I comply with your desire? It is that thought which gives me resolution to bid you fly from me forever, and avoid your own destruction." "I fear no destruction," cries he, "but the loss of Sophia. If you will save me from the most bitter agonies, recall that cruel sentence. Indeed, I can never part with you, indeed I cannot." The lovers now stood both silent and trembling, Sophia being unable to withdraw her hand from Jones, and he almost as unable to hold it; when the scene, which I believe some of my readers will think had lasted long enough, was interrupted by one of so different a nature, that we shall reserve the relation of it for a different chapter. XII. TRISTRAM SHANDY (1759-1767). [BOOK SECOND.] CHAPTER V. WHEN a man gives himself up to the government of a ruling passion, or, in other words, when his Hobby-Horse grows headstrong, farewell cool reason and fair discretion. -- My uncle Toby's wound was near well; and as soon as the surrecovered his surprise, and could get leave to say as much geon he told him, 'twas just beginning to incarnate; and that if no fresh exfoliation happened, which there was no sign of,- it would be dried up in five or six weeks. The sound of as many Olympiads, twelve hours before, would have conveyed an idea of shorter duration to my uncle Toby's mind. The succession of his ideas was now rapid, - he broiled with impatience to put his design in execution ; — and so, without consulting farther with any soul living, — which, by the bye, I think is right, when you are predetermined to take no one soul's advice, he privately ordered Trim, his man, to pack up a bundle of lint and dressings, and hire a chariot-and-four, to be at the door exactly by twelve o'clock that day, when he knew my father would be upon 'Change. So leaving a bank-note upon the table for the surgeon's care of him, and a letter of tender thanks for his brother's - he packed up his maps, his books of fortification, his instruments, &c. and by the help of a crutch on one side, and Trim on the other, - my uncle Toby embarked for Shandy-Hall. The reason, or rather the rise, of this sudden demigration, was as follows: The table in my uncle Toby's room, and at which, the night before this change happened, he was sitting with his maps, &c. about him — being somewhat of the smallest, for that infinity of great and small instruments of knowledge which usually lay crowded upon it — he had the accident, in reaching over for his tobacco-box, to throw down his compasses; and in stooping to take the compasses up, with his sleeve he threw down his case of instruments and snuffers; — and as the dice took a run against him, in his endeavoring to catch the snuffers in falling, he thrust Monsieur Blondel off the table, and Count de Pagan o' top of him. 'Twas to no purpose for a man, lame as my uncle Toby was, to think of redressing these evils by himself, he rung his bell for his man Trim. - Trim, quoth my uncle Toby, prithee see what confusion I have here been making- I must have some better contrivance, Trim. Canst not thou take my rule, and measure the length and breadth of this table, and then go and bespeak me one as big again? — Yes, an' please your Honor, replied Trim, making a bow; but I hope your Honor will be soon well enough to get down to your country-seat, where, as your Honor takes so much pleasure in fortification, we could manage this matter to a T. I must here inform you, that this servant of my uncle Toby's, who went by the name of Trim, had been a corporal in my uncle's own company, his real name was James Butler; but having got the nickname of Trim, in the regiment, my uncle Toby, unless when he happened to be very angry with him, would never call him by any other name. The poor fellow had been disabled for the service, by a wound on his left knee, by a musket bullet, at the battle of Landen, which was two years before the affair of Namur ; - and as the fellow was well-beloved in the regiment, and a handy fellow into the bargain, my uncle Toby took him for his servant: and of an excellent use was he, attending my uncle Toby in the camp and in his quarters, as a valet, groom, barber, cook, sempster, and nurse; and indeed, from first to last, waited upon him, and served him with great fidelity and affection. My uncle Toby loved the man in return; and what attached him more to him still, was the similitude of their knowledge ; — for Corporal Trim (for so, for the future, I shall call him) by four years' occasional attention to his Master's discourse upon fortified towns, and the advantage of prying and peeping continually into his Master's plans, &c. exclusive and besides what he gained Hobby-Horsically, as a body-servant, Non Hobby-Horsical per se; had become no mean proficient in the science; and was thought, by the cook and chambermaid, to know as much of the nature of strong-holds as my uncle Toby himself. I have but one more stroke to give to finish Corporal Trim's character, and it is the only dark line in it. The fellow loved to advise, or rather to hear himself talk: his carriage, however, was so perfectly respectful, 'twas easy to keep him silent when you had him so; but set his tongue a-going, you had no hold of him he was voluble; -the eternal interlardings of your Honor, with the respectfulness of Corporal Trim's manner, interceding so strong in behalf of his elocution, — that though you might have been incommoded, — you could not well be angry. uncle Toby was seldom either the one or the other with him, or, at least, this fault in Trim broke no squares with them. My uncle Toby, as I said, loved the man; and besides, as he ever looked upon a faithful servant as an humble friend, he could not bear to stop his mouth. Such was Corporal Trim. My - If I durst presume, continued Trim, to give your Honor my advice, and speak my opinion in this matter-Thou art welcome, Trim, quoth my uncle Toby - speak, speak what thou thinkest upon the subject, man, without fear. Why then, replied Trim (not hanging his ears and scratching his head like a country lout, but) stroking his hair back from his forehead, and standing erect as before his division, I think, quoth Corporal Trim, with humble submission to your Honor's better judgment, — that these ravelins, bastions, curtains, and horn-works, make but a poor, contemptible, fiddle-faddle piece of work of it here upon paper, compared to what your Honor and I could make of it were we in the country by ourselves, and had but a rood, or a rood and a half of ground, to do what we pleased with; as summer is com ing on, continued Trim, your Honor might sit out of doors, and give me the nography (call it ichnography, quoth my uncle) — of the town or citadel your Honor was pleased to sit down before, and I'll be shot by your Honor upon the glacis of it, if I did not fortify it to your Honor's mind. I dare say thou would'st, Trim, quoth my uncle. For if your Honor, continued the corporal, could but mark me the polygon, with its exact lines and angles (That I could do very well, quoth my uncle) — I would begin with the fossé; and if your Honor could tell me the proper depth and breadth (I can, to a hair's breadth, Trim, replied my uncle) — I would throw out the earth upon this hand towards the town for the scarp, and on that hand towards the campaign for the counter-scarp (Very right, Trim, quoth my uncle Toby) -and when I had sloped them to your mind, an' please your Honor, I would face the glacis, as the finest fortifications are done in Flanders, with sods, - (and as your Honor knows they should be) and I would make the walls and parapets of sods too. The best engineers call them gazons, Trim, said my uncle Toby. Whether they are gazons or sods, is not much matter, replied Trim; your Honor knows they are ten times beyond a facing either of brick or stone. - I know they are, Trim, in some respects, - quoth my uncle Toby, nodding his head: - for a cannon-ball enters into the gazon right onwards, without bringing any rubbish down with it, which might fill the fossé (as was the case at St. Nicholas's gate) and facilitate the passage over it. Your Honor understands these matters, replied Corporal Trim, better than any officer in his Majesty's service; but would your Honor please to let the bespeaking of the table alone, and let us but go into the country, I would work under your Honor's directions like a horse, and make fortifications for you something like a tansy, with all their batteries, saps, ditches, and palisadoes, that it should be worth all the world's riding twenty miles to go and see it. My uncle Toby blushed as red as scarlet as Trim went on ; but it was not a blush of guilt, of modesty, or of anger, it was a blush of joy; — he was fired with Corporal Trim's project |