I am so impatient to return to my own story, that what remains of young Le Fever’s , that is, from this turn of his fortune, to the time my uncle Toby recommended him for my preceptor, shall be told in a very few words in the next chapter.—All that is necessary to be added to this chapter is as follows.—
That my uncle Toby , with young Le Fever in his hand, attended the poor lieutenant, as chief mourners, to his grave.
That the governor of Dendermond paid his obsequies all military honours,—and that Yorick , not to be behindhand—paid him all ecclesiastic—for he buried him in his chancel:—And it appears likewise, he preached a funeral sermon over him⸺I say it appears ,—for it was Yorick’s custom, which I suppose a general one with those of his profession, on the first leaf of every sermon which he composed, to chronicle down the time, the place, and the occasion of its being preached: to this, he was ever wont to add some short comment or stricture upon the sermon itself, seldom, indeed, much to its credit:—For instance, This sermon upon the Jewish dispensation—I don’t like it at all;—Though I own there is a world of water-landish knowledge in it,—but ’tis all tritical, and most tritically put together.⸻This is but a flimsy kind of a composition; what was in my head when I made it?
⸺ N.B. The excellency of this text is, that it will suit any sermon,—and of this sermon,⸺that it will suit any text.⸻
⸺For this sermon I shall be hanged,—for I have stolen the greatest part of it. Doctor Paidagunes found me out. ☞ Set a thief to catch a thief.⸻