The most wonderful thing to whoever knew the King—­so gallant to the ladies during a long part of his life, so devout the other, and often importunate to make others do as he did—­was that the said King had always a singular horror of the inhabitants of the Cities of the Plain; and yet M. de Vendome, though most odiously stained with that vice—­so publicly that he treated it as an ordinary gallantry—­never found his favour diminished on that account.  The Court, Anet, the army, knew of these abominations.  Valets and subaltern officers soon found the way to promotion.  I have already mentioned how publicly he placed himself in the doctor’s hands, and how basely the Court acted, imitating the King, who would never have pardoned a legitimate prince what he indulged so strangely in Vendome.

The idleness of M. de Vendome was equally matter of notoriety.  More than once he ran the risk of being taken prisoner from mere indolence.  He rarely himself saw anything at the army, trusting to his familiars when ready to trust anybody.  The way he employed his day prevented any real attention to business.  He was filthy in the extreme, and proud of it.  Fools called it simplicity.  His bed was always full of dogs and bitches, who littered at his side, the pops rolling in the clothes.  He himself was under constraint in nothing.  One of his theses was, that everybody resembled him, but was not honest enough to confess it as he was.  He mentioned this once to the Princesse de Conti—­the cleanest person in the world, and the most delicate in her cleanliness.

He rose rather late when at the army.  In this situation he wrote his letters, and gave his morning orders.  Whoever had business with him, general officers and distinguished persons, could speak to him then.  He had accustomed the army to this infamy.  At the same time he gobbled his breakfast; and whilst he ate, listened, or gave orders, many spectators always standing round.... (I must be excused these disgraceful details, in order better to make him known)....  On shaving days he used the same vessel to lather his chin in.  This, according to him, was a simplicity of manner worthy of the ancient Romans, and which condemned the splendour and superfluity of the others.  When all was over, he dressed; then played high at piquet or hombre; or rode out, if it was absolutely necessary.  All was now over for the day.  He supped copiously with his familiars:  was a great eater, of wonderful gluttony; a connoisseur in no dish, liked fish much, but the stale and stinking better than the good.  The meal prolonged itself in theses and disputes, and above all in praise and flattery.

He would never have forgiven the slightest blame from any one.  He wanted to pass for the first captain of his age, and spoke with indecent contempt of Prince Eugene and all the others.  The faintest contradiction would have been a crime.  The soldier and the subaltern adored him for his familiarity with them, and the licence he allowed in order to gain their hearts; for all which he made up by excessive haughtiness towards whoever was elevated by rank or birth.