Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Part 1
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Title: Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Part 1
Author: Anatole Cerfberr
Jules François Christophe
Translator: J. Walker McSpadden
Release date: January 1, 2001 [eBook #2468]
Most recently updated: April 3, 2015
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/2468
Credits: Etext prepared by Dagny and Emma Dudding
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK REPERTORY OF THE COMEDIE HUMAINE, PART 1 ***
Ver.04.29.93*END*
Etext prepared by Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com
and Emma Dudding, emma_302@hotmail.com
REPERTORY OF THE COMEDIE HUMAINE
PART I, A -- K
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE
"Work crowned by the French Academy" is a significant line borne by
the title-page of the original edition of Messieurs Cerfberr and
Christophe's monumental work. The motto indicates the high esteem in
which the French authorities hold this very necessary adjunct to the
great Balzacian structure. And even without this word of approval, the
intelligent reader needs but a glance within the pages of the
/Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/ to convince him at once of its
utility.
In brief, the purpose of the /Repertory/ is to give in alphabetical
sequence the names of all the characters forming this Balzacian
society, together with the salient points in their lives. It is, of
course, well known that Balzac made his characters appear again and
again, thus creating out of his distinct novels a miniature world. To
cite a case in point, Rastignac, who comes as near being the hero of
the /Comedie/ as any other single character, makes his first
appearance in /Father Goriot/, as a student of law; then appearing and
disappearing fitfully in a score of principal novels, he is finally
made a minister and peer of France. Without the aid of the /Repertory/
it would be difficult for any save a reader of the entire /Comedie/ to
trace out his career. But here it is arranged in temporal sequence,
thus giving us a concrete view of the man and his relation to this
society.
In reading any separate story, when reference is made in passing to a
character, the reader will find it helpful and interesting to turn to
the /Repertory/ and find what manner of man it is that is under
advisement. A little systematic reading of this nature will speedily
render the reader a "confirmed Balzacian."
A slight confusion may arise in the use of the /Repertory/ on account
of the subdivision of titles. This is the fault neither of Messieurs
Cerfberr and Christophe nor of the translator, but of Balzac himself,
who was continually changing titles, dividing and subdividing stories,
and revamping and working other changes in his books. /Cousin Betty/
and /Cousin Pons/ were placed together by him under the general title
of /Poor Relations/. Being separate stories, we have retained the
separate titles. Similarly, the three divisions of /Lost Illusions/
were never published together until 1843--in the first complete
edition of the /Comedie/; before assuming final shape its parts had
received several different titles. In the present text the editor has
deemed it best to retain two of the parts under /Lost Illusions/,
while the third, which presents a separate Rubempre episode, is given
as /A Distinguished Provincial at Paris/. The three parts of /The
Thirteen/--/Ferragus/, /The Duchess of Langeais/, and /The Girl with
the Golden Eyes/--are given under the general title. The fourth part
of /Scenes from a Courtesan's Life/, /Vautrin's Last Avatar/, which
until the Edition Definitive had been published separately, is here
merged into its final place. But the three parts of /The Celibates/--
/Pierrette/, /The Vicar of Tours/ and /A Bachelor's Establishment/,
being detached, are given separately. Other minor instances occur, but
should be readily cleared up by reference to the Indices, also to the
General Introduction given elsewhere.
In the preparation of this English text, great care has been exercised
to gain accuracy--a quality not found in other versions now extant. In
one or two instances, errors have been discovered in the original
French, notably in dates--probably typographical errors--which have
been corrected by means of foot-notes. A few unimportant elisions have
been made for the sake of brevity and coherence. Many difficulties
confront the translator in the preparation of material of this nature,
involving names, dates and titles. Opportunities are constantly
afforded for error, and the work must necessarily be painstaking in
order to be successful. We desire here to express appreciation for the
valuable assistance of Mr. Norman Hinsdale Pitman.
To Balzac, more than to any other author, a Repertory of characters is
applicable; for he it was who not only created an entire human
society, but placed therein a multitude of personages so real, so
distinct with vitality, that biographies of them seem no more than
simple justice. We can do no more, then, than follow the advice of
Balzac--to quote again from the original title-page--and "give a
parallel to the civil register."
J. WALKER McSPADDEN
INTRODUCTION
Are you a confirmed /Balzacian/?--to employ a former expression of
Gautier in /Jeune France/ on the morrow following the appearance of
that mystic Rabelaisian epic, /The Magic Skin/. Have you experienced,
while reading at school or clandestinely some stray volume of the
/Comedie Humaine/, a sort of exaltation such as no other book had
aroused hitherto, and few have caused since? Have you dreamed at an
age when one plucks in advance all the fruit from the tree of life--
yet in blossom--I repeat, have you dreamed of being a Daniel d'Arthez,
and of covering yourself with glory by the force of your achievements,
in order to be requited, some day, for all the sufferings of your
poverty-stricken youth, by the sublime Diane, Duchesse de
Maufrigneuse, Princesse de Cadignan?
Or, perchance, being more ambitious and less literary, you have
desired to see--like a second Rastignac, the doors of high society
opened to your eager gaze by means of the golden key suspended from
Delphine de Nucingen's bracelet?
Romancist, have you sighed for the angelic tenderness of a Henriette
de Mortsauf, and realized in your dreams the innocent emotions excited
by culling nosegays, by listening to tales of grief, by furtive hand-
clasps on the banks of a narrow river, blue and placid, in a valley
where your friendship flourishes like a fair, delicate lily, the
ideal, the chaste flower?
Misanthrope, have you caressed the chimera, to ward off the dark hours
of advancing age, of a friendship equal to that with which the good
Schmucke enveloped even the whims of his poor Pons? Have you
appreciated the sovereign power of secret societies, and deliberated
with yourself as to which of your acquaintances would be most worthy
to enter The Thirteen? In your mind's eye has the map of France ever
appeared to be divided into as many provinces as the /Comedie Humaine/
has stories? Has Tours stood for Birotteau, La Gamard, for the
formidable Abbe Troubert; Douai, Claes; Limoges, Madame Graslin;
Besancon, Savarus and his misguided love; Angouleme, Rubempre;
Sancerre, Madame de la Baudraye; Alencon, that touching, artless old
maid to whom her uncle, the Abbe de Sponde, remarked with gentle
irony: "You have too much wit. You don't need so much to be happy"?
Oh, sorcery of the most wonderful magician of letters the world has
seen since Shakespeare! If you have come under the spell of his
enchantments, be it only for an hour, here is a book that will delight
you, a book that would have pleased Balzac himself--Balzac, who was
more the victim of his work than his most fanatical readers, and whose
dream was to compete with the civil records. This volume of nearly six
hundred pages is really the civil record of all the characters in the
/Comedie Humaine/, by which you may locate, detail by detail, the
smallest adventures of the heroes who pass and repass through the
various novels, and by which you can recall at a moment's notice the
emotions once awakened by the perusal of such and such a masterpiece.
More modestly, it is a kind of table of contents, of a unique type; a
table of living contents!
Many Balzacians have dreamed of compiling such a civil record. I
myself have known of five or six who attempted this singular task. To
cite only two names out of the many, the idea of this unusual Vapereau
ran through the head of that keen and delicate critic, M. Henri
Meilhac, and of that detective in continued stories, Emile Gaboriau. I
believe that I also have among the papers of my eighteenth year some
sheets covered with notes taken with the same intention. But the labor
was too exhaustive. It demanded an infinite patience, combined with an
inextinguishable ardor and enthusiasm. The two faithful disciples of
the master who have conjoined their efforts to uprear this monument,
could not perhaps have overcome the difficulties of the undertaking if
they had not supported each other, bringing to the common work, M.
Christophe his painstaking method, M. Cerfberr his accurate memory,
his passionate faith in the genius of the great Honore, a faith that
carried unshakingly whole mountains of documents.
A pleasing chapter of literary gossip might be written about this
collaboration; a melancholy chapter, since it brings with it the
memory of a charming man, who first brought Messieurs Cerfberr and
Christophe together, and who has since died under mournful
circumstances. His name was Albert Allenet, and he was chief editor of
a courageous little review, /La Jeune France/, which he maintained for
some years with a perseverance worthy of the Man of Business in the
/Comedie Humaine/. I can see him yet, a feverish fellow, wan and
haggard, but with his face always lit up by enthusiasm, stopping me in
a theatre lobby to tell me about a plan of M. Cerfberr's; and almost
immediately we discovered that the same plan had been conceived by M.
Christophe. The latter had already prepared a cabinet of pigeon-holes,
arranged and classified by the names of Balzacian characters. When two
men encounter in the same enterprise as compilers, they will either
hate each other or unite their efforts. Thanks to the excellent
Allenet, the two confirmed Balzacians took to each other wonderfully.
Poor Allenet! It was not long afterwards that we accompanied his body
to the grave, one gloomy afternoon towards the end of autumn--all of
us who had known and loved him. He is dead also, that other Balzacian
who was so much interested in this work, and for whom the /Comedie
Humaine/ was an absorbing thought, Honore Granoux. He was a merchant
of Marseilles, with a wan aspect and already an invalid when I met
him. But he became animated when speaking of Balzac; and with what a
mysterious, conspiratorlike veneration did he pronounce these words:
"The Vicomte"--meaning, of course, to the thirty-third degree
Balzacolatrites, that incomparable bibliophile to whom we owe the
history of the novelist's works, M. de Spoelberch de Lovenjoul!--"The
Vicomte will approve--or disapprove." That was the unvarying formula
for Granoux, who had devoted himself to the enormous task of
collecting all the articles, small or great, published about Balzac
since his entry as a writer. And just see what a fascination this
/devil of a man/--as Theophile Gautier once called him--exercises over
his followers; I am fully convinced that these little details of
Balzacian mania will cause the reader to smile. As for me, I have
found them, and still find them, as natural as Balzac's own remark to
Jules Sandeau, who was telling him about a sick sister: "Let us go
back to reality. Who is going to marry Eugenie Grandet?"
Fascination! That is the only word that quite characterizes the sort
of influence wielded by Balzac over those who really enjoy him; and it
is not to-day that the phenomenon began. Vallies pointed it out long
ago in an eloquent page of the /Refractaires/ concerning "book
victims." Saint Beuve, who can scarcely be suspected of fondness
towards the editor-in-chief of the /Revue Parisienne/, tells a story
stranger and more significant than every other. At one time an entire
social set in Venice, and the most aristocratic, decided to give out
among its members different characters drawn from the /Comedie
Humaine/; and some of these roles, the critic adds, mysteriously, were
artistically carried out to the very end;--a dangerous experiment, for
we are well aware that the heroes and heroines of Balzac often skirt
the most treacherous abysses of the social Hell.
All this happened about 1840. The present year is 1887, and there
seems no prospect of the sorcery weakening. The work to which these
notes serve as an introduction may be taken as proof. Indeed, somebody
has said that the men of Balzac have appeared as much in literature as
in life, especially since the death of the novelist. Balzac seems to
have observed the society of his day less than he contributed to form
a new one. Such and such personages are truer to life in 1860 than in
1835. When one considers a phenomenon of such range and intensity, it
does not suffice to employ words like infatuation, fashion, mania. The
attraction of an author becomes a psychological fact of prime
importance and subject to analysis. I think I can see two reasons for
this particular strength of Balzac's genius. One dwells in the special
character of his vision, the other in the philosophical trend which he
succeeded in giving to all his writing.
