Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 7).pdf/27

 minute account of that romantic transaction, as well as of the siege itself, in Rapin's own words:

courage! gentle reader!—I scorn it—'tis enough to have thee in my power—but to make use of the advantage which the fortune of the pen has now gained over thee, would be too muchNo! by that all powerful fire which warms the visionary brain, and lights the spirits through unworldly tracts! ere I would force a helpless creature upon this hard service, and make thee pay, poor soul! for fifty pages which I have no right to sell thee,—naked as