The Alaska citizen., 1911-10-02
THE. CURFEW HEROINE The Story of the Celebrated Poem Related in
 Prose-

N fil h44NN n l''ttAAr st4 A'' '.'''''' 'A~' Ring Tonight. told in prose is as follows
 It lacked quite half an hou" of Curfew toll The cid bell-riuger came from under 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. ani he who listened this day marked no falteriHg in the hea,y metallic thrcts of the cathedral bell Old Jasper had lived thrpucl many changes He had tolled Ju, his notes Cf mourning for good Queen Hess. and with tears scarcely dry he had rung the glad tidings of the coronation of James. Charles | had been crowned reigned and eXpiated his weakness before all England in JaspeI's time, and now he. who under army held aIl NiAt OiilAIl'4i wat IT iii NAl- ti'i low Gf his hand, ruled as more than monarch. and still the old maL with the habit of a long life upon him. rang his matin and sorrow.
 Jasper stood alone now. Hitting his dimmed eyes mp to the softly dap pied sky.
 The walls Ct his memory seemed s2 written over so crossed and re crossed by the annals of the years that had gone before, that there seemed little room for any thing in the present Little reCked he that Cromwelfs spearsmen were Camped OH the moor beyond the vllage-that Cromwell himself rode with his guardsmen a league away, he only knew that the bell had been rung in the tower when
 William the Conqueror
 made Curfew a law. and had been spared by Puritan and Roundhead and that his arm. for sixty years, had not failed him at eyentide. He was moving with slow step toward the gate. when a woman came hur- Iiedly in from the street and stood beside him; lovely woman, bu: with a face so blanched that it seem ed carved in the whitest marble with all of it's roundness and dim pies. Her great solemn eyes were raised 10 the aged face in pitiful ap- peal. and the lips were forming words that he could not understand
 Speak up, lass, l am deaf and cannot hear your chatter"
 For heavens sake, Jasper, do not ring the curtew tonight
 What, na ring curfew, Ys must be daft, lassie.'
 Jasper, for sweet heavens sake; for my sake, for one night in all your long life forget to ring tho 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, Jas per, here is money to make your old age happy l sold my jewels that 1he Lady Maud gave me. and the gold shall be all yours for one curfaw."
 Would ye bribe me. Lily De were? We're a changing. We've ma the blood of the Plantagenets in we're veins. as we're mother had What, corrupt the bell-ringing 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. al the ringing of my bell. Ava! Awa."
 And out on the village green, with the solemn shadows of the lchens lengthening over il, strong man awaited the curfew to toll his death He stood handsome and brave and tall-taller by an inch than the tall est pikeman who guarded him. What had he done that he should die? Little il mattered in those days, when the sword that
 The Great Cromwell
 wielded was so prone to fall, what he or others had done He has 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 Lily De We're, distant kinswoman and poor companion to her, had, with out 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 were never stirred but by sign CT symbol of popery. But a scorned woman's hatred had reach ed him even there. Enemies and and conquered him. Tonight he was to die.
 The beautiful world lay as a vivid picture before him. The dark green wood above the rocky hill where Robin Hood and his merry mer Aad dwelt; the frowning castle with it's drawbridge and square purple shad-