As to the scope of his vision, this /Repertory/ alone will suffice to
show. Turn over the leaves at random and estimate the number of
fictitious deeds going to make up these two thousand biographies, each
individual, each distinct, and most of them complete--that is to say,
taking the character at his birth and leaving him only at his death.
Balzac not only knows the date of birth or of death, he knows as well
the local coloring of the time and the country and profession to which
the man belongs. He is thoroughly conversant with questions of
taxation and income and the agricultural conditions. He is not
ignorant of the fact that Grandet cannot make his fortune by the same
methods employed by Gobseck, his rival in avarice; nor Ferdinand du
Tillet, that jackal, with the same magnitude of operations worked out
by that elephant of a Nucingen. He has outlined and measured the exact
relation of each character to his environment in the same way he has
outlined and measured the bonds uniting the various characters; so
well that each individual is defined separately as to his personal and
his social side, and in the same manner each family is defined. It is
the skeleton of these individuals and of these families that is laid
bare for your contemplation in these notes of Messieurs Cerfberr and
Christophe. But this structure of facts, dependent one upon another by
a logic equal to that of life itself, is the smallest effort of
Balzac's genius. Does a birth-certificate, a marriage-contract or an
inventory of wealth represent a person? Certainly not. There is still
lacking, for a bone covering, the flesh, the blood, the muscles and
the nerves. A glance from Balzac, and all these tabulated facts become
imbued with life; to this circumstantial view of the conditions of
existence with certain beings is added as full a view of the beings
themselves.
And first of all he knows them physiologically. The inner workings of
their corporeal mechanism is no mystery for him. Whether it is
Birotteau's gout, or Mortsauf's nervousness, or Fraisier's skin
trouble, or the secret reason for Rouget's subjugation by Flore, or
Louis Lambert's catalepsy, he is as conversant with the case as though
he were a physician; and he is as well informed, also, as a confessor
concerning the spiritual mechanism which this animal machine supports.
The slightest frailties of conscience are perceptible to him. From the
portress Cibot to the Marquise d'Espard, not one of his women has an
evil thought that he does not fathom. With what art, comparable to
that of Stendhal, or Laclos, or the most subtle analysts, does he note
--in /The Secrets of a Princess/--the transition from comedy to
sincerity! He knows when a sentiment is simple and when it is complex,
when the heart is a dupe of the mind and when of the senses. And
through it all he hears his characters speak, he distinguishes their
voices, and we ourselves distinguish them in the dialogue. The
growling of Vautrin, the hissing of La Gamard, the melodious tones of
Madame de Mortsauf still linger in our ears. For such intensity of
evocation is as contagious as an enthusiasm or a panic.
There is abundant testimony going to show that with Balzac this
evocation is accomplished, as in the mystic arts by releasing it, so
to speak, from the ordinary laws of life. Pray note in what terms M.
le Docteur Fournier, the real mayor of Tours, relates incidents of the
novelist's method of work, according to the report of a servant
employed at the chateau of Sache: "Sometimes he would shut himself up
in his room and stay there several days. Then it was that, plunged
into a sort of ecstasy and armed with a crow quill, he would write
night and day, abstaining from all food and merely contenting himself
with decoctions of coffee which he himself prepared." [Brochure of M.
le Docteur Fournier in regard to the statue of Balzac, that statue a
piece of work to which M. Henry Renault--another devotee who had
established /Le Balzac/--had given himself so ardently. In this
brochure is found a very curious portrait of Balzac, after a sepia by
Louis Boulanger belonging to M. le Baron Larrey.]
In the opening pages of /Facino Cane/ this phenomenon is thus
described: "With me observation had become intuitive from early youth.
It penetrated the soul without neglecting the body, or rather it
seized so completely the external details that it went beyond them. It
gave me the faculty of living the life of the individual over whom it
obtained control, and allowed me to substitute myself for him like the
dervish in /Arabian Nights/ assumed the soul and the body of persons
over whom he pronounced certain words." And he adds, after describing
how he followed a workman and his wife along the street: "I could
espouse their very life, I felt their rags on my back. I trod in their
tattered shoes. Their desires, their needs, all passed into my soul,
or my soul passed into them. It was the dream of a man awakened." One
day while he and a friend of his were watching a beggar pass by, the
friend was so astonished to see Balzac touch his own sleeve; he seemed
to feel the rent which gaped at the elbow of the beggar.
Am I wrong in connecting this sort of imagination with that which one
witnesses in fanatics of religious faith? With such a faculty Balzac
could not be, like Edgar Poe, merely a narrator of nightmares. He was
preserved from the fantastic by another gift which seems contradictory
to the first. This visionary was in reality a philosopher, that is to
say, an experimenter and a manipulator of general ideas. Proof of this
may be found in his biography, which shows him to us, during his
college days at Vendome, plunged into a whirl of abstract reading. The
entire theological and occult library which he discovered in the old
Oratorian institution was absorbed by the child, till he had to quit
school sick, his brain benumbed by this strange opium. The story of
Louis Lambert is a monograph of his own mind. During his youth and in
the moments snatched from his profession, to what did he turn his
attention? Still to general ideas. We find him an interested onlooker
at the quarrel of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire and Cuvier, troubling himself
about the hypothesis of the unity of creation, and still dealing with
mysticism; and, in fact, his romances abound in theories. There is not
one of his works from which you cannot obtain abstract thoughts by the
hundreds. If he describes, as in /The Vicar of Tours/, the woes of an
old priest, he profits by the opportunity to exploit a theory
concerning the development of sensibility, and a treatise on the
future of Catholicism. If he describes, as in /The Firm of Nucingen/,
a supper given to Parisian /blases/, he introduces a system of credit,
reports of the Bank and Bureau of Finance, and--any number of other
things! Speaking of Daniel d'Arthez, that one of his heroes who, with
Albert Savarus and Raphael, most nearly resembles himself, he writes:
"Daniel would not admit the existence of talent without profound
metaphysical knowledge. At this moment he was in the act of despoiling
both ancient and modern philosophy of all their wealth in order to
assimilate it. He desired, like Moliere, to become a profound
philosopher first of all, a writer of comedies afterwards." Some
readers there are, indeed, who think that philosophy superabounds with
Balzac, that the surplus of general hypotheses overflows at times, and
that the novels are too prone to digressions. Be that as it may, it
seems incontestible that this was his master faculty, the virtue and
vice of his thought. Let us see, however, by what singular detour this
power of generalization--the antithesis, one might say, of the
creative power--increased in him the faculty of the poetic visionary.
It is important, first of all, to note that this power of the
visionary could not be put directly into play. Balzac had not long
enough to live. The list of his works, year by year, prepared by his
sister, shows that from the moment he achieved his reputation till the
day of his death he never took time for rest or observation or the
study of mankind by daily and close contact, like Moliere or Saint-
Simon. He cut his life in two, writing by night, sleeping by day, and
after sparing not a single hour for calling, promenades or sentiment.
Indeed, he would not admit this troublesome factor of sentiment,
except at a distance and through letters--"because it forms one's
style"! At any rate, that is the kind of love he most willingly
admitted--unless an exception be made of the mysterious intimacies of
which his correspondence has left traces. During his youth he had
followed this same habit of heavy labor, and as a result the
experience of this master of exact literature was reduced to a
minimum; but this minimum sufficed for him, precisely because of the
philosophical insight which he possessed to so high a degree. To this
meagre number of positive faculties furnished by observation, he
applied an analysis so intuitive that he discovered, behind the small
facts amassed by him in no unusual quantity, the profound forces, the
generative influences, so to speak.
He himself describes--once more in connection with Daniel d'Arthez--
the method pursued in this analytical and generalizing work. He calls
it a "retrospective penetration." Probably he lays hold of the
elements of experience and casts them into a seeming retort of
reveries. Thanks to an alchemy somewhat analogous to that of Cuvier,
he was enabled to reconstruct an entire temperament from the smallest
detail, and an entire class from a single individual; but that which
guided him in his work of reconstruction was always and everywhere the
habitual process of philosophers: the quest and investigation of
causes.
It is due to this analysis that this dreamer has defined almost all
the great principles of the psychological changes incident to our
time. He saw clearly, while democracy was establishing itself with us
on the ruins of the ancient regime, the novelty of the sentiments
which these transfers from class to class were certain to produce. He
fathomed every complication of heart and mind in the modern woman by
an intuition of the laws which control her development. He divined the
transformation in the lives of artists, keeping pace with the change
in the national situation; and to this day the picture he has drawn of
journalism in /Lost Illusions/ ("A Distinguished Provincial at Paris")
remains strictly true. It seems to me that this same power of locating
causes, which has brought about such a wealth of ideas in his work,
has also brought about the magic of it all. While other novelists
describe humanity from the outside, he has shown man to us both from
within and without. The characters which crowd forth from his brain
are sustained and impelled by the same social waves which sustain and
impel us. The generative facts which created them are the same which
are always in operation about us. If many young men have taken as a
model a Rastignac, for instance, it is because the passions by which
this ambitious pauper was consumed are the same which our age of
unbridled greed multiplies around disinherited youth. Add to this that
Balzac was not content merely to display the fruitful sources of a
modern intellect, but that he cast upon them the glare of the most
ardent imagination the world has ever known. By a rare combination
this philosopher was also a man, like the story-tellers of the Orient,
to whom solitude and the over-excitement of night-work had
communicated a brilliant and unbroken hallucination. He was able to
impart this fever to his readers, and to plunge them into a sort of
/Arabian Nights/ country, where all the passions, all the desires of
real life appear, but expanded to the point of fantasy, like the
dreams brought on by laudanum or hasheesh. Why, then, should we not
understand the reason that, for certain readers, this world of
Balzac's is more real than the actual world, and that they devoted
their energies to imitating it?
It is possible that to-day the phenomenon is becoming rarer, and that
Balzac, while no less admired, does not exercise the same fascinating
influence. The cause for this is that the great social forces which he
defined have almost ended their work. Other forces now shape the
oncoming generations and prepare them for further sensitive
influences. It is none the less a fact that, to penetrate the central
portions of the nineteenth century in France, one must read and reread
the /Comedie Humaine/. And we owe sincere thanks to Messieurs Cerfberr
and Christophe for this /Repertory/. Thanks to them, we shall the more
easily traverse the long galleries, painted and frescoed, of this
enormous palace,--a palace still unfinished, inasmuch as it lacks
those Scenes of Military Life whose titles awaken dreams within us:
/Forced Marches/; /The Battle of Austerlitz/; /After Dresden/.
Incontestably, Tolstoy's /War and Peace/ is an admirable book, but how
can we help regretting the loss of the painting of the Grand Army and
of our Great Emperor, by Balzac, our Napoleon of letters?
PAUL BOURGET.
