e, Mr Sterne, the
celebrated author, was taken ill at the silk-bag shop in Old Bond-street.
He was sometimes called 'Tristram Shandy,' and sometimes 'Yorick;' a very
great favourite of the gentlemen's. One day my master had company to
dinner who were speaking about him: the Duke of Roxburgh, the Earl of
March, the Earl of Ossory, the Duke of Grafton, Mr. Garrick, Mr. Hume,
and Mr. James. 'John,' said my master, 'go and inquire how Mr. Sterne is
to-day.' I went, returned, and said,--I went to Mr. Sterne's lodging; the
mistress opened the door; I inquired how he did. She told me to go up to
the nurse; I went into the room, and he was just a-dying. I waited ten
minutes; but in five he said, 'Now it is come!' He put up his hand as if
to stop a blow, and died in a minute. The gentlemen were all very sorry,
and lamented him very much[A]."

[Footnote A: "Travels in various parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, during
a series of thirty years and upwards, by John Macdonald, a cadet of the
family of Kippoch, in Invernesshire, who after the ruin of his family, in
1765, was thrown, when a child, on the wide world, &c. Printed for the
author, 1790."--He served a number of noblemen and gentlemen in the humble
station of a footman. There is such an air of truth and sincerity
throughout the work that I entertain no doubt of its genuineness.]

Such is the simple narrative of the death of this wit[A]! Some letters and
papers of Sterne are now before me which reveal a piece of secret history
of our sentimentalist. The letters are addressed to a young lady of the
name of De Fourmantel, whose ancestors were the Berangers de Fourmantel,
who during the persecution of the French Protestants by Louis XIV.
emigrated to this country: they were entitled to extensive possessions in
St. Domingo, but were excluded by their Protestantism. The elder sister
became a Catholic, and obtained the estates; the younger adopted the name
of Beranger, and was a governess to the Countess of Bristol. The paper
states that Catherine de Fourmantel formed an attachment to Sterne, and
that it was the expectation of their friends that they would be united;
but that on a visit Sterne became acquainted with a lady, whom he married,
in the space of one month, after having paid his addresses to Miss de
Fourmantel for five years. The consequence was, the total derangement of
intellect of this young lady. She was confined in a private madhouse.
Sterne twice saw her there; and