y reader
has never yet been able to guess at any thing. And in this, Sir, I am
of so nice and singular a humour, that if I thought you was able to form
the least judgment or probable conjecture to yourself, of what was to
come in the next page,--I would tear it out of my book.

Chapter 1.XXVI.

I have begun a new book, on purpose that I might have room enough
to explain the nature of the perplexities in which my uncle Toby was
involved, from the many discourses and interrogations about the siege of
Namur, where he received his wound.

I must remind the reader, in case he has read the history of King
William's wars,--but if he has not,--I then inform him, that one of the
most memorable attacks in that siege, was that which was made by the
English and Dutch upon the point of the advanced counterscarp, between
the gate of St. Nicolas, which inclosed the great sluice or water-stop,
where the English were terribly exposed to the shot of the counter-guard
and demi-bastion of St. Roch: The issue of which hot dispute, in
three words, was this; That the Dutch lodged themselves upon the
counter-guard,--and that the English made themselves masters of the
covered-way before St. Nicolas-gate, notwithstanding the gallantry of
the French officers, who exposed themselves upon the glacis sword in
hand.

As this was the principal attack of which my uncle Toby was an
eye-witness at Namur,--the army of the besiegers being cut off, by the
confluence of the Maes and Sambre, from seeing much of each other's
operations,--my uncle Toby was generally more eloquent and particular in
his account of it; and the many perplexities he was in, arose out of
the almost insurmountable difficulties he found in telling his story
intelligibly, and giving such clear ideas of the differences and
distinctions between the scarp and counterscarp,--the glacis and
covered-way,--the half-moon and ravelin,--as to make his company fully
comprehend where and what he was about.

Writers themselves are too apt to confound these terms; so that you will
the less wonder, if in his endeavours to explain them, and in opposition
to many misconceptions, that my uncle Toby did oft-times puzzle his
visitors, and sometimes himself too.

To speak the truth, unless the company my father led up stairs were
tolerably clear-headed, or my uncle Toby was in one of his explanatory
moods, 'twas a difficult thing, do what he could, to keep the discourse
free from obscurity.

W