Note 252 — VII PORTRAITS (continued 2)

Philippe, brother of the Duc de Vendôme, Grand Prior of France and Chevalier of the Order of Malta. He was very good-looking (in his youth), a brilliant conversationalist, extremely rich—he enjoyed the revenues of six abbeys—and a finished blackguard. For his portrait see Saint-Simon, III. 392: “Menteur, escroc, fripon, voleur, malhonnête homme jusque dans la moelle des os... le plus désordonné et le plus grand dissipateur du monde.” His supper parties at the Temple were notorious for their cynical debauchery. According to Saint-Simon he was carried to bed dead-drunk every night for thirty years.