it to the shears. On hearing the general orders, he discharged a tempest
of veteran, soldier-like oaths, and dunder and blixums--swore he would
break any man's head who attempted to meddle with his tail--queued it
stiffer than ever, and whisked it about the garrison as fiercely as the
tail of a crocodile.

The eelskin queue of old Keldermeester became instantly an affair of the
utmost importance. The commander-in-chief was too enlightened an officer
not to perceive that the discipline of the garrison, the subordination and
good order of the armies of the Nieuw-Nederlands, the consequent safety of
the whole province, and ultimately the dignity and prosperity of their
High Mightinesses the Lords States General, imperiously demanded the
docking of that stubborn queue. He decreed, therefore, that old
Keldermeester should be publicly shorn of his glories in presence of the
whole garrison--the old man as resolutely stood on the defensive-whereupon
he was arrested and tried by a court-martial for mutiny, desertion, and
all the other list of offences noticed in the articles of war, ending with
a "videlicet, in wearing an eelskin queue, three feet long, contrary to
orders." Then came on arraignments, and trials, and pleadings; and the
whole garrison was in a ferment about this unfortunate queue. As it is
well known that the commander of a frontier post has the power of acting
pretty much after his own will, there is little doubt but that the veteran
would have been hanged or shot at least, had he not luckily fallen ill of
a fever, through mere chagrin and mortification--and deserted from all
earthly command, with his beloved locks unviolated. His obstinacy remained
unshaken to the very last moment, when he directed that he should be
carried to his grave with his eelskin queue sticking out of a hole in his
coffin.

This magnanimous affair obtained the general great credit as a
disciplinarian; but it is hinted that he was ever afterwards subject to
bad dreams and fearful visitations in the night, when the grizzly spectrum
of old Keldermeester would stand sentinel by his bedside, erect as a pump,
his enormous queue strutting out like the handle.

FOOTNOTES:

[46] Ballad of Dragon of Wantley.

_BOOK VI._

CONTAINING THE SECOND PART OF THE REIGN OF PETER THE HEADSTRONG, AND HIS
GALLANT ACHIEVEMENTS ON THE DELAWARE.

CHAPTER I.

Hitherto, most venerable and courteous reader, have I shown thee the
administration o