longer dispirited after the arrival of the Chevalier Grammont. Pleasure
was his pursuit, and he made it universal.

Among the officers in the army, as in all other places, there are men of
real merit, or pretenders to it. The latter endeavoured to imitate the
Chevalier Grammont in his most shining qualities, but without success;
the former admired his talents and courted his friendship. Of this
number was Matta:

[Matta, or Matha, of whom Hamilton has drawn so striking a picture,
is said to have been of the house of Bourdeille, which had the
honour to produce Brautome and Montresor. The combination of
indolence and talent, of wit and simplicity, of bluntness and irony,
with which he is represented, may have been derived from tradition,
but could only have been united into the inimitable whole by the pen
of Hamilton. Several of his bons-mots have been preserved; but the
spirit evaporates in translation. "Where could I get this nose,"
said Madame D'Albret, observing a slight tendency to a flush in that
feature. "At the side board, Madame," answered Matta. When the
same lady, in despair at her brother's death, refused all
nourishment, Matta administered this blunt consolation: "If you are
resolved, madame, never again to swallow food, you do well; but if
ever you mean to eat upon any future occasion, believe me, you may
as well begin just now." Madame Caylus, in her Souvenirs,
commemorates the simple and natural humour of Matta as rendering him
the most delightful society in the world. Mademoiselle, in her
Memoirs, alludes to his pleasantry in conversation, and turn for
deep gaming. When the Memoirs of Grammont were subjected to the
examination of Fontenelle, then censor of the Parisian press, he
refused to license them, or account of the scandalous conduct