Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-07-28
THE CURFEW HEROINE.


The story that is the basis of the
well-known poem, "Curfew Shall Not
Ring Tonight" told in prose, is as fol-
lows:
1t lacked quite half an hour of Cur
few. 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 III 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 JAS
per had lived through many changes.
He had tolled out his notes of mourn
ing for good Queen Bess, and, with
tears scarcely dry, he had rung the
glad tidings of the coronation Of James.
Charles I. had been crowned, reigned
and expiated his weakness before all
England in Jasper's time; and now he,
who under the 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 his sor
row.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly-dappled
sky.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written over-so crossed and reerossed
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 CromwelPs spears
men were camped on the moor beyond
the village-that Cromwell himself
rode with his guardsmen league
away; he only knew that the bell that
had been rung in the tower when Will
lam the Conqueror made curfew 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 a woman came hurried
" in from the street, and stood beside
him; lovely woman, but with face SC
blanched that it seemed carved in the
white3t of marble with all it's roundness
and dimples. Her great solemn eyes
were raised to the aged face in pitiful
appeal, and the lips were forming
words that he could nct understand.
Speak up, lass; I am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter."
The voice raised and the hands
clasped and unclasped, and wrune
themselves together, palm and palm.
For heavens sake, Jasper, do NO
ring the curfew tonight.
What IA ring curfew! Ye must b
daft. lassie."
jasper, for sweet heavens sake, fol
my sake, for one night in all your Ions
lie forget to ring the bell! Fail thi
once, and my lover shall live, whom
Cromwell says shall die at eurfew toll
DO you hear? my lover, Richard Tenn
pie. See, Jasper, here is money f
make your old age happy. I sold m
jewel, that Lady Maud gave No, an'
the gold shall all be yours for one cul
few"
Would ye bride me, Lily De We're
Ye're a changeling. we've ma the bloc
Of the Plantagenets in ye're veins .
we're mother had. What! corrupt tn
bell-ringer under her Majesty, goo
Queen Be8s? Not for all the gold tha
Lady Maud could bring mel What
your lover to me? Babes have bee
born and strong men have died befol
now at the ringing of my bell. Ava
avail"
And out on the village green, wit
luS SO1S1uI SIldlON6 VI JIG 1I41CIASl
lengthening over it, strong ma
awaited the curfew to toll for his dealt
He stood, handsome and brave and ia
taller by an inch than the tallest pix
man who guarded him.
What had he done that he shou]
die? Little it mattered in those day
when the sword that the great Cror
well welded was so prone to fall, VIII
he or others had done. He had be-
scribe to the late Lord up at the castl
and Lady Maud, forgetting that m'
must WOO and woman must wait, hi
given her heart to him without the as
ing, while the gentle Lily De We're, d
tant kinswoman and poor companion
her, had, without seeking, found Il
treasures of his love, and held the
fast. Then he had joined the army, al
made one of the pious soldiers who
evil passions were never stirred but
sign or symbol of popery. But
ScOrued WOman'S hatred ha1 reach