Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1882-11-25
the cURFEW HEROINE.
New York Graphic.


Pools MILLS, KY, July Z, 1882.
Mr.. Editor: In your paper of
June 26, l noticed a letter from JeS-
sic Davis, Shannon, Lee county,
Miss, in which she says she would
like to know the history OF the
poem, "Curfew Must Not Ring To-
night" | will send this sketch.
/ do not know whether it Is true
history or not, but as the poem is
universally admired, and has once
found place in the columns of the
Courier Journal, hope Jessie Da-
Wis will find pleasure in reading 1t,
il you deem it worthy OF publica-
ton. Mrs. SUSAN PARKER.
Note by the EditOr.-We think il
more than likely that this sketch is
founded on Miss Rosa Hartwick's
poem, "Curfew Must Not Ring To
Night" She wrote 1t in 1866, when
she was sixteen years OF age, but IL
was not published until 1870. Our
readers are familiar with the poem,
we having published it. We here
with publish the narrative sent us by
Mrs. Parker:
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 arm
was as muscular as ever, and he
who listened this day marked no
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 scarcely dry he had rung
the glad tidings of the coronation of
james. Charles |. had been crown
ed, reigned, and expiated his weak
ness before all England in Jasper's
time and now he, who under his
army held all the commonwealth
in 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 in
sorrow.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting
his dimmed eyes up to the softly
dappled sky.
The walls of his memory seemed
80 written over-SO crossed and re-
crossed by the annals of the years
that had gone beiOre-that there
seemed little room for anything in
the present. Little reckoned he
that Cromwell's spearsmen were
camped on the moor beyond the
village; that Cromwell himselfrOde
with his guardsmen league away;
he only knew that the bell that had |
been rung in the tower when Viii
liam the Conqueror made curfew a
law had been spared by Puritan |
and ROundhead, aud that his ann
for sixty years had never failed |
him at eventide. -- T7r b
He was moving With slow step
toward the gate, when a woman I
came hurFiedly in from the street |
and stood beside him; a lovely
woman, but with face so blapched |
that il seem carved In the whitest I
marble with all its roundness and
dinples. Her great solemn eyes
were raised to the aged face in pitt
full appeal, and the lips were form
ing words that he could not under
stand.
"Speak up, lass: am deaf and
cannot hear your clatter.n
The voice raised, aud the hands /
clasped and uncla8ped, and rung I
themselves together, palm and
palm. -
For heavens sake, Jasper, do I
not ring the curfew tonight
a
must be daft, lassie." 'Z
"Jasper, for sweet heavens sake, 7
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 curfew toll. Dc you
hear? my lover, Richard Temple.
See, Jasper, here is my money to
make your old age happy. l sold
my jewels that the Lady Maud gave
me, and the gold shall all be yours
for one curfew."
"Would We bride me, Lilly de
We're? Ye're a changeling. Ye've
ma the blood of the Plantaganets in
ye're veins as ye're mother had.
What, corrupt the bell-rfnger under /
her Males ty, good Queen Bess p?
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 at the ringing of my
bell. Awap m rr In
And out ON the village green,
with the solemn shadows Of the
heavens lengthening over il. a
strong man awaited the curfew to
toll for his death. He stood, hand.
sOme and brave and tall--taller by
I'm inch than tbs tallest pikeman
who guarded him. ~ tsH
What had he done that he should
lie? Little IL mattered in those
lays, when the sword that the
,reat Cromwell welded was SO
prone to fall, what be or Others haa
lone. He had been scribe to the
ate Lord np at the castle, and Lady !
Maud, forgetting that q man must
voo and women must walt, had
,iyen her heart TO him without the :
akinc while the gentle Lilly De !