Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1884-01-24
The Curfew Heroine.
The Story Of the Poem Told in Prose,
"Curfew Shall Not Ring Tonight
The Temptation Offered to
Old Jasper, Etc.

Haverhill Mass.] Bulletin
The story that is the basis of the well
known poem, ''Curfew Shall Not Ring To
night" told in prose, is as follows:
1t lacked quite half an hour of curfew
toll. The old bell ringer came from TN
der 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 lis
tened 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 l. had been crowned, reigned. and
expaiated his weakness before all England
in Jasper's time, and now he who under
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 sorrow.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
sky.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written oger-So crossed and recroSSed
by the annals of the years that had gone
before, that there seemed little room for
anything in the present. Little rocked
he that Cromwelfs spearsmen were camp
ed on the moor beyond the village
Cromwell himself rode with his guards
men a league away, he only knew that
the bell had been rung in the tower
when William the Conqueror made cur
few law, had been spared by Puritan
and Roundhead, and that his ann for six
ty years had never failed him at even
tide.
He was moving with slow step to-
ward the gate, when woman came hur-
riedly in from the street and stood beside
him; lovely woman, but with face so
blanched that it seemed carved in the
whitest of marble, with all of its round
ness and dimples. Her great, solemn
eyes were raised to the aged face in pitt
full appeal, AID the lips were forming
words that he could not understand.
Speak up, lass l am deaf and cannot
hear you clatter."
For heavens sake. Jasper, do not ring
the curfew bells to night"
what? ma ring curfew! Ye must be
daft, lassie"
Jasper, for sweet heavens sake-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 Crom-
well says shall die at curfew toll. Do
you hear? my lover, Richard Temple.
See, Jasper, here is money to make your
old age happy. 1 sold my jewelry that
the Lady Maud gave me, and the gold
shall all be yours for one curfew."
Would you bribe me, Lily de We're?
Ye're a changeling. Ye've na the blood
of the Plantagenets in ye're veins as ye're
mother had. What, corrupt the bell
ringer under her Majesty, good Queen
Bess? Not for all the gold that Lady
Maud could bring me! Babes have been
born and strong men have died before
now at the ringing of my bell. Ava
Awa'p
And out on the village green with the
solemn shadows of the lichens lengthen
ing over it, a strong man awaited the
curfew to toll for his death. He stood
handsome, and brave, and tall-taller by
an inch than the tallest pikeman who
guarded him.
What had he done that he should die