[Footnote 3:  Sir George Villiers’s second wife was Mary, daughter of Antony Beaumont, Esq., of Glenfield, (Nichols’s Leicestershire, iii. 193,) who was son of Wm. Beaumont, Esq., of Cole Orton.  She afterwards was married successively to Sir Wm. Rayner and Sir 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 life was one scene of incessant excitement.