e, I would
fly to Avignon to administer consolation to her and my poor girl.[1]"

[Footnote 1: There can be few admirers of Sterne's genius who
would not gladly incline, whenever they find it possible, to Mr.
Fitzgerald's very indulgent estimate of his disposition. But this
is only one of many instances in which the charity of the
biographer appears to me to be, if the expression may be permitted,
unconscionable. I can, at any rate, find no warrant whatever in the
above passage for the too kindly suggestion that "Sterne was actually
negotiating a journey to Paris as 'bear-leader' to a young nobleman
(an odious office, to which he had special aversion), _in order_ that
he might with economy fly over to Avignon."]

The necessity for this flight, however, did not arise. Better
accounts of Mrs. Sterne arrived a few weeks later, and the husband's
consolations were not required.

Meanwhile the idyll of Captain Shandy's love-making was gradually
approaching completion; and there are signs to be met with--in
the author's correspondence, that is to say, and not in the work
itself--that he was somewhat impatient to be done with it, at any rate
for the time. "I shall publish," he says, "late in this year; and the
next I shall begin a new work of four volumes, which, when finished,
I shall continue _Tristram_ with fresh spirit." The new work in
four volumes (not destined to get beyond one) was, of course, the
_Sentimental Journey_. His ninth volume of _Tristram Shandy_ was
finished by the end of the year, and at Christmas he came up to
London, after his usual practice, to see to its publication and enjoy
the honours of its reception. The book passed duly through the press,
and in the last days of January was issued the announcement of its
immediate appearance. Of the character of its welcome I can find no
other evidence than that of Sterne himself, in a letter addressed to
M. Panchaud some fortnight after the book appeared. "'Tis liked the
best of all here;" but, with whatever accuracy this may have expressed
the complimentary opinion of friends, or even the well-considered
judgment of critics, one can hardly believe that it enjoyed anything
like the vogue of the former volumes. Sterne, however, would be the
less concerned for this, that his head was at the moment full of
his new venture. "I am going," he writes, "to publish _A Sentimental
Journey through France and Italy_. The undertaking is protected and
highly encouraged by