Alexandria Gazette & Daily Advertiser

Poor Maria—was, alas! no fiction:
When we came up to her, she was grovelling in the road like an infant, and throwing the dust upon her head—and yet few were more lovely! Upon Sterne's accosting her with tenderness, and raising her in his arms, she collected herself and resumed some composure; told him her tale of misery, and wept upon his breast; my master sobbed aloud. I saw her gently disengage herself from his arms, and she sung him the service to the Virgin: my poor master covered his face with his hands, and walked by her side to the cottage where she lived; there he talked earnestly to the old woman.

"Every day," said La Fleur, "while we stayed there, I carried them meat & drink from the hotel, and when we departed from Moulines, my master left his blessings and some money with the mother."

"How much," added he, "I know not; he always gave more than he could afford."

Sterne was frequently at a loss upon his travels for ready money. Remittances were become interrupted by war, and he had wrongly estimated his expenses; he had reckoned along the post roads, without adverting to the wretchedness that was to call upon him in his way.

At many of our stages my master has turned to me with tears in his eyes—"These poor people oppress me, La Fleur! how shall I relieve me?" He wrote much, and to a late hour. I told La Fleur of the inconsiderable quantity he had published—he expressed extreme surprise.

"I know," said he, "upon our return from this tour, there was a large trunk completely filled with papers

"Do you know any thing of their tendency, La Fleur?

"Yes—they were miscellaneous remarks upon the manners of the different nations he visited, and in Italy he was deeply engaged in making the most elaborate inquiries into the different governments of the towns, and the characteristic peculiarities of the Italians of the various states.

To effect this he read much; for the collections of the patrons of literature were open to him; he observed more.

Singular as it may seem, Sterne endeavored in vain to speak Italian. His valet acquired it on their journey; but his master, though he applied now and then gave it up at length as unattainable.

"I the more wondered at this," said La Fleur, "as he must have understood Latin."

The assertion, sanctioned by Johnson, that Sterne was licentious and dissolute in conversation, stands thus far contradicted by the testimony of La Fleur. "His conversation with women," he said, "was of the most interesting kind; he usually left them serious, if he did not find them so."