does any woman get by it? said my father⸺ Martyrdome ; replied the young Benedictine , making a bow down to the ground, and uttering the word with so humble but decisive a cadence, it disarmed my father for a moment. ’Tis supposed, continued the Benedictine , that St. Maxima has lain in this tomb four hundred years, and two hundred before her canonization⸺’Tis but a slow rise, brother Toby , quoth my father, in this selfsame army of martyrs.⸺A desperate slow one, an’ please your honour, said Trim , unless one could purchase⸺I should rather sell out entirely, quoth my uncle Toby ⸺I am pretty much of your opinion, brother Toby , said my father.
⸺Poor St. Maxima! said my uncle Toby low to himself, as we turn’d from her tomb: She was one of the fairest and most beautiful ladies either of Italy or France , continued the sacristan⸺But who the duce has got lain down here, besides her? quoth my father, pointing with his cane to a large tomb as we walked on⸺It is Saint Optat , Sir, answered the sacristan⸺And properly is Saint Optat plac’d! said my father: And what is Saint Optat’s story? continued he. Saint Optat , replied the sacristan, was a bishop⸺
⸺I thought so, by heaven! cried my father, interrupting him⸺Saint Optat! ⸺how should Saint Optat fail? so snatching out his pocketbook, and the young Benedictine holding him the torch as he wrote, he set it down as a new prop to his system of Christian names, and I will be bold to say, so disinterested was he in the search of truth, that had he found a treasure in Saint Optat’s tomb, it would not have made him half so rich: ’Twas as successful a short visit as ever was paid to the dead; and so highly was his fancy pleas’d with all that had passed in it,—that he determined at once to stay another day in Auxerre .
—I’ll see the rest of these good gentry tomorrow, said my father, as we cross’d over the square—And while you are paying that visit, brother Shandy , quoth my uncle Toby —the corporal and I will mount the ramparts.