this report to ask whether the two
poems in question are certainly antique and genuine. I make this inquiry
in quality of an antiquary, and am not otherwise concerned about it;
for, if I were sure that anyone now living in Scotland had written them
to divert himself, and laugh at the credulity of the world, I would
undertake a journey into the Highlands only for the pleasure of seeing
him.

* * * * *

ANTONY HAMILTON

Memoirs of the Count de Grammont

Count Antony Hamilton, soldier, courtier, and author, was born
at Roscrea, Tipperary, in 1646. His father was George
Hamilton, grandson of the Duke of Hamilton. At the death of
Charles I., the Hamilton family took refuge abroad until the
Restoration, and Antony's boyhood, until his fourteenth year,
was spent in France. Shortly after their return with the
Stuart dynasty, the illustrious Count de Grammont, exiled from
France in 1662, won the affections of Elizabeth, Antony's
sister, and then with characteristic inconstancy, chose to
forget her; but he was caught up at Dover by the brothers
Antony and George, and brought back to fulfil his engagement.
After James II. had retired from England, Antony Hamilton
frequented the court of the fallen monarch at Saint-Germain,
where he died on April 21, 1720. In the "Memoirs of the Count
de Grammont," first published anonymously in 1713, Hamilton,
though of British birth, wrote one of the great classics of
the French language. The spirited wit, the malicious and
graceful gaiety of these adventures, are perfectly French in
quality.

_I.--Soldier and Gamester_

Those who read only for their amusement seem to me more reasonable than
those who read only in order to discover errors; and I may say at once
that I write for the former, without troubling myself about the
erudition of the critics. What does chronological order matter, or an
exact narrative, if only this sketch succeeds in giving a perfect
impression of its original?

I write, with something of Plutarch's freedom, a life more amazing than
any which that author has left us; an inimitable character whose
radiance covers faults which it would be vain to dissemble; an
illustrious personality whose vices and virtues are inextricably
interwoven, and seem as rare in their perfect harmony as they are
brilliant in their contrast. In war, i