St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1892-12-18
GOmervilla Journal

clear. SWeet-scented air. He had CLOWN
blind and deaf in the service, but his
arm was as muscular as ever. and he
who listened this day marked no falter-
ing in the heavy metallic throbS Of the
cathedral bell. Old Jasper had lived
through many changes. He had tolled
out its notes Of mourning for good
Queen BeSS, and, with tears scarcely
dry, he had rung the glad tidings OF the
coronation of James. Charles |. had
been crowned, Ieigned, and eXpiated
his weakness before all England in JAS
per'S time, and now he who under his
army held all the commonwealth in the
hollow of his hand ruled as more than
monarch, and still the old man, with
the habit of a long life upon him. rang
MS matin and sorrow.
Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
iimmed eyes up 10 the softly dapDled
sky.
The walls of his memory seemed
so written over-sO crossed and re-
crossed by the annals of the life that
had gone before that there seemed lit
Tie room for anything in the present.
Little rocked he that CrOmwell's spears
men were camped on the moor beyond
The Village-Ihat Cromwell himself rode
with his guardSmen league away; he
only knew that the bell that had rung
in the tower when William the Con-
Iuerer had made curfeW a law had been
spared by Puritan and Roundhead and
that his arm for sixty years had never
failed him at eVCntide.
He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when woman came hurrledly
in from the street and stood beside him
"a lovely woman, but with face so
I1 ali, hot n N
Whtest of marble with all its rOundneSS
and dimpIes. Her great, solemn eyes
were raised 10 the aged face i'll pitirul
appeal, and the lips were forming words
hat he could not understand.
Speak up, lass. am deaf and can
not hear your clatteE"
The voice raised, and the hands
clasped and unclasped, and rung them
selves together, palm and palm.
For heavens sake, Jasper, do not
ring the curfew tonight"
What, ma ring curfew? You 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
Dnee, and my lover shall live, whom
DO You hear? My loyel-kichard Tenn
pie. See, Jasper, here is money to
make your old age happy. | sold my
Jewels that the lady Maud gave me,and
The gold shall be yours FOR one curfew."
"Would you bri5e NE, Lily de Vere9
Ye're changeling. we've ma the blood
Of the Plantagenets in ye're veins as
Fe'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! What is
your lover to me-? Babes have been
born and strong men have died before
now at the ringing of my bell. Ava!
avail"
And out on the village green. with
the shadows Of the lindens lengthening
over it, strong man awaited the cur
few to toll for his death. He stood,
handsome, brave and tall-taller by an
inch than the talIest pikeman who
guarded HIM.
What had been done that he should
die? Little it mattered in those days,
when the sword that the great Cromwell
welded was so prone to fall, what he
Or others bad done. He had been scribe
to the late lord up at the castle, and
Lady Maud, forgetting that man must
WOO and woman must wait, had given
her heart to him without the asking,
while the gentle Lilly de We're, distant
kinswOman and poor companion to her.
had without seeking found the treasures
of his true love and held them fast.
Then he had joined the army and made
one Of the pious soldiers whose evil
passions had never been stirred but by
sign or symbol of pOpery. But scorned
WOmah's hatred had reached him even
there. Enemies and deep plots had
comprised him about and conquered
him fHODiCht he WAS tO dip
The beautiful world lay as vivid
picture before him. The dark green
wood above the rocky hill where Robin
Hood and his merry men had dWelt; |
the frOWning castle, with its draWbridge |
and square towers: the long stretch of |
moor with the purple shadows upon it; |
the green, straight walks OF the village;
the birds overhead; even the daisies at |
his feet he saw. But all. more wildly |
than all, he saw the great rel sun with |
its hazy veil lingering above the trees, |
rs though it pitied him with more than !!
human pity.
He was GOd-fearIng and God-serving |
man. lie had long made his peace with |
heaven. Nothing stood between him !
and death-nothing rose pleading be-
tween him and those who were to de- |
story him but Che sweet face OF Lily de |
We're. whom he loved. She had knelt |
at Cr0mwelPs feet and pleaded for his
life. She had Wearied heaven with her |
prayers, but all without avail.
Slowly now the great sun went down.
Slowly the last red rim was hid behind |
the greenwood. Thirty seconds more
and his soul would be with his God.
The color did not forsake his checks.
The dark rings of hair lay upon a warm
brow. 1t was his purpose to die as mar
tyrs and brave men die. What was life
that he should cling to 1t? He already
felt the air pulsate with the first heavy
roll Of the death knell. But no sound
came. Still facing the soldiers with his /
clear gray eyes upon them, he waited.
The crimson banners in the west were
paling to pink. The kline had ceased |
their lowing and had been gathered into |
HE barnyardS.
All nature had sounded her'curfeW, |
but Jasper was silent.
The bell ringer, with his gray head |
yet barred, had traversed half the dis
lance that lay between his cottage and |
The UNCOVERED tower when form |
went fiittingly past him with pale, |
5hadoWy robes floating around If, and |
nair that the low western lights |
touched and tinted as with a halo.
"Ah. Huldah, Huldah!" the old man
Muttered, "hoW swift she flies! | will |
come soon, dear. My work is almost |
lone" Huldah was the good wife who /
lad gone from him in her early woman
hood, and for whom he had mourned all |
his long life. But the fleeing form was
not Huldah'S; it was Lily de We're,
hurried by sudden and desperate pur-
pose toward the cathedral.
$50 help me God. curfew shall not
ling tonight. Cromwell and his Ora
goons come this way. Once more l will
kneel at his feet and plead"
She entered the ruined arch. She
wrenched from its faStenings the carved
and wOrm-eaten> door that barred the
way to the tower. She assembled with
dying ana frenZed feet the steps: her
heart lifted UP to God for Richards de
liverance from peril. The bats flew out
and shook the dust of centuries from
lie black carvings. AS she went up
she caught glimpses of the interior of
the great building, with its groined
roof, its chevrons and clustered col
nmns; its pictured saint and carved i'm
age of the Virgin. which the pillagers