- At this point, Tristram stops. This is the best part of the story, and he's afraid he won't do it justice. He asks the muse (the same ones who helped Cervantes) to help him tell the tale.
- He begins to recall his journeys in Europe, and says that thinking about Toby's love affair made the journey pleasant. He remembers hearing a woman named Maria playing a wind pipe.
- Maria wasn't allowed to marry her lover, and so she now sits with her goat and plays without stopping. Maybe she'd like Alexander Selkirk, another eighteenth-century fan of goats.