Tristram Shandy: Book 6: Chapters 6-10 Summary & Analysis

Chapter 6. Around the same time as the siege of Dendermond, Toby is eating dinner as Trim sits nearby. In consideration of Trim’s wounded knee, Toby always insists that Trim sit while serving him dinner while Trim insists on standing, causing constant arguments between them. The landlord of the village inn comes in asking for a glass of sack for another officer who is very sick in his inn; the officer will only eat toast and drink sack. Toby commends the landlord for helping the sick man and gives him several bottles. After he leaves, Toby sends Trim to ask the landlord for the officer’s name. The landlord cannot remember but will ask the officer’s son, who is staying with him and caring for him.

After he has heard the story, Toby wishes to go visit the sick officer, but he cannot leave the house due to the wound to his groin. He sends Trim instead and waits, smoking his pipe. Tristram comments that had Toby’s thoughts not wandered to the question of whether certain kinds of fortifications should be built at an angle or in a straight line, he would have thought only of the officer and the officer’s son.

Chapter 7. Toby smokes three full pipes of tobacco before Trim returns and gives him his report. Trim arrived at the inn and asked for the sick officer’s servant but learned from the landlady that he does not have one. The officer, who was on the way to join his regiment, arrived on a rented horse but was too sick to continue, and now he seems unlikely to recover. As the landlady was explaining this, the officer’s son entered to prepare the toast, but Trim insisted on doing it for him. This gesture of kindness caused the boy to burst into tears, and Trim also started to cry. Trim explained that Toby had sent him and offered to provide any other help he could. Yorick’s curate was in the inn too, but he did not comfort the boy, much to Trim’s frustration.

Trim is asked to come upstairs after the officer and his son have said their prayers; the curate is surprised, having thought soldiers never prayed. The landlady explained that the officer is devout, and Trim added that soldiers pray when they can, and less hypocritically than priests. Toby scolds Trim for that comment before asking him to continue the story. Trim went upstairs and met the officer, who explained that he served with Toby at Flanders but they were never introduced. Toby and Trim both remember Le Fever, whose wife was shot in his tent, and Trim pours Toby a glass of sack, and Toby asks what will become of Le Fever’s son.

Chapter 8. Though Toby is busy carrying out a model version of the siege of Dendermond, he gives up his hobby-horse to attend to Le Fever and Le Fever’s son. Toby criticizes Trim for not offering Le Fever money, though he concedes that Trim had no orders to do so. Toby commands Trim to bring Le Fever to his home to recover. Trim is skeptical, and they argue over whether or not Le Fever will recover, and Toby swears to God that Le Fever will not die. Tristram suggests that because Toby’s oath was made with such good intentions, heaven chose not to record it as a sin.

Chapter 9. Toby puts his purse into his pocket, orders Trim to go fetch a doctor in the morning, and goes to bed.

Chapter 10. Toby gets up early to visit Le Fever, entering his room and sitting down next to the bed. He asks Le Fever how he feels and then explains that he wishes to bring him to his house to recover. Le Fever’s son is deeply moved by Toby’s kindness, but it is too late: Le Fever is already dying, and he soon passes away.