheniug owe
it, strong man awaited the curfew T.
toll for his death. lie stood handsOm
apd brave, and tall-taller by an incl
than the tallest pikenan who guarde
him.
What had he done that he should die
Little it mattered in those days whe
the sword that the Great Cromwell
welded was so prone to fall, what he O
others had doue. He had been scrib
to the late lord up at the castle, an
Lady Maud, forgetting that man mus
WOO, and woman must wait, had give
her heart to him without the asking
while the gentle Lily De We're, distau
kinswOman, and distant companion {
her, had, without seeking, found th
treasures of his true love, and held ther
fast. Then he had Joined the army
and made one of COmwell's pious so
diers. But a scOrned woman's hatre
had reached him even there. Enemie
and deep plots had com passed him aboU
and conquered him. Tonight he wa
to die!
The beautiful world lay as vivi
picture before him. The dark gree
wood above the rocky hill where Robi
Hood and his merry men had dwell
the frOwning castle with its drawbridg
and square towers; the long stretch
moor with the purple shadows upon il
the green, straight walks of the village
the birds overhead, even the daisies
his feet he saw. But ah! more vivid
than all, he saw the great red sun wit
its haZy veil lingering above the tree
as though it pitied him with mol
than human pity.
He was GOd-fearing and God-serviu
man. He had long ago made his peat
with heaven. Nothing stood betwea
him and death-nOthing rose pleadin
between him and those who were
destroy him, but the sweet face of Lii
De We're, whom he loved. She ha
knelt at CrOmwell's feet and pIeade
for his life. She had wearied heave
with her prayers, but there came no r.
lief. Slowly now the setting sun wei
down. Slowly the last rays were hi
behind the green wood. Only thIrt
seconds more and the curfew woul
ring. Thirty seconds more and his sol
would be with his God. The color di
not forsake his cheeks. The dark rims
of hair lay upon a warm brow. 1t wa
his purpose to die as martyrs and BRAY
men die. W hat was life that he shoul
cling to it? What was death that
should shrink from it? He almost fe
the air pulsate with the first heav
roll of the death knell. But no souu
came. Still facing the soldiers wit
his clear gray eye upon them, he waite
The crimson banuers in the west we
paling to pink. The kline had cease
their lowing, and had been gathere
into the rick yards.
All nature had sounded her curfeN
but old Jasper was silent.
The bell-ringer, with his gray hes
yet barred, had traversed half the di
tance that lay between his cottage an
the ivy-colored tower, when forl