n it is he found it impossible to resist so courteous a demand.
Accordingly, in the very nick of time, just as the cabin-boy had gone
after a coal of fire to discharge the swivel, a chamade was beat on the
rampart by the only drum in the garrison, to the no small satisfaction of
both parties; who, not withstanding their great stomach for fighting, had
full as good an inclination to eat a quiet dinner as to exchange black
eyes and bloody noses.

Thus did this impregnable fortress once more return to the domination of
their High Mightinesses; Skytte and his garrison of twenty men were
allowed to march out with the honors of war; and the victorious Peter, who
was as generous as brave, permitted them to keep possession of all their
arms and ammunition--the same on inspection being found totally unfit for
service, having long rusted in the magazine of the fortress, even before
it was wrested by the Swedes from the windy Van Poffenburgh. But I must
not omit to mention that the governor was so well pleased with the service
of his faithful squire Van Corlear, in the reduction of this great
fortress, that he made him on the spot lord of a goodly domain in the
vicinity of New Amsterdam, which goes by the name of Corlear's Hook unto
this very day.

The unexampled liberality of Peter Stuyvesant towards the Swedes
occasioned great surprise in the city of New Amsterdam; nay, certain
factious individuals, who had been enlightened by political meetings in
the days of William the Testy, but who had not dared to indulge their
meddlesome habits under the eye of their present ruler, now emboldened by
his absence, gave vent to their censures in the street. Murmurs were heard
in the very council-chamber of New Amsterdam; and there is no knowing
whether they might not have broken out into downright speeches and
invectives, had not Peter Stuyvesant privately sent home his walking-stick
to be laid as a mace on the table of the council-chamber, in the midst of
his counsellors, who, like wise men, took the hint, and for ever after
held their peace.

CHAPTER VII.

Like as a mighty alderman, when at a corporation feast the first spoonful
of turtle-soup salutes his palate, feels his appetite but tenfold
quickened, and redoubles his vigorous attacks upon the tureen, while his
projecting eyes rolled greedily round, devouring everything at table; so
did the mettlesome Peter Stuyvesant feel that hunger for martial glory,
which raged within h