LE FEVER 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 Fever_ 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 chuse for a preceptor to me: but as my uncle _Toby_ thought my father at first somewhat fanciful in the accomplishments he required, he forbore mentioning _Le Fever_’s name,——till the character, by _Yorick_’s inter-position, ending unexpectedly, in one, who should be gentle-tempered, and generous, and good, it impressed the image of _Le Fever_, and his interest, upon my uncle _Toby_ so forcibly, 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 Fever_’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. C H A P. LVII 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 grounds for; so that in a week’s time, or less, it was in every body’s mouth, _That poor Master Shandy_ * * * * * * * * * * * * 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 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ;—but that * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ’s also.”