He scarcely ever mounted his horse.

Light conversation and cards occupied most of his hours.

His table was luxurious; and, when he had sate down to supper, it was a service of danger to disturb him.

Some scoffers remarked that in his military dispositions he was not guided exclusively by military reasons, that he generally contrived to entrench himself in some place where the veal and the poultry were remarkably good, and that he was always solicitous to keep open such communications with the sea as might ensure him, from September to April, a regular supply of Sandwich oysters.
If there were any agreeable women in the neighbourhood of his camp, they were generally to be found at his banquets.

It may easily be supposed that, under such a commander, the young princes and nobles of France vied with one another in splendour and gallantry.