The report was contradicted by Ninon de l'Enclos.
The Chevalier was then eighty-six years of age; 'nevertheless he was,'
Ninon says, 'so young, that I think him as lively as when he hated sick
people, and loved them after they had recovered their health;' a trait
very descriptive of a man whose good-nature was always on the surface,
but whose selfishness was deep as that of most wits and beaux, who are
spoiled by the world, and who, in return, distrust and deceive the
spoilers. With this long life of eighty-six years, endowed as De
Grammont was with elasticity of spirits, good fortune, considerable
talent, an excellent position, a wit that never ceased to flow in a
clear current; with all these advantages, what might he not have been to
society, had his energy been well applied, his wit innocent, his talents
employed worthily, and his heart as sure to stand muster as his manners?
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 8: M. de Grammont visited England during the Protectorate. His
second visit, after being forbidden the court by Louis XIV., was in
1662.]
[Footnote 9: The Earl of Dorset married Elizabeth, widow of Charles
Berkeley, Earl of Falmouth, and daughter of Hervey Bagot, Esq.
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