CHAPTER XII
When my uncle _Toby_ had turned everything into money, and settled all accounts betwixt the agent of the regiment and _Le Fever_, and betwixt _Le Fever_ and all mankind, ----there remained nothing more in my uncle _Toby’s_ hands, than an old regimental coat and a sword; so that my uncle _Toby_ found little or no opposition from the world in taking administration. The coat my uncle _Toby_ gave the corporal; ----Wear it, _Trim_, said my uncle _Toby_, as long as it will hold together, for the sake of the poor lieutenant ----And this, ----said my uncle _Toby_, taking up the sword in his hand, and drawing it out of the scabbard as he spoke----and this, _Le Fever_, I’ll save for thee, --’tis all the fortune, continued my uncle _Toby_, hanging it up upon a crook, and pointing to it, --’tis all the fortune, my dear _Le Fever_, which God has left thee; but if he has given thee a heart to fight thy way with it in the world, --and thou doest it like a man of honour, --’tis enough for us.
As soon as my uncle _Toby_ had laid a foundation, and taught him to inscribe a regular polygon in a circle, he sent him to a public school, where, excepting _Whitsontide_ and _Christmas_, at which times the corporal was punctually dispatched for him, --he remained to the spring of the year, seventeen; when the stories of the emperor’s sending his army into _Hungary_ against the _Turks_, kindling a spark of fire in his bosom, he left his _Greek_ and _Latin_ without leave, and throwing himself upon his knees before my uncle _Toby_, begged his father’s sword, and my uncle _Toby’s_ leave along with it, to go and try his fortune under _Eugene_. --Twice did my uncle _Toby_ forget his wound and cry out, _Le Fever!_ I will go with thee, and thou shalt fight beside me ----And twice he laid his hand upon his groin, and hung down his head in sorrow and disconsolation.----
My uncle _Toby_ took down the sword from the crook, where it had hung untouched ever since the lieutenant’s death, and delivered it to the corporal to brighten up; ----and having detained _Le Fever_ a single fortnight to equip him, and contract for his passage to _Leghorn_, --he put the sword into his hand. ----If thou art brave, _Le Fever_, said my uncle _Toby_, this will not fail thee, ----but Fortune, said he (musing a little), ----Fortune may ----And if she does, --added my uncle _Toby_, embracing him, come back again to me, _Le Fever_, and we will shape thee another course.
The greatest injury could not have oppressed the heart of _Le Fever_ more than my uncle _Toby’s_ paternal kindness; ----he parted from my uncle _Toby_, as the best of sons from the best of fathers----both dropped tears----and as my uncle _Toby_ gave him his last kiss, he slipped sixty guineas, tied up in an old purse of his father’s, in which was his mother’s ring, into his hand,---- and bid God bless him.
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