THE corporal had not taken his measures so badly in this stroke of
artilleryship, but that he might have kept the matter entirely to
himself, and left _Susannah_ to have sustained the whole weight of the
attack, as she could;—true courage is not content with coming off
so.——The corporal, whether as general or comptroller of the
train,—’twas no matter,——had done that, without which, as he imagined,
the misfortune could never have happened,—_at least in_ Susannah_’s
hands;_——How would your honours have behaved?——He determined at once,
not to take shelter behind _Susannah_,—but to give it; and with this
resolution upon his mind, he marched upright into the parlour, to lay
the whole _manœuvre_ before my uncle _Toby._
My uncle _Toby_ had just then been giving _Yorick_ an account of the
Battle of _Steenkirk_, and of the strange conduct of count _Solmes_ in
ordering the foot to halt, and the horse to march where it could not
act; which was directly contrary to the king’s commands, and proved the
loss of the day.
There are incidents in some families so pat to the purpose of what is
going to follow,—they are scarce exceeded by the invention of a
dramatic writer;—I mean of ancient days.——
_Trim_, by the help of his fore-finger, laid flat upon the table, and
the edge of his hand striking across it at right angles, made a shift
to tell his story so, that priests and virgins might have listened to
it;—and the story being told,—the dialogue went on as follows.