Show THE CURFEW lei HEROINE EROIN the story that is the basis of the well known poem I 1 curfew 1 afew shall not king ring tonight to night 11 told in prose is as follows it lacked half an hour of curfew toll the old bellringer bell ringer came from under the roof of his cottage stoop and stood with uncovered head in the clear sweet canted air he had grown blind and deaf in the servie but his 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 ile he had tolled out his 0 notes of mourning for good queen bess and with tears scarcely dry had rung the giad glad tidings of the thel coronation of james charles charies I 1 had been crowned reigned and expiated llis liis weakness before allE alie all ail england in jaspers time and now he who under the ar army la y held all the commonwealth in the ho hollow i of his hand ruled as more than a monarch and still the old man with wl th the habit of a long along iong life upon him rang his matin and sorrow the walls of his memory seemed so go written over so crossed and re crossed dy the annals of the years that had gone before that there seemed little littie room for anything in the present little reckoned he that spears men were camped on the moor beyond the villa village e that cromwell himself rode rod le with his guardsmen guardsman guards men a le leagie ague away he only knew that the bell beli had been rung in the tower when william the made curfew a law had been spared by puritan and roundhead and that his aim alm arm for sixty long iong years had never failed him at eventide even tlde tide he was moving with a slow step toward 4 rd the gate when d a woman came hurriedly u r friedly in from the street and stood beside him a lovely woman but with a face so blanched that it seemed carved in the whitest of marble with all of its roundness and dimples her groat groa solemn eyes were raised to tho the age aged igoe een censul cen in pul pui appeal and the ilp alp P wera forming ng words that he could not understand speak up lass I 1 am deaf and cannot hear your clatter gor wor heavens sake jasper do not ring the curfew bell tonight to night I 1 1 I what na ring curfew ye must be daft las lassie lassle jasper asper for sweet heavens sake for my sake for one night in all your long life ilfe forget to ring the bell fall 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 jour old oid age happy I 1 sold my jewelry that lady mauo matic gave me ma and arld the gold shall all be yours for one curfew would you bribe me lily de vere yere a changeling yere na the blood of the in yere veins as yere etre ekre mother had ead what corrupt the bell bell beli ringer under her majesty good queen bess not for all the gold lady maud could bring babes have been born and strong man men have died belore before now at the ringing of my bell awal awai lAwaI awal and out on the village green with the solemn shadows of the barches larches lengthening over it a strong trong man awaited the curfew tota to toll 1 for for tor his death ile he stood handsome and brave and tall taller by an inch than the tallest guarded him what bad had he done that he should die little it mattered in those days when the sword sword wielded by the great brom cromwell was so prone to fall what he or others had bad done ane ile he had been scribe I 1 to the late lord up at the castle and lady maud forgetting that man must woo and woman must walt wait had given her heart to him liim without the kin kingas as while the gentle lily de vere distant kinswoman and poor comp communion union to her had without the seeking found the treasures of his truer love and had held them thern fast then he had joined the army and made me of the pious soldiers whose evil passions were never shired but by sign or symbol of poetry buta but a scorned woi wol womans homans nans hatred had reached him nim even there enemies and deep plots had compassed him about and conquered him tonight to night he was to die the beautiful world lay as a vivid picture before him himl the dark green wood above the rocky hill where robin hood alood and his bis merry men had dwelt the frowning castle with its drawbridge and suara t towers the long iong stretch of moor i stuarth wa with tl I 1 the e purple shadows upon it the f green straight walks of the village the birds overhead even ae he daises at his feet he be saw but ahl ah more vivial vividly y than all he saw the great red sun with I 1 its ts ha hazy veil lingering above the tree to tops as eatough tough though it pitied him with more thag than an human pity he was a god fearing and a god serving man he had long made his peace wilh heaven nothing stood between him tand land death nothing rose pleading between him and those who were to destroy him but the s sweet w face of lily de vere whom he lo 10 loved v ece she haak nelt neit at feet and pleaded for him she wearied heaven with her prayers but all without avail slowly now the great sun went down slowly the last rim was wag hid beneath the ere enwood thirty minutes more and he would be with god the color did not forsake his cheek check the dark rings of hair lay upon a warm brow it was his purpose to die as martyrs and brave men die what was life that he