Note 689 — CANTO THE THIRTEENTH.[653]

{507}[Gronow (Reminiscences, 1889, i. 234-240) identifies the Chevalier de la Ruse with Casimir Comte de Montrond (1768-1843), back-stairs diplomatist, wit, gambler, and man of fashion. He was the lifelong companion, if not friend, of Talleyrand, who pleaded for him: "Qui est-ce qui ne l'aimerait pas, il est si vicieux!" At one time in the pay of Napoleon, he fell under his displeasure, and, to avoid arrest, spent two years of exile (1812-14) in England. "He was not," says Gronow, "a great talker, nor did he swagger ... or laugh at his own bons-mots. He was demure, sleek, sly, and dangerous.... In the London clubs he went by the name of Old French." He was a constant guest of the Duke of York's at Oatlands, "and won much at his whist-table" (English Whist, by W.P. Courtney, 1894, p. 181). For his second residence in England, and for a sketch by D'Orsay, see A Portion of the Journal, etc., by Thomas Raikes, 1857, frontispiece to vol. iv., et vols. i.-iv. passim. See, for biographical notice, L'Ami de M. de Talleyrand, par Henri Welschinger, La Revue de Paris, 1895, Fev., tom. i. pp. 640-654.]