REPERTORY OF THE COMEDIE HUMAINE
A
ABRAMKO, Polish Jew of gigantic strength, thoroughly devoted to the
broker, Elie Magus, whose porter he was, and whose daughter and
treasures he guarded with the aid of three fierce dogs, in 1844, in a
old house on the Minimes road hard by the Palais Royale, Paris.
Abramko had allowed himself to be compromised in the Polish
insurrection and Magus was interested in saving him. [Cousin Pons.]
ADELE, sturdy, good-hearted Briarde servant of Denis Rogron and his
sister, Sylvie, from 1824 to 1827 at Provins. Contrary to her
employers, she displayed much sympathy and pity for their youthful
cousin, Pierrette Lorrain. [Pierrette.]
ADELE, chambermaid of Madame du Val-Noble at the time when the latter
was maintained so magnificently by the stockbroker, Jacques Falleix,
who failed in 1929. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
ADOLPHE, slight, blonde young man employed at the shop of the shawl
merchant, Fritot, in the Bourse quarter, Paris, at the time of the
reign of Louis Philippe. [Gaudissart II.]
ADOLPHUS, head of the banking firm of Adolphus & Company of Manheim,
and father of the Baroness Wilhelmine d'Aldrigger. [The Firm of
Nucingen.]
AGATHE (Sister), nee Langeais, nun of the convent of Chelles, and,
with her sister Martha and the Abbe de Marolles, a refugee under the
Terror in a poor house of the Faubourg Saint-Martin, Paris. [An
Episode Under the Terror.]
AIGLEMONT (General, Marquis Victor d'), heir of the Marquis
d'Aiglemont and nephew of the dowager Comtesse de Listomere-Landon;
born in 1783. After having been the lover of the Marechale de
Carigliano, he married, in the latter part of 1813 (at which time he
was one of the youngest and most dashing colonels of the French
cavalry), Mlle. Julie de Chatillonest, his cousin, with whom he
resided successively at Touraine, Paris and Versailles.* He took part
in the great struggle of the Empire; but the Restoration freed him
from his oath to Napoleon, restored his titles, entrusted to him a
station in the Body Guard, which gave him the rank of general, and
later made him a peer of France. Gradually he forsook his wife, whom
he deceived on account of Madame de Serizy. In 1817 the Marquis
d'Aiglemont became the father of a daughter (See Helene d'Aiglemont)
who was his image physically and morally; his last three children came
into the world during a /liaison/ between the Marquise d'Aiglemont and
the brilliant diplomat, Charles de Vandenesse. In 1827 the general, as
well as his protege and cousin, Godefroid de Beaudenord, was hurt by
the fraudulent failure of the Baron de Nucingen. Moreover, he sank a
million in the Wortschin mines where he had been speculating with
hypothecated securities of his wife's. This completed his ruin. He
went to America, whence he returned, six years later, with a new
fortune. The Marquis d'Aiglemont died, overcome by his exertions, in
1833.** [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket. The Firm of Nucingen. A
Woman of Thirty.]
* It appears that the residence of the Marquis d'Aiglemont at
Versailles was located at number 57, on the present Avenue de
Paris; until recently it was occupied by one of the authors of
this work.
** Given erroneously in the original as 1835.
AIGLEMONT (Generale, Marquise Julie d'), wife of the preceding; born
in 1792. Her father, M. de Chatillonest, advised her against, but gave
her in marriage to her cousin, the attractive Colonel Victor
d'Aiglemont, in 1813. Quickly disillusioned and attacked from another
source by an "inflammation very often fatal, and which is spoken of by
women only in confidence," she sank into a profound melancholy. The
death of the Comtesse de Listomere-Landon, her aunt by marriage,
deprived her of valuable protection and advice. Shortly thereafter she
became a mother and found, in the realization of her new duties,
strength to resist the mutual attachment between herself and the young
and romantic Englishman, Lord Arthur Ormond Grenville, a student of
medicine who had nursed her and healed her bodily ailments, and who
died rather than compromise her. Heart-broken, the marquise withdrew
to the solitude of an old chateau situated between Moret and Montereau
in the midst of a neglected waste. She remained a recluse for almost a
year, given over utterly to her grief, refusing the consolations of
the Church offered her by the old cure of the village of Saint-Lange.
Then she re-entered society at Paris. There, at the age of about
thirty, she yielded to the genuine passion of the Marquis de
Vandenesse. A child, christened Charles, was born of this union, but
he perished at an early age under very tragic circumstances. Two other
children, Moina and Abel, were also the result of this love union.
They were favored by their mother above the two eldest children,
Helene and Gustave, the only ones really belonging to the Marquis
d'Aiglemont. Madame d'Aiglemont, when nearly fifty, a widow, and
having none of her children remaining alive save her daughter Moina,
sacrificed all her own fortune for a dower in order to marry the
latter to M. de Saint-Hereen, heir of one of the most famous families
of France. She then went to live with her son-in-law in a magnificent
mansion overlooking the Esplanade des Invalides. But her daughter gave
her slight return for her love. Ruffled one day by some remarks made
to her by Madame d'Aiglemont concerning the suspicious devotion of the
Marquis de Vandenesse, Moina went so far as to fling back at her
mother the remembrance of the latter's own guilty relations with the
young man's father. Terribly overcome by this attack, the poor woman,
who was a physical wreck, deaf and subject to heart disease, died in
1844. [A Woman of Thirty.]
AIGLEMONT (Helene d'), eldest daughter of the Marquis and Marquise
Victor d'Aiglemont; born in 1817. She and her brother Gustave were
neglected by her mother for Charles, Abel and Moina. On this account
Helene became jealous and defiant. When about eight years old, in a
paroxysm of ferocious hate, she pushed her brother Charles into the
Bievre, where he was drowned. This childish crime always passed for a
terrible accident. When a young woman--one Christmas night--Helene
eloped with a mysterious adventurer who was being tracked by justice
and who was, for the time being, in hiding at the home of the Marquis
Victor d'Aiglemont, at Versailles. Her despairing father sought her
vainly. He saw her no more till seven years later, and then only once,
when on his return from America to France. The ship on which he
returned was captured by pirates, whose captain, "The Parisian," the
veritable abductor of Helene, protected the marquis and his fortune.
The two lovers had four beautiful children and lived together in the
most perfect happiness, sharing the same perils. Helene refused to
follow her father. In 1835, some months after the death of her
husband, Madame d'Aiglemont, while taking the youthful Moina to a
Pyrenees watering-place, was asked to aid a poor sufferer. It was her
daughter, Helene, who had just escaped shipwreck, saving only one
child. Both presently succumbed before the eyes of Madame d'Aiglemont.
[A Woman of Thirty.]
AIGLEMONT (Gustave d'), second child of the Marquis and Marquise
Victor d'Aiglemont, and born under the Restoration. His first
appearance is while still a child, about 1827 or 1828, when returning
in company with his father and his sister Helene from the presentation
of a gloomy melodrama at the Gaite theatre. He was obliged to flee
hastily from a scene, which violently agitated Helene, because it
recalled the circumstances surrounding the death of his brother, some
two or three years earlier. Gustave d'Aiglemont is next found in the
drawing-room at Versailles, where the family is assembled, on the same
evening of the abduction of Helene. He died at an early age of
cholera, leaving a widow and children for whom the Dowager Marquise
d'Aiglemont showed little love. [A Woman of Thirty.]
AIGLEMONT (Charles d'), third child of the Marquis and the Marquise
d'Aiglemont, born at the time of the intimacy of Madame d'Aiglemont
with the Marquis de Vandenesse. He appears but a single time, one
spring morning about 1824 or 1825, then being four years old. He was
out walking with his sister Helene, his mother and the Marquis de
Vandenesse. In a sudden outburst of jealous hate, Helene pushed the
little Charles into the Bievre, where he was drowned. [A Woman of
Thirty.]
AIGLEMONT (Moina d'), fourth child and second daughter of the Marquis
and Marquise Victor d'Aiglemont. (See Comtesse de Saint-Hereen.) [A
Woman of Thirty.]
AIGLEMONT (Abel d'), fifth and last child of the Marquis and Marquise
Victor d'Aiglemont, born during the relations of his mother with M. de
Vandenesse. Moina and he were the favorites of Madame d'Aiglemont.
Killed in Africa before Constantine. [A Woman of Thirty.]
AJUDA-PINTO (Marquis Miguel d'), Portuguese belonging to a very old
and wealthy family, the oldest branch of which was connected with the
Bragance and the Grandlieu houses. In 1819 he was enrolled among the
most distinguished dandies who graced Parisian society. At this same
period he began to forsake Claire de Bourgogne, Vicomtesse de
Beauseant, with whom he had been intimate for three years. After
having caused her much uneasiness concerning his real intentions, he
returned her letters, on the intervention of Eugene de Rastignac, and
married Mlle. Berthe de Rochefide. [Father Goriot. Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.] In 1832 he was present at one of Madame d'Espard's
receptions, where every one there joined in slandering the Princesse
de Cadignan before Daniel d'Arthez, then violently enamored of her.
[The Secrets of a Princess.] Towards 1840, the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto,
then a widower, married again--this time Mlle. Josephine de Grandlieu,
third daughter of the last duke of this name. Shortly thereafter, the
marquis was accomplice in a plot hatched by the friends of the
Duchesse de Grandlieu and Madame du Guenic to rescue Calyste du Guenic
from the clutches of the Marquise de Rochefide. [Beatrix.]
AJUDA-PINTO (Marquise Berthe d'), nee Rochefide. Married to the
Marquis Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto in 1820. Died about 1849. [Beatrix.]
AJUDA-PINTO (Marquise Josephine d'), daughter of the Duc and Duchesse
Ferdinand de Grandlieu; second wife of the Marquis Miguel d'Ajuda-
Pinto, her kinsman by marriage. Their marriage was celebrated about
1840. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
ALAIN (Frederic), born about 1767. He was clerk in the office of
Bordin, procureur of Chatelet. In 1798 he lent one hundred crowns in
gold to Monegod his life-long friend. This sum not being repaid, M.
Alain found himself almost insolvent, and was obliged to take an
insignificant position at the Mont-de-Piete. In addition to this he
kept the books of Cesar Birotteau, the well-known perfumer. Monegod
became wealthy in 1816, and he forced M. Alain to accept a hundred and
fifty thousand francs in payment of the loan of the hundred crowns.
The good man then devoted his unlooked-for fortune to philanthropies
in concert with Judge Popinot. Later, at the close of 1825, he became
one of the most active aides of Madame de la Chanterie and her
charitable association. It was M. Alain who introduced Godefroid into
the Brotherhood of the Consolation. [The Seamy Side of History.]
ALBERTINE, Madame de Bargeton's chambermaid, between the years 1821
and 1824. [Lost Illusions.]
ALBON (Marquis d'), court councillor and ministerial deputy under the
Restoration. Born in 1777. In September, 1819, he went hunting in the
edge of the forest of l'Isle-Adam with his friend Philippe de Sucy,
who suddenly fell senseless at the sight of a poor madwoman whom he
recognized as a former mistress, Stephanie de Vandieres. The Marquis
d'Albon, assisted by two passers by, M. and Mme. de Granville,
resuscitated M. de Sucy. Then the marquis returned, at his friend's
entreaty, to the home of Stephanie, where he learned from the uncle of
this unfortunate one the sad story of the love of his friend and
Madame de Vandieres. [Farewell.]
