230                             HISTORY OF
 

CHAPTER VII.
 

Containing a doleful disaster of Antony the
Trumpeter—And how Peter Stuyvesant, like
a second Cromwell, suddenly dissolved a rump
Parliament.

Now did the high minded Pieter de Groodt,
shower down a pannier load of benedictions
upon his Burgomasters, for a set of self-willed,
obstinate, headstrong varlets, who would neither
be convinced nor persuaded; and determined
thenceforth to have nothing more to do with
them, but to consult merely the opinion of his
privy counsellors, which he knew from experi¬
ence to be the best in the world—inasmuch as
it never differed from his own. Nor did he omit,
now that his hand was in, to bestow some thou¬
sand left-handed compliments upon the sove¬
reign people; whom he railed at for a herd of
poltroons, who had no relish for the glorious
hardships and illustrious misadventures of bat¬
tle—but would rather stay at home, and eat and
sleep in ignoble ease, than gain immortality
and a broken head, by valiantly fighting in a
ditch.

Resolutely bent however upon defending his