ed rub-rub-rubbing--I felt it spread from under her hand,
an' please your honour, to every part of my frame--

The more she rubb'd, and the longer strokes she took--the more the fire
kindled in my veins--till at length, by two or three strokes longer than
the rest--my passion rose to the highest pitch--I seiz'd her hand--

--And then thou clapped'st it to thy lips, Trim, said my uncle Toby--and
madest a speech.

Whether the corporal's amour terminated precisely in the way my uncle
Toby described it, is not material; it is enough that it contained in
it the essence of all the love romances which ever have been wrote since
the beginning of the world.

Chapter 4.XLVII.

As soon as the corporal had finished the story of his amour--or rather
my uncle Toby for him--Mrs. Wadman silently sallied forth from her
arbour, replaced the pin in her mob, pass'd the wicker gate, and
advanced slowly towards my uncle Toby's sentry-box: the disposition
which Trim had made in my uncle Toby's mind, was too favourable a crisis
to be let slipp'd--

--The attack was determin'd upon: it was facilitated still more by my
uncle Toby's having ordered the corporal to wheel off the pioneer's
shovel, the spade, the pick-axe, the picquets, and other military stores
which lay scatter'd upon the ground where Dunkirk stood--The corporal
had march'd--the field was clear.

Now, consider, sir, what nonsense it is, either in fighting, or writing,
or any thing else (whether in rhyme to it, or not) which a man has
occasion to do--to act by plan: for if ever Plan, independent of all
circumstances, deserved registering in letters of gold (I mean in the
archives of Gotham)--it was certainly the Plan of Mrs. Wadman's attack
of my uncle Toby in his sentry-box, By Plan--Now the plan hanging up in
it at this juncture, being the Plan of Dunkirk--and the tale of Dunkirk
a tale of relaxation, it opposed every impression she could make: and
besides, could she have gone upon it--the manoeuvre of fingers and hands
in the attack of the sentry-box, was so outdone by that of the fair
Beguine's, in Trim's story--that just then, that particular attack,
however successful before--became the most heartless attack that could
be made--

O! let woman alone for this. Mrs. Wadman had scarce open'd the
wicker-gate, when her genius sported with the change of circumstances.

--She formed a new attack in a moment.

Chapter 4.XLVIII.

--I am half distracted, captain Sha