Young Le Fever joins the imperial army

Young Le Fever joins the imperial army at seventeen, answering the news of a campaign against the Turks by leaving school without permission. Uncle Toby’s loving preparations send him out with his dead father’s sword, but Le Fever’s subsequent hardships make the departure a poignant test of the fatherly bond between them.

The Call to Leave School

At a public school, Le Fever had been taught by Uncle Toby to inscribe a regular polygon in a circle. He remained there until the spring of his seventeenth year, returning home at Whitsuntide and Christmas, when Corporal Trim was sent for him. News that the emperor was sending an army into Hungary against the Turks kindled his desire for military service. He abandoned Greek and Latin without leave, knelt before Uncle Toby, and asked for his father’s sword and permission to seek his fortune under Prince Eugene.

The request awakens in Uncle Toby both the impulse to accompany him and the recognition that his old wound prevents it. Twice he cries out that he will go with Le Fever and that the young man shall fight beside him; twice he lays a hand on his groin, bows his head, and falls into sorrow. The moment makes the physical consequence of Toby’s wound part of Le Fever’s departure: the older man’s affection is eager, but his body bars him from sharing the campaign.

The Sword and Toby’s Farewell

Uncle Toby takes down the lieutenant’s sword, which has hung untouched since its owner’s death, and gives it to Corporal Trim to polish. He keeps Le Fever for a fortnight to equip him and arrange his passage to Leghorn before placing the weapon in his hand. He expresses confidence that bravery will serve the young man, but pauses over the power of Fortune; if fortune fails him, he tells Le Fever, he can return and they will find another course.

Toby’s kindness weighs on Le Fever more heavily than any injury could. Their parting is described as that of the best of sons from the best of fathers, and both shed tears. With a final kiss, Toby slips sixty guineas into Le Fever’s hand, tied in an old purse belonging to his father; the purse also contains his mother’s ring. The sword, purse, money, and ring make the departure at once a practical provision for service and a carrying-forward of the dead parents’ memory.

Campaign, Misfortune, and Expected Return

Le Fever reaches the Imperial army in time to test his sword at the defeat of the Turks before Belgrade. From that point, however, a succession of undeserved misfortunes follows him for four years. Sickness overtakes him at Marseilles, where he writes to Uncle Toby that he has lost his time, services, and health, and everything else except his sword. He waits there for the first ship that will take him back to Toby.

The letter arrives about six weeks before Susannah’s accident. Le Fever is then expected hourly, and remains uppermost in Uncle Toby’s thoughts even while Walter Shandy describes to Toby and Yorick the sort of tutor he wants for Tristram. His military venture thus does not end in a triumphant return from service: the story leaves him sick and awaiting passage home, while his absence and anticipated return continue to shape Toby’s attention.