" And then the orthodox, or professedly orthodox, English
divine, goes on to describe the character and habits of his strange
new friend: "This Baron is one of the most learned noblemen here, the
great protector of wits and of the _savans_ who are no wits; keeps
open house three days a week--his house is now, as yours was to me, my
own--he lives at great expense." Equally communicative is he as to his
other great acquaintances. Among these were the Count de Bissie, whom
by an "odd incident" (as it seemed to his unsuspecting vanity) "I
found reading _Tristram_ when I was introduced to him, which I was,"
he adds (without perceiving the connexion between this fact and the
"incident"), "at his desire;" Mr. Fox and Mr. Macartney (afterwards
the Lord Macartney of Chinese celebrity), and the Duke of Orleans (not
yet Egalite) himself, "who has suffered my portrait to be added to the
number of some odd men in his collection, and has had it taken most
expressively at full length by a gentleman who lives with him." Nor
was it only in the delights of society that Sterne was now revelling.
He was passionately fond of the theatre, and his letters to
Garrick are full of eager criticism of the great French performers,
intermingled with flatteries, sometimes rather full-bodied than
delicate, of their famous English rival.
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