Notwithstanding the indolence which in his youth had been the despair of his tutors, the pains bestowed upon his education had been by no means wasted, and even his enemy Saint-Simon is fain to admit that he was a well-read and intelligent man. In war his abilities were infinitely superior to those of his father, and had he enjoyed, like him, the advantage of the Great Condé’s training, it is quite probable that he would have made a name for himself, that is to say, if Louis XIV., who had little liking for his son-in-law, could ever have been persuaded to entrust him with an independent command. Between 1688 and the Peace of Ryswick he served in several campaigns, and proved himself a very capable officer, as well as displaying brilliant courage, notably at the siege of Namur and in the battles of Steenkirke and Neerwinden. In the campaigns of the War of the Spanish Succession he took no part, and it would seem that, in spite of his military talents, or perhaps because of them, Louis XIV. did not desire to employ him. With his wife _Monsieur le Duc_ lived on good terms, though, in common with most aristocratic husbands of the time, he unfortunately found it impossible to concentrate his affections upon their lawful object. Of his mistresses the most noted was the beautiful Madame de Mussy. She was a little woman, but exquisitely shaped, “with a dazzling complexion and ravishing arms and bosom.” The wife of a counsellor to the Parlement of Dijon, “who was too much in love with the wine of Beaune to guard a treasure so difficult to defend,” _Monsieur le Duc_ had met her when he was presiding over the Estates of Burgundy in place of his father, and, profiting by her husband’s addiction to the bottle, had paid her a court which was soon crowned with success. When, at length, the bibulous counsellor learned what had been going on under his very nose, he was furious, and “carried his resentment even so far as to give his wife several blows.” His violence furnished the lady with a pretext for leaving him which she was not slow to seize, and, while M. de Mussy was petitioning the Parlement of Dijon for a decree empowering him to have her shut up in a convent, she effected her escape, followed her lover to Paris, and threw herself upon his protection. This the prince readily promised, and, shortly afterwards, Madame de Mussy found herself the occupant of a luxuriously-furnished house in the precincts of the Temple, where she was soon surrounded by a little Court, which was composed not only of the Marquis de la Fare, the Abbé Chaulieu, the Comte de Fiesque and other friends of _Monsieur le Duc_, but also of several ladies of the Court, such as the Duchesse de Bouillon and the Marquise de Bellefonds, who were not too particular what company they kept, so long as it was sufficiently amusing.