The following is an exciting incident that occurred just after the birth of Tristram Shandy. Susannah, the serving-maid, rouses Mr. Shandy with the news that the child is in a fit. Observe the staccato dialogue and the ingenious variation of the paragraph. The humor is typical of Sterne. “Bless me, sir,” said Susannah, “the child’s in a fit”--“And where’s Mr Yorick?”--“Never where he should be,” said Susannah, “but his curate’s in the dressing-room, with the child upon his arm, waiting for the name--and my mistress bid me run as fast as I could to know, as Captain Shandy is the godfather, whether it should not be called after him.” “Were one sure,” said my father to himself, scratching his eyebrow, “that the child was expiring, one might as well compliment my brother Toby as not--and ’t would be a pity in such a case, to throw away so great a name as Trismegistus upon him--But he may recover.” “No, no”--said my father to Susannah, “I’ll get up”--“There’s no time,” cried Susannah, “the child’s as black as my shoe.” “Trismegistus,” said my father--“But stay--thou art a leaky vessel, Susannah,” added my father; “can’st thou carry Trismegistus in thy head the length of the gallery without scattering?”--“Can I?” cried Susannah, shutting the door in a huff--“If she can, I’ll be shot,” said my father, bouncing out of bed in the dark, and groping for his breeches. Susannah ran with all speed along the gallery. My father made all possible speed to find his breeches. =3. Horace Walpole (1717–97).= Walpole was the son of Sir Robert Walpole, the famous Whig minister. He touched upon several kinds of literature, his letters being among the best of their kind. His one novel, _The Castle of Otranto_ (1764), is of importance, for it was the first of the productions of a large school (sometimes called the “terror school”) of novelists who dealt with the grisly and supernatural as their subject. Walpole’s novel, which he published almost furtively, saying, like Chatterton, that the work was of medieval origin, described a ghostly castle, in which we have walking skeletons, pictures that move out of their frames, and other blood-curdling incidents. The ghostly machinery is often cumbrous, but the work is creditably done, and as a return to the romantic elements of mystery and fear the book is noteworthy. =4. Other Terror Novelists.= (_a_) =William Beckford (1759–1844).= The one novel now associated with Beckford’s name is _Vathek_ (1784). Beckford, who was a man of immense wealth and crazy habits, drew largely upon _The Arabian Nights_ for material for the book. The central figure of the novel is a colossal creature, something like a vampire in disposition, who preys upon mankind and finally meets his doom with suitable impressiveness. Beckford had a wild, almost staggering, magnificence of imagination, and his story, though crude and violent in places, does not lack a certain reality.