Page:The life and opinions of Tristram Shandy (Volume 9).pdf/53



what can their two noddles be about?" cried my father - - &c.

I dare say, said my mother, they are making fortifications

Not on Mrs. Wadman's premises! cried my father, stepping back

I suppose not: quoth my mother.

I wish, said my father, raising his voice, the whole science of fortification at the devil, with all its trumpery of saps, mines, blinds, gabions, fausse-brays and cuvetts

They are foolish thingssaid my mother.