s carried out; but, for reasons explained in a letter
which Mr. Fitzgerald was the first to publish, it was not till the
middle of the next month that he was able to make preparation for
their joining him. From this letter--written to his Archbishop, to
request an extension of his leave--we learn that while applying for
the passports he was attacked with a fever, "which has ended the worst
way it could for me, in a _defluxion (de) poitrine_, as the French
physicians call it. It is generally fatal to weak lungs, so that I
have lost in ten days all I have gained since I came here; and from
a relaxation of my lungs have lost my voice entirely, that 'twill
be much if I ever quite recover it. This evil sends me directly to
Toulouse, for which I set out from this place directly my family
arrives." Evidently there was no time to be lost, and a week after the
date of this letter we find him in communication with Mrs. and
Miss Sterne, and making arrangements for what was, in those days, a
somewhat formidable undertaking--the journey of two ladies from the
North of England to the centre of France. The correspondence which
ensued may be said to give us the last pleasant glimpse of Sterne's
relations with his wife. One can hardly help suspecting, of course,
that it was his solicitude for the safety and comfort of his
much-loved daughter that mainly inspired the affectionate anxiety
which pervades these letters to Mrs. Sterne; but their writer is, at
the very least, entitled to credit for allowing no difference of tone
to reveal itself in the terms in which he speaks of wife and child.
And, whichever of the two he was mainly thinking of, there is
something very engaging in the thoughtful minuteness of his
instructions to the two women travellers, the earnestness of his
attempts to inspire them with courage for their enterprise, and
the sincere fervour of his many commendations of them to the Divine
keeping. The mixture of "canny" counsel and pious invocation
has frequently a droll effect: as when the advice to "give the
custom-house officers what I told you, and at Calais more, if you have
much Scotch snuff;" and "to drink small Rhenish to keep you cool, that
is, if you like it," is rounded off by the ejaculation, "So God in
Heaven prosper and go along with you!" Letter after letter did he
send them, full of such reminders as that "they have bad pins and vile
needles here," that it would be advisable to bring with them a strong
bott