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 from observation on her state drew the “Maria” whom he has so pathetically described.  The elder sister, at the instigation of the father of the communicator of these letters, came to England, and took charge of the unhappy Maria, who died at Paris.  “For many years,” says the writer of this statement, “my mother had the handkerchief Sterne alludes to.”  The anxious wish of Sterne was to have his letters returned to him.  In this he failed; and such as they are, without date, either of time or place, they are now before me.