Page:The Story of Nell Gwyn.djvu/226

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APPENDIX.

Count de Grammont; about which time he went abroad, and, unable as a Roman Catholic to find employment at home, entered the army of Louis XIV. "He distinguished himself," it is said, "in his profession, and was advanced to considerable posts in the French service." When James II. succeeded to the throne, and the door of preferment was open to Roman Catholics, Anthony Hamilton entered the Irish army, where we find him, in 1686, a lieutenant-colonel in Sir Thomas Newcomen's regiment. Other appointments were in store for him, and he was subsequently constituted governor of Limerick, colonel of a regiment, and a privy councillor. Lord Clarendon, the son of the chancellor, and then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, was very kind to him at this time. He speaks of him in several of his letters. "If Lieutenant-colonel Anthony Hamilton may be believed, and I take him to be the best of that sort." "If Lieutenant-colonel Hamilton may be believed, who understands the regiment better than the colonel, for he makes it his business." And to his brother. Lord Rochester, he writes, "He is a very worthy man, and of great honour, and will retain a just sense of any kindness you may do him. He has been in very good employment and esteem when he served