The next year, which was that in which _Lisle_ was besieged, and at the close of which both _Ghent_ and _Bruges_ fell into our hands, --my uncle _Toby_ was sadly put to it for _proper_ ammunition; ----I say proper ammunition----because his great artillery would not bear powder; and 'twas well for the _Shandy_ family they would not ----For so full were the papers, from the beginning to the end of the siege, of the incessant firings kept up by the besiegers, ----and so heated was my uncle _Toby's_ imagination with the accounts of them, that he had infallibly shot away all his estate.
SOMETHING therefore was wanting as a _succedaneum_, especially in one or two of the more violent paroxysms of the siege, to keep up something like a continual firing in the imagination, ----and this _something_, the corporal, whose principal strength lay in invention, supplied by an entire new system of battering of his own, --without which, this had been objected to by military critics, to the end of the world, as one of the great _desiderata_ of my uncle _Toby's_ apparatus.
This will not be explained the worse, for setting off, as I generally do, at a little distance from the subject.
The next year, when Lisle was besieged, and Ghent and Bruges fell into our hands, my uncle Toby was sadly in need of proper ammunition; I say proper, because his great artillery would not bear gunpowder; which was just as well. For so full were the papers of the incessant firings by the besiegers - and so heated was my uncle Toby's imagination with these accounts, that he would have shot away all his estate.
A substitute was therefore needed, to keep up something like a continual firing in the imagination. The corporal, whose strength lay in invention, supplied an entire new system of battering of his own, which was the finishing touch to the whole apparatus.
This will be better explained if I set off, as I generally do, at a little distance from the subject.