The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1884-11-21

$50 help me, God, curfew shall not ring to-
night Cromwell and his dragons come this
way. Once more will hneel at his feet and
| plead"
She entered the ruined arch. She wrench
ed from its fastenings the carved and worm
eaten door that barr. d the way to the tower
She assembled with flying and frenzied feet
the steps her heart lifted up to God for
| Richards deliverance from peril. The bats
| flew out and shook the dust of centuries from
the black carving. AS she went up she
caught glimpses of the interior of the great
building, with its groined roof, its chevrons
and clustered columns; its pictured saint and
carved image ofthe virgin, which the pilages
of ages had been spared to be dealt with by
| time, the most relentless vandal of all.
Up-still-up-beyon the rainbow tints
| thrown by the stained glass across her death
| white brow, up-still-up-past open arcade
andarch, with griffin and gargoyles staring
at her from under bracket and cornice, with
| all the hdenusness and medieval carving the
stairs flight by flight, growing Trailer beneath
her young feet ; now but slender network
between her and the outer world but still
up.
Her breath was coming short and gasping.
She saw through an open space old Jasper
cross the road at the foot of the tower. Oh,
how far. The seconds were treasures which
Cromwell, with all his blood. bought COM
mon wealth, could not purchase from her.
Up-ah-there, just above her, with its great
brazen mouth and wicked tongue the bell
hung. A worm-eaten block for step, and
one small, white hand had casped itself about
the capper-the other prepared, at the trem
bic, to rise and clasp its mate, and the feet
10 swing off-and thus she waited. Jasper
was old and slow, but he was sure, and it
came at last. a faint culver, and the young
feet swung from their rest, and the tender
hands clasped for more than their precious
life the writhing thing. There was grooming
and creaking of the rule pulcys above, and
then the stroke came heavy and strong
Jasper's hand had not forgot its cunning
nor his arm its strength. The tender, soft
form was swung and dashed to and fro
But she chung to and caressed the cold, cruel
thing. Let one stroke come and thousand
might folow-for its fatal work would be
done. She wreathed her white arm about
it, so that every pull of the great rope it crush.
ed into the flesh. 1t tore her, and wounded
and bruised but there in the solemn twilight
the brave woman swung and fought with the
curfew, and God gave her victory.
The old bell ringer said to himself: AYE,
Hudah, my work is done. The pulleys are
getting too heavy for my old arm my ears,
too, have failed me. dinna hear one stroke
of the curfew. Dear old bell 1t is my ears
that have gone false, and not thou. Fare
well, old friend"
And just beyond the worn pavement a
shadow form again went fitting past him.
There were drops of blood upon the white gar
ments, and the face was like the face OF one
who had walked in her sleep, and her hands
hung wound and powerless at her side
Cromwell paused with his horsemen under
the dismantled May-pole before the village
green. He saw the man who was TO die at
sunse, standing up in the dusty air, tall as a
King and beautiful as Absalom. He gazed
with knitted brow and angry eye. but his lips
did not give utterance to the quick command
that trembled on Them for girl came flying
towards him. Pikemen and archer stepped
aside to let her pass. She threw hersefupon
the turf at his horses feet she lifted her
bleeding and tortured hands to his gaze, and
once more poured out her prayer for the life
of her lover; with trembling lips she told him
why Richard still lved-why the curfew had
not sounded.
Lady Maud, looking out of her latticed
window at the castle, saw the great Protector
dismount lift the iainting form in his arms
and bear her to her lover. She saw the
guards release their prisoner, and she heard
the shouts of joy at his deliverence; then she
welcomed the night that shut the scene out
from her envious eye and sculptured her in
its gloom.
At the matin bell old Jasper died, and at
the curfew toll he was laid beside his wife
who had died in his youth, but the memory
of whom had been with him always.