pect, because they
had been insulted by others.

He now introduced the _petits soupers_, which have never been understood
anywhere so well as in France, and which are even there dying out to
make way for the less social and more expensive dinner; but, perhaps, he
would even here have been unsuccessful, had it not been for the society
and advice of the famous St. Evremond, who at this time was exiled in
France, and took refuge in England.

This celebrated and accomplished man had some points of resemblance with
De Grammont. Like him, he had been originally intended for the church;
like him he had turned to the military profession; he was an ensign
before he was full sixteen; and had a company of foot given him after
serving two or three campaigns. Like De Grammont, he owed the facilities
of his early career to his being the descendant of an ancient and
honourable family. St. Evremond was the Seigneur of St Denis le Guast,
in Normandy, where he was born.

Both these sparkling wits of society had at one time, and, in fact, at
the same period, served under the great Conde; both were pre-eminent,
not only in literature, but in games of chance. St. Evremond was famous
at the University of Caen, in which he studied, for his fencing; and
'St. Evremond's pass' was well known to swordsmen of his time;--both
were gay and satirical; neither of them pretended to rigid morals; but
both were accounted men of honour among their fellow-men of pleasure.
They were graceful, kind, generous.

In person St. Evremond had the advantage, being a Norman--a race which
combines the handsomest traits of an English countenance with its blond
hair, blue eyes, and fair skin. Neither does the slight tinge of the
Gallic race detract from the attractions of a true, well-born Norman,
bred up in that province which is called the Court-end of France, and
polished in the capital. Your Norman is hardy, and fond of field-sports:
like the Englishman, he is usually fearless; generous, but, unlike the
English, somewhat crafty. You may know him by the fresh colour, the
peculiar blue eye, long and large; by his joyousness and look of health,
gathered up in his own marshy country, for the Norman is well fed, and
lives on the produce of rich pasture-land, with cheapness and plenty
around him. And St. Evremond was one of the handsomest specimens of this
fine locality (so mixed up as it is with _us_); and his blue eyes
sparkled with humour; his beautifully-turned m