ALBRIZZI (Comtesse), a friend, in 1820, at Venice, of the celebrated
melomaniac, Capraja. [Massimilla Doni.]
ALDRIGGER (Jean-Baptiste, Baron d'), born in Alsace in 1764. In 1800 a
banker at Strasbourg, where he was at the apogee of a fortune made
during the Revolution, he wedded, partly through ambition, partly
through inclination, the heiress of the Adolphuses of Manheim. The
young daughter was idolized by every one in her family and naturally
inherited all their fortune after some ten years. Aldrigger, created
baron by the Emperor, was passionately devoted to the great man who
had bestowed upon him his title, and he ruined himself, between 1814
and 1815, by believing too deeply in "the sun of Austerlitz." At the
time of the invasion, the trustworthy Alsatian continued to pay on
demand and closed up his bank, thus meriting the remark of Nucingen,
his former head-clerk: "Honest, but stoobid." The Baron d'Aldrigger
went at once to Paris. There still remained to him an income of forty-
four thousand francs, reduced at his death, in 1823, by more than half
on account of the expenditures and carelessness of his wife. The
latter was left a widow with two daughters, Malvina and Isaure. [The
Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Theodora-Marguerite-Wilhelmine, Baronne d'), nee Adolphus.
Daughter of the banker Adolphus of Manheim, greatly spoiled by her
parents. In 1800 she married the Strasbourg banker, Aldrigger, who
spoiled her as badly as they had done and as later did the two
daughters whom she had by her husband. She was superficial, incapable,
egotistic, coquettish and pretty. At forty years of age she still
preserved almost all her freshness and could be called "the little
Shepherdess of the Alps." In 1823, when the baron died, she came near
following him through her violent grief. The following morning at
breakfast she was served with small pease, of which she was very fond,
and these small pease averted the crisis. She resided in the rue
Joubert, Paris, where she held receptions until the marriage of her
younger daughter. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Malvina d'), elder daughter of the Baron and Baroness
d'Aldrigger, born at Strasbourg in 1801, at the time when the family
was most wealthy. Dignified, slender, swarthy, sensuous, she was a
good type of the woman "you have seen at Barcelona." Intelligent,
haughty, whole-souled, sentimental and sympathetic, she was
nevertheless smitten by the dry Ferdinand du Tillet, who sought her
hand in marriage at one time, but forsook her when he learned of the
bankruptcy of the Aldrigger family. The lawyer Desroches also
considered asking the hand of Malvina, but he too gave up the idea.
The young girl was counseled by Eugene de Rastignac, who took it upon
himself to see that she got married. Nevertheless, she ended by being
an old maid, withering day by day, giving piano lessons, living rather
meagrely with her mother in a modest flat on the third floor, in the
rue du Mont-Thabor. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
ALDRIGGER (Isaure d'), second daughter of the Baron and Baronne
d'Aldrigger, married to Godefroid de Beaudenord (See that name.) [The
Firm of Nucingen.]
ALINE, a young Auvergne chambermaid in the service of Madame Veronique
Graslin, to whom she was devoted body and soul. She was probably the
only one to whom was confided all the terrible secrets pertaining to
the life of Madame Graslin. [The Country Parson.]
ALLEGRAIN* (Christophe-Gabriel), French sculptor, born in 1710. With
Lauterbourg and Vien, at Rome, in 1758, he assisted his friend
Sarrasine to abduct Zambinella, then a famous singer. The prima-donna
was a eunuch. [Sarrasine.]
* To the sculptor Allegrain who died in 1795, the Louvre Museum is
indebted for a "Narcisse," a "Diana," and a "Venus entering the
Bath."
ALPHONSE, a friend of the ruined orphan, Charles Grandet, tarrying
temporarily at Saumur. In 1819 he acquitted himself most creditably of
a mission entrusted to him by that young man. He wound up Charles'
business at Paris, paying all his debts by a single little sale.
[Eugenie Grandet.]
AL-SARTCHILD, name of a German banking-house, where Gedeon Brunner was
compelled to deposit the funds belonging to his son Frederic and
inherited from his mother. [Cousin Pons.]
ALTHOR (Jacob), a Hambourg banker, who opened up a business at Havre
in 1815. He had a son, whom in 1829 M. and Mme. Mignon desired for a
son-in-law. [Modeste Mignon.]
ALTHOR (Francisque), son of Jacob Althor. Francisque was the dandy of
Havre in 1829. He wished to marry Modeste Mignon but forsook her
quickly enough when he found out that her family was bankrupt. Not
long afterwards he married Mlle. Vilquin the elder. [Modeste Mignon.]
AMANDA, Parisian modiste at the time of Louis Philippe. Among her
customers was Marguerite Turquet, known as Malaga, who was slow in
paying bills. [A Man of Business.]
AMAURY (Madame), owner, in 1829, of a pavilion at Sauvic, near
Ingouville, which Canalis leased when he went to Havre to see Mlle.
Mignon [Modeste Mignon.]
AMBERMESNIL (Comtesse de l') went in 1819, when about thirty-six years
old, to board with the widow, Mme. Vauquer, rue Nueve Sainte-
Genevieve, now Tournefort, Paris. Mme. de l'Ambermesnil gave it out
that she was awaiting the settlement of a pension which was due her on
account of being the widow of a general killed "on the battlefield."
Mme. Vauquer gave her every attention, confiding all her own affairs
to her. The comtesse vanished at the end of six months, leaving a
board bill unsettled. Mme. Vauquer sought her eagerly, but was never
able to obtain a trace of this adventuress. [Father Goriot.]
AMEDEE, nickname bestowed on Felix de Vandenesse by Lady Dudley when
she thought she saw a rival in Madame de Mortsauf. [The Lily of the
Valley.]
ANCHISE (Pere), a surname given by La Palferine to a little Savoyard
of ten years who worked for him without pay. "I have never seen such
silliness coupled with such intelligence," the Prince of Bohemia said
of this child; "he would go through fire for me, he understands
everything, and yet he does not see that I cannot help him." [A Prince
of Bohemia.]
ANGARD--At Paris, in 1840, the "professor" Angard was consulted, in
connection with the Doctors Bianchon and Larabit, on account of Mme.
Hector Hulot, who it was feared was losing her reason. [Cousin Betty.]
ANGELIQUE (Sister), nun of the Carmelite convent at Blois under Louis
XVIII. Celebrated for her leanness. She was known by Renee de
l'Estorade (Mme. de Maucombe) and Louise de Chaulieu (Mme. Marie
Gaston), who went to school at the convent. [Letters of Two Brides.]
ANICETTE, chambermaid of the Princesse de Cadignan in 1839. The artful
and pretty Champagne girl was sought by the sub-prefect of Arcis-sur-
Aube, by Maxime de Trailles, and by Mme. Beauvisage, the mayor's wife,
each trying to bribe and enlist her on the side of one of the various
candidates for deputy. [The Member for Arcis.]
ANNETTE, Christian name of a young woman of the Parisian world, under
the Restoration. She had been brought up at Ecouen, where she had
received the practical counsels of Mme. Campan. Mistress of Charles
Grandet before his father's death. Towards the close of 1819, a prey
to suspicion, she must needs sacrifice her happiness for the time
being, so she made a weary journey with her husband into Scotland. She
made her lover effeminate and materialistic, advising with him about
everything. He returned from the Indies in 1827, when she quickly
brought about his engagement with Mlle. d'Aubrion. [Eugenie Grandet.]
ANNETTE, maid servant of Rigou at Blangy, Burgundy. She was nineteen
years old, in 1823, and had held this place for more than three years,
although Gregoire Rigou never kept servants for a longer period than
this, however much he might and did favor them. Annette, sweet,
blonde, delicate, a true masterpiece of dainty, piquant loveliness,
worthy to wear a duchess' coronet, earned nevertheless only thirty
francs a year. She kept company with Jean-Louis Tonsard without
letting her master once suspect it; ambition had prompted this young
woman to flatter her employer as a means of hoodwinking this lynx.
[The Peasantry.]
ANSELME, Jesuit, living in rue des Postes (now rue Lhomond).
Celebrated mathematician. Had some dealings with Felix Phellion, whom
he tried to convert to his religious belief. This rather meagre
information concerning him was furnished by a certain Madame Komorn.
[The Middle Classes.]
ANTOINE, born in the village of Echelles, Savoy. In 1824 he had served
longest as clerk in the Bureau of Finance, where he had secured
positions, still more modest than his own, for a couple of his
nephews, Laurent and Gabriel, both of whom were married to lace
laundresses. Antoine meddled with every act of the administration. He
elbowed, criticised, scolded and toadied to Clement Chardin des
Lupeaulx and other office-holders. He doubtless lived with his
nephews. [The Government Clerks.]
ANTOINE, old servant of the Marquise Beatrix de Rochefide, in 1840, on
the rue de Chartes-du-Roule, near Monceau Park, Paris. [Beatrix.]
ANTONIA--see Chocardelle, Mlle.
AQUILINA, a Parisian courtesan of the time of the Restoration and
Louis Philippe. She claimed to be a Piedmontese. Of her true name she
was ignorant. She had appropriated this /nom de guerre/ from a
character in the well-known tragedy by Otway, "Venice Preserved," that
she had chanced to read. At sixteen, pure and beautiful, at the time
of her downfall, she had met Castanier, Nucingen's cashier, who
resolved to save her from evil for his own gain, and live maritally
with her in the rue Richter. Aquilina then took the name of Madame de
la Garde. At the same time of her relations with Castanier, she had
for a lover a certain Leon, a petty officer in a regiment of infantry,
and none other than one of the sergeants of Rochelle to be executed on
the Place de Greve in 1822. Before this execution, in the reign of
Louis XVIII., she attended a performance of "Le Comedien d'Etampes,"
one evening at the Gymnase, when she laughed immoderately at the
comical part played by Perlet. At the same time, Castanier, also
present at this mirthful scene, but harassed by Melmoth, was
experiencing the insufferable doom of a cruel hidden drama. [Melmoth
Reconciled.] Her next appearance is at a famous orgy at the home of
Frederic Taillefer, rue Joubert, in company with Emile Blondet,
Rastignac, Bixiou and Raphael de Valentin. She was a magnificent girl
of good figure, superb carriage, and striking though irregular
features. Her glance and smile startled one. She always included some
red trinket in her attire, in memory of her executed lover. [The Magic
Skin.]
ARCOS (Comte d'), a Spanish grandee living in the Peninsula at the
time of the expedition of Napoleon I. He would probably have married
Maria-Pepita-Juana Marana de Mancini, had it not been for the peculiar
incidents which brought about her marriage with the French officer,
Francois Diard. [The Maranas.]
ARGAIOLO (Duc d'), a very rich and well-born Italian, the respected
though aged husband of her who later became the Duchesse de Rhetore,
to the perpetual grief of Albert Savarus. Argaiolo died, almost an
octogenarian, in 1835. [Albert Savarus.]
