and drilled them in that.
Thundered and threatened and ordered them all
To know he was giving a marching ball.
Round through the parlors, out on the grass
Down through the garden and back did they pass,
Not for a moment he left them to rest,
Forward and backward, and wearied he pressed.
Mrs. Dulany appealed to his pride,
But unceremonious he thrust her aside.
Many the terrors, the words and the fright,
But he marched them and marched them till far in the night.
Mrs. Dulany again essayed
To urge him to cease his desperate raid,
Then bending before her his handsome form,
He declared no lovelier woman was born
Than she, his own, his beautiful wife
Then he vowed to love and cherish through life;
And to prove to all how he loved her then,
He'd embrace her before all those women and men,
Which he certainly did, for he clasped her waist,
And raising her high, strode off in haste.
In vain she screamed, in vain besought,
All her entreaties he set at nought,
Into the pantry he quickly passed
And stuck her up on the vinegar cask
Then locking her in, he lovingly said,
"Dear wife you are tired, 'tis time for bed".

And away he stalked to pick up his gun
For a panic and flight had already begun,
He ordered a halt, but they faster ran,
Urging each other, woman and man.
Wholly regardless of dresses and shoes,
Thorns or stones, or damps or dews.
Halt! he cried again more loud
Then fired his blunderbuss into the crowd,
Which only helped to increase their speed.

They thought he was crased, and he was indeed!
Into the town at dead of night
Forlorn and weary, half dead with fright,
Into the town the company came,
Draggled and straggling, half dead with shame,
That they should have marched and tramped about
At a lunatic's whim, now in, now out,
The livelong night, through garden and hall,
Would they ever forget Ben Dulany's ball!

Mrs. Dulany in grief had passed
The rest of the night on the vinegar cask.
Trembling the servants unlocked the door,
And the wrathful lady stood before
Her ... lord, but never a word
Between them passed, or afterward was heard.
He ordered his horse and from that day,
As I have heard the old people say,
He rode unceasing, nor ever stil