Year: 1874

THE HEROINE OF THE CURFEW


1t lacked but half an hour of curfew
toll. The old bell-ringer 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 old arm was as muscular as
ever; and he who listened 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 the First had been crowned,
reigned, and expiated his weaknesses
before all England i'll Jasper's time
and now he who under his army
held alltha Commonwealth in the hollow
of his hand ruled as more than mon
arch, and still the old man with the
habit of n long life upon him, rang his
matin and curfew.


Jasper stood alone now, lifting his
dimmed eyes up to the softly dappled
Shy, ShiHtIiliS5 pttt ~ 1dlIlu SGISt ol llc
lovely scene or of the incense freighted
air.


The walls of his memory seemed so
written over--so crossed and recrosscd
by the annals of the years that had
gone before, that there seemed little
room for anything i'll the present
Little rocked he that Cromwell's spears
men were camped on the moor beyond
the village-that Cromwell himself rode
with his guardsmen but Il league away !;
he only knew that the bell that had been
hung in the tower when William the
Conqueror made curfew law, had been
spared by Puritan and Roundhead, and
that his arm for sixty years had never
failed him at eventide.


He was moving with slow step toward
the gate, when woman came hurriedly
i'll from the street and stood beside him;
q 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, and the lips were forming
words that he could not understand.


"Speak up, lass. am deaf, and can
not hear your clatter."


The voice raised, and the hands
clasped and unclasped, and wrung them
selves together, palm to palm.


"For Heavens sake, good Jasper, do
not ring curfew tonight


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, who
Cromwell says shall die at curfew toll.
Do you hear ?-my lover, brave Richard
Temple. See, Jasper, here is money to
make your old age happy, sold my
jewels that the Lady Maud gave me ;
and the gold shall all be yours for one
curfew.


Would ye bribe me, Lily De We're
Ye're changeling. Ye've ma the blood
OF the Plantagenets in ye're veins as
your mother had. What ! corrupt me,
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 to the llnging of my bell. AVA,
AVA p


And out on the village green, with the
solemn shadows of the hndens length.
enlng over it. 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
Little it mattered in those DAYS. when
the sword that the great Cromwell
welded was so prone to fall, what he Oh
others had 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 Lily De We're, distant
KlnsWoman, and poor companion to her,
hao, without seeking, found the treas.
nres OF his true love, and held them
1ast; Then he had joined the army, and
maze one OF the pious soldiers whose
eVli passions We're never stirred but by
sign or symbol of Popery. But a
scorned woman's hatred had reached
MN even there. Enemies and deer
Plots mad compassed him about and
conquered him. Tonight he was tc


The beautiful world lay as a 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 it's drawbridpf
and square towers; the long stretch 8,
moor with the purple shadows upon it
the green, straight walks of the village
the birds overhead, even the daisies al
his feet he saw. But, all more viyidly
than all, he saw the great red sun witt
its hazy veil lingering above the trees