ARGAIOLO (Duchesse d'), nee Soderini, wife of the Duc d'Argaiolo. She
became a widow in 1835, and took as her second husband the Duc de
Rhetore. (See Duchesse de Rhetore.) [Albert Savarus.]
ARRACHELAINE, surname of the rogue, Ruffard. (See that name.) [Scenes
from a Courtesan's Life.]
ARTHEZ (Daniel d'), one of the most illustrious authors of the
nineteenth century, and one of those rare men who display "the unity
of excellent talent and excellent character." Born about 1794 or 1796.
A Picard gentleman. In 1821, when about twenty-five, he was poverty-
stricken and dwelt on the fifth floor of a dismal house in the rue des
Quatre-Vents, Paris, where had also resided the illustrious surgeon
Desplein, in his youth. There he fraternized with: Horace Bianchon,
then house-physician at Hotel-Dieu; Leon Giraud, the profound
philosopher; Joseph Bridau, the painter who later achieved so much
renown; Fulgence Ridal, comic poet of great sprightliness; Meyraux,
the eminent physiologist who died young; lastly, Louis Lambert and
Michel Chrestien, the Federalist Republican, both of whom were cut off
in their prime. To these men of heart and of talent Lucien de
Rubempre, the poet, sought to attach himself. He was introduced by
Daniel d'Arthez, their recognized leader. This society had taken the
name of the "Cenacle." D'Arthez and his friends advised and aided,
when in need, Lucien the "Distinguished Provincial at Paris" who ended
so tragically. Moreover, with a truly remarkable disinterestedness
d'Arthez corrected and revised "The Archer of Charles IX.," written by
Lucien, and the work became a superb book, in his hands. Another
glimpse of d'Arthez is as the unselfish friend of Marie Gaston, a
young poet of his stamp, but "effeminate." D'Arthez was swarthy, with
long locks, rather small and bearing some resemblance to Bonaparte. He
might be called the rival of Rousseau, "the Aquatic," since he was
very temperate, very pure, and drank water only. For a long time he
ate at Flicoteaux's in the Latin Quarter. He had grown famous in 1832,
besides enjoying an income of thirty thousand francs bequeathed by an
uncle who had left him a prey to the most biting poverty so long as
the author was unknown. D'Arthez then resided in a pretty house of his
own in the rue de Bellefond, where he lived in other respects as
formerly, in the rigor of work. He was a deputy sitting on the right
and upholding the Royalist platform of Divine Right. When he had
acquired a competence, he had a most vulgar and incomprehensible
/liaison/ with a woman tolerably pretty, but belonging to a lower
society and without either education or breeding. D'Arthez maintained
her, nevertheless, carefully concealing her from sight; but, far from
being a pleasurable manner of life, it became odious to him. It was at
this time that he was invited to the home of Diane de Maufrigneuse,
Princesse de Cadignan, who was then thirty-six, but did not look it.
The famous "great coquette" told him her (so-called) "secrets,"
offered herself outright to this man whom she treated as a "famous
simpleton," and whom she made her lover. After that day there was no
doubt about the relations of the princesse and Daniel d'Arthez. The
great author, whose works became very rare, appeared only during some
of the winter months at the Chamber of Deputies. [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Member for Arcis. The
Secrets of a Princess.]
ASIE, one of the pseudonyms of Jacqueline Collin. (see that name.)
[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
ATHALIE, cook for Mme. Schontz in 1836. According to her mistress, she
was specially gifted in preparing venison. [The Muse of the
Department.]
AUBRION (Marquis d'), a gentleman-in-waiting of the Bedchamber, under
Charles X. He was of the house of Aubrion de Buch, whose last head
died before 1789. He was silly enough to wed a woman of fashion,
though he was already an old man of but twenty thousand francs income,
a sum hardly sufficient in Paris. He tried to marry his daughter
without a dowry to some man who was intoxicated with nobility. In
1827, to quote Mme. d'Aubrion, this ancient wreck was madly devoted to
the Duchesse de Chaulieu [Eugenie Grandet.]
AUBRION (Marquise d'), wife of the preceding. Born in 1789. At thirty-
eight she was still pretty, and, having always been somewhat aspiring,
she endeavored (in 1827), by hook or by crook, to entangle Charles
Grandet, lately returned from the Indies. She wished to make a son-in-
law out of him, and she succeeded. [Eugenie Grandet.]
AUBRION (Mathilde d') daughter of the Marquis and Marquise d'Aubrion;
born in 1808; married to Charles Grandet. (See that name.) [Eugenie
Grandet.]
AUBRION (Comte d'), the title acquired by Charles Grandet after his
marriage to the daughter of the Marquis d'Aubrion. [The Firm of
Nucingen.]
AUFFRAY, grocer at Provins, in the period of Louis XV., Louis XVI. and
the Revolution. M. Auffray married the first time when eighteen, the
second time at sixty-nine. By his first wife he had a rather ugly
daughter who married, at sixteen, a landlord of Provins, Rogron by
name. Auffray had another daughter, by his second marriage, a charming
girl, this time, who married a Breton captain in the Imperial Guard.
Pierrette Lorrain was the daughter of this officer. The old grocer
Auffray died at the time of the Empire without having had time enough
to make his will. The inheritance was so skillfully manipulated by
Rogron, the first son-in-law of the deceased, that almost nothing was
left for the goodman's widow, then only about thirty-eight years old.
[Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY (Madame), wife of the preceding. (See Neraud, Mme.)
[Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY, a notary of Provins in 1827. Husband of Mme. Guenee's third
daughter. Great-grand-nephew of the old grocer, Auffray. Appointed a
guardian of Pierrette Lorrain. On account of the ill-treatment to
which this young girl was subjected at the home of her guardian, Denis
Rogron, she was removed, an invalid, to the home of the notary
Auffray, a designated guardian, where she died, although tenderly
cared for. [Pierrette.]
AUFFRAY (Madame), born Guenee. Wife of the preceding. The third
daughter of Mme. Guenee, born Tiphaine. She exhibited the greatest
kindness for Pierrette Lorrain, and nursed her tenderly in her last
illness. [Pierrette.]
AUGUSTE, name borne by Boislaurier, as chief of "brigands," in the
uprisings of the West under the Republic and under the Empire. [The
Seamy Side of History.]
AUGUSTE, /valet de chambre/ of the General Marquis Armand de
Montriveau, under the Restoration, at the time when the latter dwelt
in the rue de Seine hard by the Chamber of Peers, and was intimate
with the Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais. [The Thirteen.]
AUGUSTE, notorious assassin, executed in the first years of the
Restoration. He left a mistress, surnamed Rousse, to whom Jacques
Collin had faithfully remitted (in 1819) some twenty odd thousands of
francs, on behalf of her lover after his execution. This woman was
married in 1821, by Jacques Collin's sister, to the head clerk of a
rich, wholesale hardware merchant. Nevertheless, though once more in
respectable society, she remained bound, by a secret compact, to the
terrible Vautrin and his sister. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
AUGUSTE (Madame), dressmaker of Esther Gobseck, and her creditor in
the time of Louis XVIII. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
AUGUSTIN, /valet de chambre/ of M. de Serizy in 1822. [A Start in
Life.]
AURELIE, a Parisian courtesan, under Louis Philippe, at the time when
Mme. Fabien du Ronceret commenced her conquests. [Beatrix.]
AURELIE (La Petite), one of the nicknames of Josephine Schiltz, also
called Schontz, who became, later, Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. [Beatrix.]
AUVERGNAT (L'), one of the assumed names of the rogue Selerier, alias
Pere Ralleau, alias Rouleur, alias Fil-de-soie. (See Selerier.)
[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
B
BABYLAS, groom or "tiger" of Amedee de Soulas, in 1834, at Besancon.
Was fourteen years old at this time. The son of one of his master's
tenants. He earned thirty-six francs a month by his position to
support himself, but he was neat and skillful. [Albert Savarus.]
BAPTISTE, /valet de chambre/ to the Duchesse de Lenoncourt-Chaulieu in
1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BARBANCHU, Bohemian with a cocked hat, who was called into Vefour's by
some journalists who breakfasted there at the expense of Jerome
Thuillier, in 1840, and invited by them to "sponge" off of this urbane
man, which he did. [The Middle Classes.]
BARBANTI (The), a Corsican family who brought about the reconciliation
of the Piombos and the Portas in 1800. [The Vendetta.]
BARBET, a dynasty of second-hand book-dealers in Paris under the
Restoration and Louis Philippe. They were Normans. In 1821 and the
years following, one of them ran a little shop on the quay des Grands-
Augustins, and purchased Lousteau's books. In 1836, a Barbet, partner
in a book-shop with Metivier and Morand, owned a wretched house on the
rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs and the boulevard du Mont-Parnasse, where
dwelt the Baron Bourlac with his daughter and grandson. In 1840 the
Barbets had become regular usurers dealing in credits with the firm of
Cerizet and Company. The same year a Barbet occupied, in a house
belonging to Jerome Thuillier, rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer (now rue
Royal-Collard), a room on the first flight up and a shop on the ground
floor. He was then a "publisher's shark." Barbet junior, a nephew of
the foregoing, and editor in the alley des Panoramas, placed on the
market at this time a brochure composed by Th. de la Peyrade but
signed by Thuillier and having the title "Capital and Taxes." [A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Man of Business. The Seamy Side
of History. The Middle Classes.]
BARBETTE, wife of the great Cibot, known as Galope-Chopine. (See
Cibot, Barbette.) [Les Chouans.]
BARCHOU DE PENHOEN (Auguste-Theodore-Hilaire), born at Morlaix
(Finistere), April 28, 1801, died at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, July 29,
1855. A school-mate of Balzac, Jules Dufaure and Louis Lambert, and
his neighbors in the college dormitory of Vendome in 1811. Later he
was an officer, then a writer of transcendental philosophy, a
translator of Fichte, a friend and interpreter of Ballanche. In 1849
he was elected, by his fellow-citizens of Finistere, to the
Legislative Assembly where he represented the Legitimists and the
Catholics. He protested against the /coup d'etat/ of December 2, 1851
(See "The Story of a Crime," by Victor Hugo). When a child he came
under the influence of Pyrrhonism. He once gainsaid the talent of
Louis Lambert, his Vendome school-mate. [Louis Lambert.]
BARGETON (De), born between 1761 and 1763. Great-grandson of an
Alderman of Bordeau named Mirault, ennobled during the reign of Louis
XIII., and whose son, under Louis XIV., now Mirault de Bargeton, was
an officer of the Guards de la Porte. He owned a house at Angouleme,
in the rue du Minage, where he lived with his wife, Marie-Louise-Anais
de Negrepelisse, to whom he was entirely obedient. On her account, and
at her instigation, he fought with one of the habitues of his salon,
Stanislas de Chandour, who had circulated in the town a slander on
Mme. de Bargeton. Bargeton lodged a bullet in his opponent's neck. He
had for a second his father-in-law, M. de Negrepelisse. Following
this, M. de Bargeton retired into his estate at Escarbas, near
Barbezieux, while his wife, as a result of the duel left Angouleme for
Paris. M. de Bargeton had been of good physique, but "injured by
youthful excesses." He was commonplace, but a great gourmand. He died
of indigestion towards the close of 1821. [Lost Illusions.]