should cling to it he almost felt the air pulsate with the first heavy roll aigul 0 of the knell but no sound caw care still facing the soldiers with his clear gray eyes upon them he waited all nature had sounded her curfew but old jasper was silent the bell ringer with his gray head yet bared had traversed naif the distance between his cottage and the ivy tower when a form went flitting him hinn with pale shadowy robes floating around it and hair that the low western lights touched and tinted as with a halo I 1 ah gail huldah huldah Hul hui dahl I 1 the old man mattered how swift she filesi flies 1 awill I 1 will come soon dear my work is almost done huldah was a good wife who had gone from him in early womanhood and for whom he had mourned all his long life but the fleeting form was not Hul dahs it was lily de vere hurried bya by a sudden and desperate purpose toward the cathedral i so help heip me god curfew shall not lotring ring to night I 1 cromwell and his dra dragoons come coine this wa way once more will il I 1 neel kneel pleada she entered the ruined arch and wrenched from its fastenings the carved and worm eaten door that barred the way to the tower she ascended with flying and frenzied feet the steps her heart lifted up to gob god god lor tor richards deliverance from peril the bats flew out and snook 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 che and nd clustered columns its pictured saints and carved images of the virgin which the pillages of ages had spared to be dealt wity with by time the most post relentless vandal af all up still up beyond the rainbow tints thrown by the stained glass across her deathlike death like brow up still up past open arcade arch with griffen and gargoyles staring at her from froin under bracket fet f iet et and cornice cornic 6 with all the hideousness and medieval carving the stairs flight ht by flight growing fraller frailer beneath her soung feet now how a slender net not wark between her and this outer horldt world but still up lifer breath was coming short and g efting gapping gas gap ping she saw sav through an open space old jasper cross the road at the 00 oot 01 ft WW ghi ab W fri T tt 9 seconds were treasures which crom rog we well weli with all his blood bought com corm mon wealth could not purchase from t her up ah there just above her lher with its great brazen mouth and wick ed cd ton tongue e the bell hung A worm eaten b block ju oc for a step and one small white hand had clasped itself the cla cia clap per the other prepared at the tromble tremble to rise and clasp its mate and the feet fee to swing off and thus she waited jasper was old and slow but he was i sure and it came at last A faint qui ver and the young feet swung from their rest and the young hands clasped for more than their precious life the writhing thing there was groaning and creaking of rude pulleys above and then the strokes came heavy and strong jaspers hand had not lost its cunning nor lis ils als arm its strength the tender soft form was dashed to and fr fry fra but she clung to and caressed the cold cruel thing Letone let one stroke command come and a thousand might follow for its fatal work would be done she wreathed her white arms about it so that at every pull of the great rope it crushed into the flesh it 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 bellringer bell ringer said to himself aye huldah my work is done the pule pulleys are getting too heavy for my old alts aits arms my ro ears cars too have failed me r I 1 dinna hear one stroke of the curfew dear old bell f it is my eyes that have zone gone false and not thou farewell old friend I 1 and just beyond the worn pavement a shadowy form again went flitting past him there were drops of blood upon the white garments and the face was like the f face ace of one who walked in her sleep and her hands hung wounded and powerless at her side cromwell paused with his horsemen under the dismantled maypole before is the village green he saw the man who 44 41 was to die at sunset standing up in the dusk dusky K air tall as a king and handsome v as absalom salom ile he gazed with knitted brow and angry eye but his lips did not give utterance to the quick command that trembled on them for the girl came flying toward him and archers stood aside to let her pass she threw herself upon the turf at his horses feet she lifted her bleeding and tortured hands to his gaze ana and and once more poured out her P rayer prayer e for the life of her lover with tr trembling emb amb ing lips she told him why richard still lived why the curfew had not sounded lady maud looking out of her latticed window at the castle saw the great protector dismount lift the fainting form in his arms and bear her to her lover she saw the guards release their prisoner and sh shepheard she e heard beard the shouts of joy at his deliverance then she welcomed the night that shut thea the uhe ja scene out from her envious eyes and ri sculptured herin her in its gloom f at the next matin bell old jasper jas er I 1 died and at curfew toll he was laid te beside the wife who had dleo died in his youth auth but the memory of whom had teen been heen with him always |