Quickness, energy, and audacity, united, soon raised him to the rank of a privileged man.

His enemies, and he had many enemies, said that he consulted his personal safety even in his most petulant moods, and that he treated soldiers with a civility which he never showed to ladies or to Bishops.

But no man had in larger measure that evil courage which braves and even courts disgust and hatred.

No decencies restrained him: his spite was implacable: his skill in finding out the vulnerable parts of strong minds was consummate.

All his great contemporaries felt his sting in their turns.