BARGETON (Madame de), nee Marie-Louise-Anais Negrepelisse, wife of the
foregoing. Left a widow, she married again, this time the Baron Sixte
du Chatelet. (See that name.)
BARILLAUD, known by Frederic Alain whose suspicion he aroused with
regard to Monegod. [The Seamy Side of History.]
BARIMORE (Lady), daughter of Lord Dudley, and apparently the wife of
Lord Barimore, although it is a disputed question. Just after 1830,
she helped receive at a function of Mlle. des Touches, rue de la
Chaussee-d'Antin, where Marsay told about his first love affair.
[Another Study of Woman.]
BARKER (William), one of Vautrin's "incarnations." In 1824 or 1825,
under this assumed name, he posed as one of the creditors of M.
d'Estourny, making him endorse some notes of Cerizet's, the partner of
this M. d'Estourny. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BARNHEIM, family in good standing at Bade. On the maternal side, the
family of Mme. du Ronceret, nee Schiltz, alias Schontz. [Beatrix.]
BARNIOL, Phellion's son-in-law. Head of an academy (in 1840), rue
Saint-Hyacinthe-Saint-Michel (now, rue Le Goff and rue Malebrache). A
rather influential man in the Faubourg Saint-Jacques. Visited the
salon of Thuillier. [The Middle Classes.]
BARNIOL (Madame), nee Phellion, wife of the preceding. She had been
under-governess in the boarding school of the Mlles. Lagrave, rue
Notre-Dame des Champs. [The Middle Classes.]
BARRY (John), a young English huntsman, well known in the district
whence the Prince of Loudon brought him to employ him at his own home.
He was with this great lord in 1829, 1830. [Modeste Mignon.]
BARTAS (Adrien de), of Angouleme. In 1821, he and his wife were very
devoted callers at the Bargetons. M. de Bartas gave himself up
entirely to music, talking about this subject incessantly, and
courting invitations to sing with his heavy bass voice. He posed as
the lover of Mme. de Brebion, the wife of his best friend. M. de
Brebion became the lover of Mme. de Bartas. [Lost Illusions.]
BARTAS (Madame Josephine de), wife of the preceding, always called
Fifine, "for short." [Lost Illusions.]
BASTIENNE, Parisian modiste in 1821. Finot's journal vaunted her hats,
for a pecuniary consideration, and derogated those of Virginie,
formerly praised. [Lost Illusions.]
BATAILLES (The), belonging to the bourgeoisie of Paris, traders of
Marais, neighbors and friends of the Baudoyers and the Saillards in
1824. M. Bataille was a captain in the National Guard, a fact which he
allowed no one to ignore. [The Government Clerks.]
BAUDENORD (Godefroid de), born in 1800. In 1821 he was one of the
kings of fashion, in company with Marsay, Vandenesse, Ajuda-Pinto,
Maxime de Trailles, Rastignac, the Duc de Maufrigneuse and Manerville.
[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] His nobility and breeding were
perhaps not very orthodox. According to Mlle. Emilie de Fontaine, he
was of bad figure and stout, having but a single advantage--that of
his brown locks. [The Ball at Sceaux.] A cousin, by marriage, of his
guardian, the Marquis d'Aiglemont, he was, like him, ruined by the
Baron de Nucingen in the Wortschin mine deal. At one time Beaudenord
thought of paying court to his pretty cousin, the Marquise
d'Aiglemont. In 1827 he wedded Isaure d'Aldrigger and, after having
lived with her in a cosy little house on the rue de le Planche, he was
obliged to solicit employment of the Minister of Finance, a position
which he lost on account of the Revolution of 1830. However, he was
reinstated through the influence of Nucingen, in 1836. He now lived
modestly with his mother-in-law, his unmarried sister-in-law, Malvina,
his wife and four children which she had given him, on the third
floor, over the entresol, rue du Mont-Thabor. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
BAUDENORD (Madame de), wife of the preceding. Born Isaure d'Aldrigger,
in 1807, at Strasbourg. An indolent blonde, fond of dancing, but a
nonentity from both the moral and the intellectual standpoints. [The
Firm of Nucingen.]
BAUDOYER (Monsieur and Madame), formerly tanners at Paris, rue
Censier. They owned their house, besides having a country seat at
l'Isle Adam. They had but one child, Isidore, whose sketch follows.
Mme. Baudoyer, born Mitral, was the sister of the bailiff of that
name. [The Government Clerks.]
BAUDOYER (Isidore), born in 1788; only son of M. and Mme. Baudoyer,
tanners, rue Censier, Paris. Having finished a course of study, he
obtained a position in the Bureau of Finance, where, despite his
notorious incapacity--and through "wire-pulling"--he became head of
the office. In 1824, a head of the division, M. de La Billardiere
died, when the meritorious clerk, Xavier Rabourdin, aspired to succeed
him; but the position went to Isidore Baudoyer, who was backed by the
power of money and the influence of the Church. He did not retain this
post long; six months thereafter he became a preceptor at Paris.
Isidore Baudoyer lived with his wife and her parents in a house on
Palais Royale (now Place des Vosges), of which they were joint owners.
[The Government Clerks.] He dined frequently, in 1840, at Thuillier's,
an old employe of the Bureau of Finance, then domiciled at the rue
Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, who had renewed his acquaintance with his
old-time colleagues. [The Middle Classes.] In 1845, this man, who had
been a model husband and who made a great pretence of religion
maintained Heloise Brisetout. He was then mayor of the arrondissement
of the Palais Royale. [Cousin Pons.]
BAUDOYER (Madame), wife of the preceding and daughter of a cashier of
the Minister of Finance; born Elisabeth Saillard in 1795. Her mother,
an Auvergnat, had an uncle, Bidault, alias Gigonnet, a short-time
money lender in the Halles quarter. On the other side, her mother-in-
law was the sister of the bailiff Mitral. Thanks to these two men of
means, who exercised a veritable secret power, and through her piety,
which put her on good terms with the clergy, she succeeded in raising
her husband up to the highest official positions--profiting also by
the financial straits of Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx, Secretary
General of Finance. [The Government Clerks.]
BAUDOYER (Mademoiselle), daughter of Isidore Baudoyer and Elisabeth
Saillard, born in 1812. Reared by her parents with the idea of
becoming the wife of the shrewd and energetic speculator Martin
Falleix, brother of Jacques Falleix the stock-broker. [The Government
Clerks.]
BAUDRAND, cashier of a boulevard theatre, of which Gaudissart became
the director about 1834. In 1845 he was succeeded by the proletariat
Topinard. [Cousin Pons.]
BAUDRY (Planat de), Receiver General of Finances under the
Restoration. He married one of the daughters of the Comte de Fontaine.
He usually passed his summers at Sceaux, with almost all his wife's
family. [The Ball at Sceaux.]
BAUVAN (Comte de), one of the instigators of the Chouan insurrection
in the department d'Ille-et-Vilaine, in 1799. Through a secret
revelation made to his friend the Marquis de Montauran on the part of
Mlle. de Verneuil, the Comte de Bauvan caused, indirectly, the
Massacre des Bleus at Vivetiere. Later, surprised in an ambuscade by
soldiers of the Republic, he was made a prisoner by Mlle. de Verneuil
and owed his life to her; for this reason he became entirely devoted
to her, assisting as a witness at her marriage with Montauran. [The
Chouans.]
BAUVAN (Comtesse de), in all likelihood the wife of the foregoing,
whom she survived. In 1822 she was manager of a Parisian lottery
bureau which employed Madame Agatha Bridau, about the same time. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BAUVAN (Comte and Comtesse de), father and mother of Octave de Bauvan.
Relics of the old Court, living in a tumble-down house on the rue
Payenne at Paris, where they died, about 1815, within a few months of
each other, and before the conjugal infelicity of their son. (See
Octave de Bauvan.) Probably related to the two preceding. [Honorine.]
BAUVAN (Comte Octave de), statesman and French magistrate. Born in
1787. When twenty-six he married Honorine, a beautiful young heiress
who had been reared carefully at the home of his parents, M. and Mme.
de Bauvan, whose ward she was. Two or three years afterwards she left
the conjugal roof, to the infinite despair of the comte, who gave
himself over entirely to winning her back again. At the end of several
years he succeeded in getting her to return to him through pity, but
she died soon after this reconciliation, leaving one son born of their
reunion. The Comte de Bauvan, completely broken, set out for Italy
about 1836. He had two residences at Paris, one on rue Payenne, an
heirloom, the other on Faubourg Saint-Honore, which was the scene of
the domestic reunion. [Honorine.] In 1830, the Comte de Bauvan, then
president of the Court of Cassation, with MM. de Granville and de
Serizy, tried to save Lucien de Rubempre from a criminal judgment,
and, after the suicide of that unhappy man, he followed his remains to
the grave. [Scenes from a Courtesan's life.]
BAUVAN (Comtesse Honorine de), wife of the preceding. Born in 1794.
Married at nineteen to the Comte Octave de Bauvan. After having
abandoned her husband, she was in turn, while expecting a child,
abandoned by her lover, some eighteen months later. She then lived a
very retired life in the rue Saint-Maur, yet all the time being under
the secret surveillance of the Comte de Bauvan who paid exorbitant
prices for the artificial flowers which she made. She thus derived
from him a rather large part of the sustenance which she believed she
owed only to her own efforts. She died, reunited to her husband,
shortly after the Revolution of July, 1830. Honorine de Bauvan lost
her child born out of wedlock, and she always mourned it. During her
years of toilsome exile in the Parisian faubourg, she came in contact
successively with Marie Gobain, Jean-Jules Popinot, Felix Gaudissart,
Maurice de l'Hostal and Abbe Loraux.[Honorine.]
BEAUDENORD (Madame de), wife of the preceding. Born Isaure
d'Aldrigger, in 1807, at Strasbourg. An indolent blonde, fond of
dancing, but a nonentity from both the moral and the intellectual
standpoints. [The Firm of Nucingen.]
BEAUMESNIL (Mademoiselle), a celebrated actress of the Theatre-
Francais, Paris. Mature at the time of the Restoration. She was the
mistress of the police-officer Peyrade, by whom she had a daughter,
Lydie, whom he acknowledged. The last home of Mlle. Beaumesnil was on
rue de Tournon. It was there that she suffered the loss by theft of
her valuable diamonds, through Charles Crochard, her real lover. This
was at the beginning of the reign of Louis Philippe. [The Middle
Classes. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. A Second Home.]
BEAUPIED, or Beau-Pied, an alias of Jean Falcon. (See that name.)
BEAUPRE (Fanny), an actress at the Theatre de la Porte-Saint-Martin,
Paris, time of Charles X. Young and beautiful, in 1825, she made a
name for herself in the role of marquise in a melodrama entitled "La
Famille d'Anglade." At this time she had replaced Coralie, then dead,
in the affections of Camusot the silk-merchant. It was at Fanny
Beaupre's that Oscar Husson, one of the clerks of lawyer Desroches,
lost in gaming the sum of five hundred francs belonging to his
employer, and that he was discovered lying dead-drunk on a sofa by his
uncle Cardot. [A Start in Life.] In 1829 Fanny Beaupre, for a money
consideration, posed as the best friend of the Duc d'Herouville.
