Thomas Compton, and
was created Countess of Buckingham in 1618.]

[Footnote 4: This incident is taken from Madame Dunois' Memoirs, part i.
p. 86.]

[Footnote 5: The duke became Master of the Horse in 1688; he paid
L20,000 to the Duke of Albemarle for the post.]

[Footnote 6: The duel with the Earl of Shrewsbury took place 17th
January, 1667-8.]

[Footnote 7: Brian Fairfax states, that at his death (the Duke of
Buckingham's) he charged his debts on his estate, leaving much more than
enough to cover them. By the register of Westminster Abbey it appears
that he was buried in Henry VII.'s Chapel, 7th June, 1687.]

COUNT DE GRAMMONT, ST. EVREMOND, AND LORD ROCHESTER.

De Grammont's Choice.--His Influence with Turenne.--The Church or
the Army?--An Adventure at Lyons.--A brilliant Idea.--De
Grammont's Generosity.--A Horse 'for the
Cards.'--Knight-Cicisbeism.--De Grammont's first Love.--His
Witty Attacks on Mazarin.--Anne Lucie de la Mothe
Houdancourt.--Beset with Snares.--De Grammont's Visits to
England.--Charles II.--The Court of Charles II.--Introduction
of Country-dances.--Norman Peculiarities.--St. Evremond, the
Handsome Norman.--The most Beautiful Woman in Europe.--Hortense
Mancini's Adventures.--Madame Mazarin's House at
Chelsea.--Anecdote of Lord Dorset.--Lord Rochester in his
Zenith.--His Courage and Wit.--Rochester's Pranks in the
City.--Credulity, Past and Present.--'Dr. Bendo,' and La Belle
Jennings.--La Triste Heritiere.--Elizabeth, Countess of
Rochester.--Retribution and Reformation.--Conversion.--Beaux
without Wit.--Little Jermyn.--An Incomparable Beauty.--Anthony
Hamilton, De Grammont's Biographer.--The Three Courts.--'La
Belle Hamilton.'--Sir Peter Lely's Portrait of her.--The
Household Deity of Whitehall.--Who shall have the Caleche?--A
Chaplain in Livery.--De Grammont's Last Hours.--What might he
not have been?

It has been observed by a French critic, that the Memoires de Grammont
afford the truest specimens of French character in our language. To this
it may be added, that the subject of that animated narrative was most
completely French in principle, in intelligence, in wit that hesitated
at nothing, in spirits that were never daunted, and in that incessant
activity which is characteristic of his countrymen. Grammont, it was
said, 'slept neither night nor day;' his