⸺By all which it appears, quoth I, having read it over, a little too rapidly, that if a man sets out in a post-chaise from Paris —he must go on travelling in one, all the days of his life—or pay for it.—Excuse me, said the commissary, the spirit of the ordinance is this—That if you set out with an intention of running post from Paris to Avignon , etc. , you shall not change that intention or mode of travelling, without first satisfying the fermiers for two posts further than the place you repent at—and ’tis founded, continued he, upon this, that the revenues are not to fall short through your fickleness ⸺
⸺O by heavens! cried I—if fickleness is taxable in France —we have nothing to do but to make the best peace with you we can⸺
And so the peace was made ;
⸺And if it is a bad one—as Tristram Shandy laid the cornerstone of it—nobody but Tristram Shandy ought to be hanged.