[Modeste Mignon.] In 1842, after his liaison with Mme. de la Baudraye,
Lousteau lived maritally with her. [The Muse of the Department.] A
frequent inmate of the mansion magnificently fitted up for Esther
Gobseck by the Baron de Nucingen, she knew all the fast set of the
years 1829 and 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BEAUSEANT (Marquis and Comte de), the father and eldest brother of the
Vicomte de Beauseant, husband of Claire de Bourgogne. [The Deserted
Woman.] In 1819, the marquis and the comte dwelt together in their
house, rue Saint-Dominique, Paris. [Father Goriot.] While the
Revolution was on, the marquis had emigrated. The Abbe de Marolles had
dealings with him. [An Episode under the Terror.]
BEAUSEANT (Marquise de). In 1824 a Marquise de Beauseant, then rather
old, is found to have dealings with the Chaulieus. It was probably the
widow of the marquis of this name, and the mother of the Comte and
Vicomte de Beauseant. [Letters of Two Brides.] The Marquise de
Beauseant was a native of Champagne, coming of a very old family. [The
Deserted Woman.]
BEAUSEANT (Vicomte de), husband of Claire de Bourgogne. He understood
the relations of his wife with Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto, and, whether he
liked it or not, he respected this species of morganatic alliance
recognized by society. The Vicomte de Beauseant had his residence in
Paris on the rue de Grenelle in 1819. At that time he kept a dancer
and liked nothing better than high living. He became a marquis on the
death of his father and eldest brother. He was a polished man,
courtly, methodical, and ceremonious. He insisted upon living
selfishly. His death would have allowed Mme. de Beauseant to wed
Gaston de Nueil. [Father Goriot. The Deserted Woman.]
BEAUSEANT (Vicomtesse de), born Clair de Bourgogne, in 1792. Wife of
the preceding and cousin of Eugene de Rastignac. Of a family almost
royal. Deceived by her lover, Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto, who, while
continuing his intimacy with her, asked and obtained the hand of
Berthe de Rochefide, the vicomtesse left Paris secretly before this
wedding and on the morning following a grand ball which was given at
her home where she shone in all her pride and splendor. In 1822 this
"deserted woman" had lived for three years in the most rigid seclusion
at Courcelles near Bayeux. Gaston de Nueil, a young man of three and
twenty, who had been sent to Normandy for his health, succeeded in
making her acquaintance, was immediately smitten with her and, after a
long seige, became her lover. This was at Geneva, whither she had
fled. Their intimacy lasted for nine years, being broken by the
marriage of the young man. In 1819 the Vicomtesse de Beauseant
received at Paris the most famous "high-rollers" of the day--
Malincour, Ronquerolles, Maxime de Trailles, Marsay, Vandenesse,
together with an intermingling of the most elegant dames, as Lady
Brandon, the Duchesse de Langeais, the Comtesse de Kergarouet, Mme. de
Serizy, the Duchesse Carigliano, the Comtesse Ferraud, Mme. de Lantry,
the Marquise d'Aiglemont, Mme. Firmiani, the Marquise de Listomere,
the Marquise d'Espard and the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. She was
equally intimate with Grandlieu, and the General de Montriveau.
Rastignac, then poor at the time of his start in the world, also
received cards to her receptions. [Father Goriot. The Deserted Woman.
Albert Savarus.]
BEAUSSIER, a bourgeois of Issoudun under the Restoration. Upon seeing
Joseph Bridau in the diligence, while the artist and his mother were
on a journey in 1822, he remarked that he would not care to meet him
at night in the corner of a forest--he looked so much like a
highwayman. That same evening Beaussier, accompanied by his wife, came
to call at Hochon's in order to get a nearer view of the painter. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BEAUSSIER the younger, known as Beaussier the Great; son of the
preceding and one of the Knights of Idlesse at Issoudun, commanded by
Maxence Gilet, under the Restoration. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BEAUVISAGE, physician of the Convent des Carmelites at Blois, time of
Louis XVIII. He was known by Louise de Chaulieu and by Renee de
Maucombe, who were reared in the convent. According to Louise de
Chaulieu, he certainly belied his name. [Letters of Two Brides.]
BEAUVISAGE, at one time tenant of the splendid farm of Bellache,
pertaining to the Gondreville estate at Arcis-sur-Aube. The father of
Phileas Beauvisage. Died about the beginning of the nineteenth
century. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]
BEAUVISAGE (Madame), wife of the preceding. She survived him for quite
a long period and helped her son Phileas win his success. [The Member
for Arcis.]
BEAUVISAGE (Phileas), son of Beauvisage the farmer. Born in 1792. A
hosier at Arcis-sur-Aube during the Restoration. Mayor of the town in
1839. After a preliminary defeat he was elected deputy at the time
when Sallenauve sent in his resignation, in 1841. An ardent admirer of
Crevel whose affectations he aped. A millionaire and very vain, he
would have been able, according to Crevel, to advance Mme. Hulot, for
a consideration, the two hundred thousand francs of which that unhappy
lady stood in so dire a need about 1842. [Cousin Betty. The Member for
Arcis.]
BEAUVISAGE (Madame), born Severine Grevin in 1795. Wife of Phileas
Beauvisage, whom she kept in complete subjugation. Daughter of Grevin
the notary of Arcis-sur-Aube, Senator Malin de Gondreville's intimate
friend. She inherited her father's marvelous faculty of discretion;
and, though diminutive in stature, reminded one forcibly, in her face
and ways, of Mlle. Mars. [The Member for Arcis.]
BEAUVISAGE (Cecile-Renee), only daughter of Phileas Beauvisage and
Severine Grevin. Born in 1820. Her natural father was the Vicomte
Melchior de Chargeboeuf who was sub-prefect of Arcis-sur-Aube at the
commencement of the Restoration. She looked exactly like him, besides
having his aristocratic airs. [The Member for Arcis.]
BEAUVOIR (Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier de), cousin of the
Duchesse de Maille. A Chouan prisoner of the Republic in the chateau
de l'Escarpe in 1799. The hero of a tale of marital revenge related by
Lousteau, in 1836, to Mme. de la Baudraye, the story being obtained--
so the narrator said--from Charles Nodier. [The Muse of the
Department.]
BECANIERE (La), surname of Barbette Cibot. (See that name.)
BECKER (Edme), a student of medicine who dwelt in 1828 at number 22,
rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve--the residence of the Marquis
d'Espard. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
BEDEAU, office boy and roustabout for Maitre Bordin, attorney to the
Chatelet in 1787. [A Start in Life.]
BEGA, surgeon in a French regiment of the Army of Spain in 1808. After
having privately accouched a Spaniard under the espionage of her
lover, he was assassinated by her husband, who surprised him in the
telling of this clandestine operation. The foregoing adventure was
told Mme. de la Baudraye, in 1836, by the Receiver of Finances,
Gravier, former paymaster of the Army. [The Muse of the Department.]
BEGRAND (La), a dancer at the theatre of Porte-Sainte-Martin, Paris,
in 1820.* Mariette, who made her debut at this time, also scored a
success. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
* She shone for more than sixty years as a famous choreographical
artist in the boulevards.
BELLEFEUILLE (Mademoiselle de), assumed name of Caroline Crochard.
BELLEJAMBE, servant of Lieutenant-Colonel Husson in 1837. [A Start in
Life.]
BELOR (Mademoiselle de), young girl of Bordeaux living there about
1822. She was always in search of a husband, whom, for some cause or
other, she never found. Probably intimate with Evangelista. [A
Marriage Settlement.]
BEMBONI (Monsignor), attache to the Secretary of State at Rome, who
was entrusted with the transmission to the Duc de Soria at Madrid of
the letters of Baron de Macumer his brother, a Spanish refugee at
Paris in 1823, 1824. [Letters of Two Brides.]
BENARD (Pieri). After corresponding with a German for two years, he
discovered an engraving by Muller entitled the "Virgin of Dresden." It
was on Chinese paper and made before printing was discovered. It cost
Cesar Birotteau fifteen hundred francs. The perfumer destined this
engraving for the savant Vauquelin, to whom he was under obligations.
[Cesar Birotteau.]
BENASSIS (Doctor), born about 1779 in a little town of Languedoc. He
received his early training at the College of Soreze, Tarn, which was
managed by the Oratorians. After that he pursued his medical studies
at Paris, residing in the Latin quarter. When twenty-two he lost his
father, who left him a large fortune; and he deserted a young girl by
whom he had had a son, in order to give himself over to the most
foolish dissipations. This young girl, who was thoroughly well meant
and devoted to him, died two years after the desertion despite the
most tender care of her now contrite lover. Later Benassis sought
marriage with another young girl belonging to a Jansenist family. At
first the affair was settled, but he was thrown over when the secret
of his past life, hitherto concealed, was made known. He then devoted
his whole life to his son, but the child died in his youth. After
wavering between suicide and the monastery of Grande-Chartreuse,
Doctor Benassis stopped by chance in the poor village of l'Isere, five
leagues from Grenoble. He remained there until he had transformed the
squalid settlement, inhabited by good-for-nothing Cretins, into the
chief place of the Canton, bustling and prosperous. Benassis died in
1829, mayor of the town. All the populace mourned the benefactor and
man of genius. [The Country Doctor.]
BENEDETTO, an Italian living at Rome in the first third of the
nineteenth century. A tolerable musician, and a police spy, "on the
side." Ugly, small and a drunkard, he was nevertheless the lucky
husband of Luigia, whose marvelous beauty was his continual boast.
After an evening spent by him over the wine-cups, his wife in loathing
lighted a brasier of charcoal, after carefully closing all the exits
of the bedchamber. The neighbors rushing in succeeded in saving her
alone; Benedetto was dead. [The Member for Arcis.]
BERENICE, chambermaid and cousin of Coralie the actress of the
Panorama and Gymnase Dramatique. A large Norman woman, as ugly as her
mistress was pretty, but tender and sympathetic in direct proportion
to her corpulence. She had been Coralie's childhood playmate and was
absolutely bound up in her. In October, 1822, she gave Lucien de
Rubempre, then entirely penniless, four five-franc pieces which she
undoubtedly owed to the generosity of chance lovers met on the
boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle. This sum enabled the unfortunate poet to
return to Angouleme. [Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at
Paris.]
BERGERIN was the best doctor at Saumur during the Restoration. He
attended Felix Grandet in his last illness. [Eugenie Grandet.]
BERGMANN (Monsieur and Madame), Swiss. Venerable gardeners of a
certain Comte Borromeo, tending his parks located on the two famous
isles in Lake Major. In 1823 they owned a house at Gersau, near
Quatre-Canton Lake, in the Canton of Lucerne. For a year back they had
let one floor of this house to the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini,--
personages of a novel entitled, "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published by
Albert Savarus in the Revue de l'Est, in 1834. [Albert Savarus.]
