[Footnote 1:  There can be few admirers of Sterne’s genius who would not gladly incline, whenever they find it possible, to Mr. Fitzgerald’s very indulgent estimate of his disposition.  But this is only one of many instances in which the charity of the biographer appears to me to be, if the expression may be permitted, unconscionable.  I can, at any rate, find no warrant whatever in the above passage for the too kindly suggestion that “Sterne was actually negotiating a journey to Paris as ‘bear-leader’ to a young nobleman (an odious office, to which he had special aversion), in order that he might with economy fly over to Avignon.”]

The necessity for this flight, however, did not arise.  Better accounts of Mrs. Sterne arrived a few weeks later, and the husband’s consolations were not required.

Meanwhile the idyll of Captain Shandy’s love-making was gradually approaching completion; and there are signs to be met with—­in the author’s correspondence, that is to say, and not in the work itself—­that he was somewhat impatient to be done with it, at any rate for the time.  “I shall publish,” he says, “late in this year; and the next I shall begin a new work of four volumes, which, when finished, I shall continue Tristram with fresh spirit.”  The new work in four volumes (not destined to get beyond one) was, of course, the Sentimental Journey.  His ninth volume of Tristram Shandy was finished by the end of the year, and at Christmas he came up to London, after his usual practice, to see to its publication and enjoy the honours of its reception.  The book passed duly through the press, and in the last days of January was issued the announcement of its immediate appearance.  Of the character of its welcome I can find no other evidence than that of Sterne himself, in a letter addressed to M. Panchaud some fortnight after the book appeared. “’Tis liked the best of all here;” but, with whatever accuracy this may have expressed the complimentary opinion of friends, or even the well-considered judgment of critics, one can hardly believe that it enjoyed anything like the vogue of the former volumes.  Sterne, however, would be the less concerned for this, that his head was at the moment full of his new venture.  “I am going,” he writes, “to publish A Sentimental Journey through France and Italy.  The undertaking is protected and highly encouraged by all our noblesse.  ’Tis subscribed for at a great rate ’twill be an original, in large quarto, the subscription half a guinea.  If you (Panchaud) can procure me the honour of a few names of men of science or fashion, I shall thank you:  they will appear in good company, as all the nobility here have honoured me with their names.”  As was usual with him, however, he postponed commencing it until he should have returned to Coxwold; and, as was equally usual with him, he found it difficult to tear himself away from the delights of London.  Moreover, there was in the present instance a special