Democratic Northwest. [volume] (Napoleon, Ohio) 1869-1894, 1884-03-06
THE NORTHWEST
THE CURFEw HEROINE.
"Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight"
Told in Prose.

The story that is the basis of the
well-known poem. "CurieW Shall Not
Ring TJ-night," told in prose is a.
follows:
1t lacked quite half an hour of cur
few toll. the old bell-ringer came
from under the wattIcd roof of his cot
tage stoop and stood with uncovered
head in the clear sweet scented air
He had grown blind and deaf in the
service. bu. his arm was as muscular
as ever, and he who listened this day
marked no faltering IN the heavy me
talic ;hrohs of the cathedral bell. Old
Jasper had lived through many chan
ges. He had tolled ont the notes
Of mourning for good Queen Bess. and
with tears scarcely dry he had rung
the glad tidngs of the coronation OF
James. Charles |, had been crownd,
reigned, and expiated his weakness
before all England in Jasper's time.
and now he who under army held all
the common wealth in the hollow OF
bis hand, ruled as more than monarch.
and still the old man with the habit of
q long life upon him rang his matln
and sorrow.
Jasper stood alone now. lifting his
dinmed eyes up to the softly dapped
aky.
The wall OF his-.memory seemed so
written over-so crossed and re-
crossed by the annals Of the years that
had gone before, that there seemed
little room for anything in the present.
Little recenked he that Cromwell's
spearsmen we're camped on the moor
beyond the village-that Crom we'll
himself rode with his gpardsmen
league away; he only knew that the
bell had heen rung in the tower when
William the Conqueror made curfew
law, had been spared by Puritan and
Roundhead, and that his arm for six
ky years had never failed him at even
tide.
He was moving with a slow step to-
ward the gate, when o woman came
h9rriedly In from the street aud stood
beside: Il lovely woman, but with a
face SO blanched that it seemed carved
in the ahitest OF marble, with all its
roundness and dlmples. Her great.
solemn eyes were raised to the aged
face in pitiful appeal, and the lips
were forming words that he could not
understand.
"Speak up lass, l am deaf and can
not hear your chatter"
"For heavens sake, Jasper. do not
ring the curfew bells tonight
"Wnat! no ring curfew7 You
must lie daft, lassie."
Jasper for sweet heavens sake
for my sake--sor one night in all your
long life forget to ring the bell! Fail
this once and my lover shall live,
whom Cromwell says shall dleat curfew
loll. Do you hear? my lover Richard
Temple. See, Jasper. here is my mon
ey to make your old age happy. !
sold my jewelry that the lady Maud
gave me, and the gold shall be yours
Tor one curfew."
"Would you bribe me, Lilly De
We're? Ye'er q changelipg. Ye're ma
&he blood of the Plantagnets in ye're
yeins as ye're mother had. What,
corrupt the bell-ringer under her mai.
asty. good Queen Bass? Not for all
&he gold that Lady Maud could bring
ae! Babes have been born and strong
nen have died before now at the ring.
Ing of my bell. Avail Avail
And out on the village green with
the solemn shadows Of the lichens
lengthening over it, strong man
awaited the curfew toll for his death.
He stood handsome and brave, and
kall--taller by an inch than the talest
Dikeman who guarded him.
What hal he done that he should
die? Little it mattered in those days,
when the sword that the great Crom-
Well welded was so prone to fall, what
Ae or others had done. lie had been
scrihe to the late lord up at the castle,
and Lady Maud, forgetting that man
must woo and woman must walt, had
given her heart to him without the
asking. while the gentle Lilly De We're,
distant kinswoman and poor compan.
don of her, had, without seeking, found
ahe treasures of his true love and held
them last. Then he had joined the
army and made one OF the pious SOL
diers whose evil passions we're never
atirred but by sign or symbol of poet.
~. But scorned woman's hatred
had reached him even there. Enemies
and 1eep plots had compassed hin.
sbuut and conquered him. To night
he was to die.
The beautiful world lay as vivid
picture before him. The dark green
wool above the rocky hill where Rob
in Hood and his merry men had dwelt;
the frowning castle with It's draw.
bridge and square towers, the long