rd has given me.--I wish I had not known so
much of this affair,--added my uncle Toby,--or that I had known more of
it:--How shall we manage it? Leave it, an't please your honour, to me,
quoth the corporal;--I'll take my hat and stick and go to the house and
reconnoitre, and act accordingly; and I will bring your honour a full
account in an hour.--Thou shalt go, Trim, said my uncle Toby, and here's
a shilling for thee to drink with his servant.--I shall get it all out
of him, said the corporal, shutting the door.

My uncle Toby filled his second pipe; and had it not been, that he now
and then wandered from the point, with considering whether it was not
full as well to have the curtain of the tennaile a straight line, as a
crooked one,--he might be said to have thought of nothing else but poor
Le Fever and his boy the whole time he smoaked it.

Chapter 3.L.

The Story of Le Fever Continued.

It was not till my uncle Toby had knocked the ashes out of his third
pipe, that corporal Trim returned from the inn, and gave him the
following account.

I despaired, at first, said the corporal, of being able to bring
back your honour any kind of intelligence concerning the poor sick
lieutenant--Is he in the army, then? said my uncle Toby--He is, said
the corporal--And in what regiment? said my uncle Toby--I'll tell your
honour, replied the corporal, every thing straight forwards, as I learnt
it.--Then, Trim, I'll fill another pipe, said my uncle Toby, and not
interrupt thee till thou hast done; so sit down at thy ease, Trim, in
the window-seat, and begin thy story again. The corporal made his old
bow, which generally spoke as plain as a bow could speak it--Your honour
is good:--And having done that, he sat down, as he was ordered,--and
begun the story to my uncle Toby over again in pretty near the same
words.

I despaired at first, said the corporal, of being able to bring back any
intelligence to your honour, about the lieutenant and his son; for when
I asked where his servant was, from whom I made myself sure of knowing
every thing which was proper to be asked,--That's a right distinction,
Trim, said my uncle Toby--I was answered, an' please your honour, that
he had no servant with him;--that he had come to the inn with hired
horses, which, upon finding himself unable to proceed (to join, I
suppose, the regiment), he had dismissed the morning after he came.--If
I get better, my dear, said he, as he gave his purse to hi