Hungary against the Turks, kindling a spark of fire in his bosom, he left his Greek and Latin without leave, and throwing himself upon his knees before my uncle Toby, begged his father's sword, and my uncle Toby's leave along with it, to go and try his fortune under Eugene. Twice did my uncle Toby forget his wound, and cry out, Le Fevre, I will go with thee, and thou shalt fight beside me!—and twice he laid his hand upon his groin, and hung down his head in sorrow and disconsolation.

My uncle Toby took down the sword from the crook, where it had hung untouched ever since the Lieutenant's death, and delivered it to the Corporal to brighten up-and having detained Le Fevre a single fortnight to equip him, and contract for his passage to Leghorn, he put the sword into his hand. If thou art brave, Le Fevre, said my uncle Toby, this will not fail thee;-but Fortune, said he, (musing a little)-Fortune may;-and if she does,-added my uncle Toby, embracing him, come back again to me, Le Fevre, and we will shape thee another course.

The greatest injury could not have oppressed the heart of Le Fevre more than my uncle Toby's paternal kindness; he parted from my uncle Toby as the best of sons from the best of fathers :-both dropped tears; -and as my uncle Toby gave him his last kiss, he slipped sixty guineas, tied up in an old purse of his father's, in which was his mother's ring, into his hand, -and bid God bless him.

CHAPTER CLXXIV.

Le Fevre got up to the imperial army just time enough to try what metal his sword was made of, at the defeat of the Turks before Belgrade; but a series of unmerited mischances had pursued him from that moment, and trod close upon his heels for four years

together after. He had withstood these buffetings to the last, till sickness overtook him at Marseilles, from whence he wrote my uncle Toby word, he had lost his time, his services, his health, and, in short, every thing but his sword;—and was waiting for the first ship to return back to him.

As this letter came to hand about six weeks before Susannah's accident, Le Fevre was hourly expected; and was uppermost in my uncle Toby's mind all the time my father was giving him and Yorick a description of what kind of a person he would choose for a preceptor to me: but as my uncle Toby thought my father at first somewhat fanciful in the accomplishments he required, he forebore mentioning Le Fevre's name, till the character, by Yorick's interposition, ending, unexpectedly, in one who should be gentletempered, and generous, and good, it impressed the image of Le Fevre, and his interest, upon my uncle Toby so forcibly, that he rose instantly off his chair; and, laying down his pipe, in order to take hold of both my father's hands, I beg, brother Shandy, said my uncle Toby, I may recommend poor Le Fevre's son to you.- -I beseech you, do, added Yorick.He has a good heart, said my uncle Toby.And a brave one too, an' please your honour, said the Corporal.

-The best hearts, Trim, are ever the bravest, replied my uncle Toby. And the greatest cowards, an' please your honour, in our regiment, were the greatest rascals in it.-There was Serjeant Kumber, and Ensign

We'll talk of them, said my father, another time.

CHAPTER CLXXV.

What a jovial and a merry world would this be, may it please your worships, but for that inextricable

labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent, melancholy, large jointures, impositions, and lies!

Doctor Slop, like a son of a w as my father called him for it, to exalt himself,-debased me to death, and made ten thousand times more of Susannah's accident than there was any ground for; so that, in a week's time, or less, it was in every body's mouth, that poor Master Shandy

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entirely; and Fame, who loves to double every thing, in three days more, had sworn, positively, she saw it; and all the world, as usual, gave credit to her evidence, that the nursery window had not only

Could the world have been sued like a body-corporate, my father had brought an action upon the case, and trounced it sufficiently; but to fall foul of individuals about it,- -as every soul who had mentioned the affair, did it with the greatest pity imaginable,―'twas like flying in the very face of his best friends; and yet to acquiesce under the report in silence, was to acknowledge it openly, at least in the opinion of one half of the world; and to make a bustle again, in contradicting it, was to confirm it as strongly in the opinion of the other half.

-Was ever poor devil of a country-gentleman so hampered? said my father.

-I would show him publicly, said my uncle Toby, at the market-cross.

-Twill have no effect, said

my father.

CHAPTER CLXXVI.

-I'll put him, however, into breeches, said my father, let the world say what it will.

CHAPTER CLXXVII.

There are a thousand resolutions, sir, both in church and state, as well as in matters, madam, of a more private concern, which, though they have carried all the appearance in the world of being taken, and entered upon in a hasty, hair-brained, and unadvised manner, were, notwithstanding this, (and could you or I have got into the cabinet, or stood behind the curtain, we should have found it was so) weighed, poised, and perpended, argued upon,-canvassed through,-entered into, and examined on all sides with so much coolness, that the Goddess of Coolness herself (I do not take upon me to prove her existence) could neither have wished it, or done it better.

Of the number of these was my father's resolution of putting me into breeches; which, though determined at once, in a kind of huff and a defiance of all mankind,—had, nevertheless, been pro'd and con'd, and judicially talked over betwixt him and my mother about a month before, in two several beds of justice, which my father had held for that purpose. I shall explain the nature of these beds of justice in my next chapter; and in the chapter following that, you shall step with me, madam, behind the curtain, only to hear in what kind of manner my father and my mother debated between themselves this affair of the breeches; -from which you may form an idea how they debated all lesser matters.

CHAPTER CLXXVIII.

The ancient Goths of Germany, who (the learned Cluverius is positive) were first seated in the country between the Vistula and the Oder, and who afterwards incorporated the Herculi, the Bugians, and some other Vandalic clans to them,-had, all of them, a wise custom of debating every thing of importance to their state, twice; that is,- -once drunk, and once sober.-Drunk,-that their councils might not want vigour; and sober, that they might not want dis

cretion.

Now my father, being entirely a water-drinker, was a long time gravelled, almost to death, in turning this as much to his advantage as he did every other thing which the ancients did or said; and it was not till the seventh year of his marriage, after a thousand fruitless experiments and devices, that he hit upon an expedient which answered the purpose; and that was, when any difficult and momentous point was to be settled in the family, which required great sobriety, and great spirit too, in its determination,-he fixed and set apart the first Sunday night in the month, and the Saturday night which immediately preceded it, to argue it over, in bed, with my mother: by which contrivance, if you consider, sir, with yourself,

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These my father, humorously enough, called his beds of justice;-for from the two different counsels taken in these two different humours, a middle one was generally found out, which touched the point of wisdom as well, as if he had got drunk and sober a hundred times.

It must not be made a secret of to the world, that