esting, was
extremely flattering to Grammont; and the result was, that he very much
wished to have his life, or part of it, at least, given to the public.
Hamilton, who had been so long connected with him, and with whose
agreeable talents he was now so familiarized, was, on every account,
singled out by him as the person who could best introduce him
historically to the public. It is ridiculous to mention Grammont as the
author of his own Memoirs: his excellence, as a man of wit, was entirely
limited to conversation. Bussy Rabutin, who knew him perfectly, states
that he wrote almost worse than any one. If this was said, and very
truly, of him in his early days, it can hardly be imagined that he
would, when between eighty and ninety years of age, commence a regular,
and, in point of style, most finished composition. Besides, independent
of everything else, what man would so outrage all decorum as to call
himself the admiration of the age? for so is Grammont extolled in the
Memoirs, with a variety of other encomiastic expressions; although,
perhaps, such vanity has not been without example. Hamilton, it is
true, says that he acts as Grammont's secretary, and only holds the pen,
whilst the Count dictates to him such particulars of his life as were
the most singular, and least known. This is said with great modesty,
and, as to part of the work, perhaps with great truth: it requires,
however, some explanation. Grammont was more than twenty years older
than Hamilton; consequently, the earlier part of his life could
only have been known, or was best known, to the latter from repeated
conversations, and the long intimacy which subsisted between them.
Whether Grammont formally dictated the events of his younger days, or
not, is of little consequence from his general character, it is probable
that he did not. However, the whole account of such adventures as he was
engaged in, from his leaving home to his interview with Cardinal Mazarin
(excepting the character of Monsieur de Senantes, and Matta, who was
well known to Hamilton), the relation of the siege of Lerida, the
description of Gregorio Brice, and the inimitable discovery of his own
magnificent suit of clothes on the ridiculous bridegroom at Abbeville;
all such particulars must have been again and again repeated to Hamilton
by Grammont, and may therefore be fairly grounded on the count's
authority. The characters of the court of Charles II., and its history,
are to be ascribed