70                                HISTORY OF

mined that old Kildermeester should be publicly
shorn of his glories in presence of the whole gar¬
rison—the old man as resolutely stood on the
defensive—whereupon the general, as became a
great man, was highly exasperated, and the of¬
fender 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 " videlicit, in wearing an eel-skin queue,
three feet long, contrary to orders"—Then came
on arraignments, and trials, and pleadings, and
the whole country was in a ferment about this
unfortunate queue. As it is well known that the
commander of a distant 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 cha¬
grin and mortification—and most flagitiously
deserted from all earthly command, with his be¬
loved locks unviolated. His obstinacy remained
unshaken to the very last moment, when he di¬
rected that he should be carried to his grave
with his eel-skin queue sticking out of a hole in
his coffin.

This magnanimous affair obtained the general
great credit as an excellent disciplinarian, but
it is hinted that he was ever after subject to bad