The Baltimore County union., 1884-09-20
The CurfeW Heroine.
From the HaverhiU (Mass.) Bulletin.

From the HdverhiH MdSs.) DuIeun.
The story that is the basis of the
well-known poem, "Curfew Shall Not
Ring Tonight" told in prose, is as
follows:
1t lacked quite half an hour of cur
few toll. The old bell-ringer came
forth from under the wattled roof of his
cottage sloop, 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 metal
lie throbs of the cathedral bell. Old
Jasper had lived through many changes.
He had tolled out the notes of mourn
ing for good Queen Bess, and with tears
scarcely dry he had rung the glad It'd
ings of the coronation of James. Charles
1. had been crowned, and reigned and
iand in Jasper tme, ad hsd"r 6oa he eEWpo Wo
under army held all the Commonwealth
in the hollow of his hand, ruled as more
than a 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 dim
med eyes up to the softly dappled sky.
The walls of his memory seemed so
written over-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 reckoned
he that Cromwell's spearsmen were en-
camped on the moor beyond the village
that Cromwell himself rode with his
guardsmen 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 arm for
sixty years had never failed him at even
tide.
He was moving with slow step to-
ward the gate, when woman came
hurriedly in from the street and stood be-
side him; a lovely woman, but with a
face SO blanched that it seemed carved
in the whitest of marble, with all of its
roundness dimples. ergreat, solemn
eyes were raised to the aged face in pit
iful appeal, and the lips were forming
words that he could not understand.
"Speak up, lass; l am deaf and can
not hear your clatter."
"For Heavens sake, Jasper do not
ring the curfew bells tonight"
"What! ma ring curfew? Ye must be
daft, lasse." j"
"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
Cromwell says shall die at curfew toll:
Do you hear? My lover. Richard
Temple. See Jasper, here is money to
make your old age happy. l sold my
iewelry that the Lady Maud gave me,
and the gold shall be yours for one cur
few"
"Would you bribe me, Lily de We're
Ye're changeling. Ye've ma the blood
of the Plantagenets in ye've veins as yere
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 be-
fore now at the ringing of my bell.
Avail Avail"
And out on the village green with SOL
emn shadows of the lichens lengthenlne
over it, a strong man awaited the cur
| few 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
Little it mattered in those days. wher
the sword that the great Cromwell WELD
ed was so prone to fall, what he or Others
had done. He had been scribe to the
late Lord up at the castle, and the Lady
Maud, forgetting that man must WOO ane
women must wait, had given her hear
| to him without the asking, while thu
gentle Lily De Yere, distant kinswomar
and poor companion of her, had, with
out seeking, found the treasures OF hi
true love and held them fast. Their
he had Joined the army and made ON
of the pious soldiers whose evil passion
were never stirred but by sign or symbol
of poetry. But scorned woman's hatre'
had reached him even there. Enemie
and deepplots had conquered him. To
night he was to die.
The beautiful world lay as vivid pic
ture before him. The dark green WOO
above the rocky hill where Robin Hoo
and his merry men had dwelt; the frown
ing castle with its draw-bridge an
square towers, the long stretch of moo
with the purple shadows upon it, tn