BERNARD. (See Baron de Bourlac.)
BERNUS, diligence messenger carrying the passengers, freight, and
perhaps, the letters of Saint-Nazaire to Guerande, during the time of
Charles X. and Louis Philippe. [Beatrix.]
BERQUET, workman of Besancon who erected an elevated kiosk in the
garden of the Wattevilles, whence their daughter Rosalie could see
every act and movement of Albert Savarus, a near neighbor. [Albert
Savarus.]
BERTHIER (Alexandre), marshal of the Empire, born at Versailles in
1753, dying in 1815. He wrote, as Minister of War at the close of
1799, to Hulot, then in command of the Seventy-second demi-brigade,
refusing to accept his resignation and giving him further orders. [The
Chouans.] On the evening of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he
accompanied the Emperor and was present at the latter's interview with
the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, special envoys
to France to implore pardon for the Simeuses, the Hauteserres, and
Michu who had been condemned as abductors of Senator Malin de
Gondreville. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
BERTHIER, Parisian notary, successor of Cardot, whose assistant head-
clerk he had been and whose daughter Felicite (or Felicie) he married.
In 1843 he was Mme. Marneffe's notary. At the same time he had in hand
the affairs of Camusot de Marville; and Sylvain Pons often dined with
him. Master Berthier drew up the marriage settlement of Wilhelm Schwab
with Emilie Graff, and the copartnership articles between Fritz
Brunner and Wilhelm Schwab. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]
BERTHIER (Madame), nee Felicie Cardot, wife of the preceding. She had
been wronged by the chief-clerk in her father's office. This young man
died suddenly, leaving her enceinte. She then espoused the second
clerk, Berthier, in 1837, after having been on the point of accepting
Lousteau. Berthier was cognizant of all the head-clerk's doings. In
this affair both acted for a common interest. The marriage was
measurably happy. Madame Berthier was so grateful to her husband that
she made herself his slave. About the end of 1844 she welcomed very
coldly Sylvain Pons, then in disgrace in the family circle. [The Muse
of the Department. Cousin Pons.]
BERTON, tax-collector at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1839. [The Member for
Arcis.]
BERTON (Mademoiselle), daughter of the tax-collector of Arcis-sur-
Aube. A young, insignificant girl who acted the satellite to Cecile
Beauvisage and Ernestine Mollot. [The Member for Arcis.]
BERTON (Doctor), physician of Paris. In 1836 he lived on rue d'Enfer
(now rue Denfert-Rochereau). An assistant in the benevolent work of
Mme. de la Chanterie, he visited the needy sick whom she pointed out.
Among others he attended Vanda de Mergi, daughter of the Baron de
Bourlac--M. Bernard. Doctor Berton was gruff and frigid. [The Seamy
Side of History.]
BETHUNE (Prince de), the only man of fashion who knew "what a hat was"
--to quote a saying of Vital the hatter, in 1845. [The Unconscious
Humorists.]
BEUNIER & CO., the firm Bixiou inquired after in 1845, near Mme.
Nourrisson's. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
BIANCHI. Italian. During the first Empire a captain in the sixth
regiment of the French line, which was made up almost entirely of men
of his nationality. Celebrated in his company for having bet that he
would eat the heart of a Spanish sentinel, and winning that bet.
Captain Bianchi was first to plant the French colors on the wall of
Tarragone, Spain, in the attack of 1808. But a friar killed him. [The
Maranas.]
BIANCHON (Doctor), a physician of Sancerre, father of Horace Bianchon,
brother of Mme. Popinot, the wife of Judge Popinot. [The Commission in
Lunacy.]
BIANCHON (Horace), a physician of Paris, celebrated during the times
of Charles X. and Louis Philippe; an officer of the Legion of Honor,
member of the Institute, professor of the Medical Faculty, physician-
in-charge, at the same time, of a hospital and the Ecole
Polytechnique. Born at Sancerre, Cher, about the end of the eighteenth
century. He was "interne" at the Cochin Hospital in 1819, at which
time he boarded at the Vauquer Pension where he knew Eugene de
Rastignac, then studying law, and Goriot and Vautrin. [Father Goriot.]
Shortly thereafter, at Hotel Dieu, he became the favored pupil of the
surgeon Desplein, whose last days he tended. [The Atheist's Mass.]
Nephew of Judge Jean-Jules Popinot and relative of Anselme Popinot, he
had dealings with the perfumer Cesar Birotteau, who acknowledged
indebtedness to him for a prescription of his famous hazelnut oil, and
who invited him to the grand ball which precipitated Birotteau's
bankruptcy. [Cesar Birotteau. The Commission in Lunacy.] Member of the
"Cenacle" in rue des Quatre-Vents, and on intimate terms with all the
young fellows composing this clique, he was consequently enabled, to
an extent, to bring Daniel d'Arthez to the notice of Rastignac, now
Under-Secretary of State. He nursed Lucien de Rubempre who was wounded
in a duel with Michel Chrestien in 1822; also Coralie, Lucien's
mistress, and Mme. Bridau in their last illnesses. [Lost Illusions. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment. The
Secrets of a Princess.] In 1824 the young Doctor Bianchon accompanied
Desplein, who was called in to attend the dying Flamet de la
Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.] In Provins in 1828, with the
same Desplein and Dr. Martener, he gave the most assiduous attention
to Pierrette Lorrain. [Pierrette.] In this same year of 1828 he had a
momentary desire to become one of an expedition to Morea. He was then
physician to Mme. de Listomere, whose misunderstanding with Rastignac
he learned and afterwards related. [A Study of Woman.] Again in
company with Desplein, in 1829, he was called in by Mme. de Nucingen
with the object of studying the case of Baron de Nucingen, her
husband, love-sick for Esther Gobseck. In 1830, still with his
celebrated chief, he was cited by Corentin to express an opinion on
the death of Peyrade and the lunacy of Lydie his daughter. Then, with
Desplein and with Dr. Sinard, to attend Mme. de Serizy, who it was
feared would go crazy over the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre. [Scenes
from a Courtesan's Life.] Associated with Desplein, at this same time,
he cared for the dying Honorine, wife of Comte de Bauvan [Honorine.],
and examined the daughter of Baron de Bourlac--M. Bernard--who was
suffering from a peculiar Polish malady, the plica. [The Seamy Side of
History.] In 1831 Horace Bianchon was the friend and physician of
Raphael de Valentin. [The Magic Skin.] In touch with the Comte de
Granville in 1833, he attended the latter's mistress, Caroline
Crochard. [A Second Home.] He also attended Mme. du Bruel, then
mistress of La Palferine, who had injured herself by falling and
striking her head against the sharp corner of a fireplace. [A Prince
of Bohemia.] In 1835 he attended Mme. Marie Gaston--Louise de Chaulieu
--though a hopeless case. [Letters of Two Brides.] In 1837 at Paris he
accouched Mme. de la Baudraye who had been intimate with Lousteau; he
was assisted by the celebrated accoucheur Duriau. [The Muse of the
Department.] In 1838 he was Comte Laginski's physician. [The Imaginary
Mistress.] In 1840 Horace Bianchon resided on rue de la Montagne-
Sainte-Genevieve, in the house where his uncle, Judge Popinot, died,
and he was asked to become one of the Municipal Council, in place of
that upright magistrate. But he declined, declaring in favor of
Thuillier. [The Middle Classes.] The physician of Baron Hulot, Crevel
and Mme. Marneffe, he observed with seven of his colleagues, the
terrible malady which carried off Valerie and her second husband in
1842. In 1843 he also visited Lisbeth Fisher in her last illness
[Cousin Betty.] Finally, in 1844, Dr. Bianchon was consulted by Dr.
Roubaud regarding Mme. Graslin at Montegnac. [The Country Parson.]
Horace Bianchon was a brilliant and inspiring conversationalist. He
gave to society the adventures known by the following titles: A Study
of Woman; Another Study of Woman; La Grande Breteche.
BIBI-LUPIN, chief of secret police between 1819 and 1830; a former
convict. In 1819 he personally arrested at Mme. Vauquer's boarding-
house Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin, his old galley-mate and personal
enemy. Under the name of Gondureau, Bibi-Lupin had made overtures to
Mlle. Michonneau, one of Mme. Vauquer's guests, and through her he had
obtained the necessary proofs of the real identity of Vautrin who was
then without the pale of the law, but who later, May, 1830, became his
successor as chief of secret police. [Father Goriot. Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.]
BIDAULT (Monsieur and Madame), brother and sister-in-law of Bidault,
alias Gigonnet; father and mother of M. and Mme. Saillard, furniture-
dealers under the Central Market pillars during the latter part of the
eighteenth and perhaps the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. [The
Government Clerks.]
BIDAULT, known as Gigonnet, born in 1755; originally an Auvergnat;
uncle of Mme. Saillard on the paternal side. A paper-merchant at one
time, retired from business since the year II of the Republic, he
opened an account with a Dutchman called Sieur Werbrust, who was a
friend of Gobseck. In business relations with the latter, he was one
of the most formidable usurers in Paris, during the Empire, the
Restoration and the first part of the July Government. He dwelt in rue
Greneta. [The Government Clerks. Gobseck.] Luigi Porta, a ranking
officer retired under Louis XVIII., sold all his back pay to Gigonnet.
[The Vendetta.] Bidault was one of the syndicate that engineered the
bankruptcy of Birotteau in 1819. At this time he persecuted Mme.
Madou, a market dealer in filberts, who was his debtor. [Cesar
Birotteau.] In 1824 he succeeded in making his grand-nephew, Isidore
Baudoyer, chief of the division under the Minister of Finance; in this
he was aided by Gobseck and Mitral, and worked on the General
Secretary, Chardin des Lupeaulx, through the medium of the latter's
debts and the fact of his being candidate for deputy. [The Government
Clerks.] Bidault was shrewd enough; he saw through--and much to his
profit--the pretended speculation involved in the third receivership
which was operated by Nucingen in 1826. [The Firm of Nucingen.] In
1833 M. du Tillet advised Nathan, then financially stranded, to apply
to Gigonnet, the object being to involve Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]
The nick-name of Gigonnet was applied to Bidault on account of a
feverish, involuntary contraction of a leg muscle. [The Government
Clerks.]
BIDDIN, goldsmith, rue de l'Arbe-Sec, Paris, in 1829; one of Esther
Gobseck's creditors. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BIFFE (La), concubine of the criminal Riganson, alias Le Biffon. This
woman, who was a sort of Jacques Collin in petticoats, evaded the
police, thanks to her disguises. She could ape the marquise, the
baronne and the comtesse to perfection. She had her own carriage and
footmen. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BIFFON (Le), an alias of Riganson.
BIGORNEAU, sentimental clerk of Fritot's, the shawl merchant in the
Bourse quarter, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. [Gaudissart II.]
BIJOU (Olympe). (See Grenouville, Madame.)
BINET, inn-keeper in the Department of l'Orne in 1809. He was
concerned in a trial which created some stir, and cast a shadow over
Mme. de la Chanterie, striking at her daughter, Mme. des Tours-
Minieres. Binet harbored some brigands known as "chauffeurs." He was
brought to trial for it and sentenced to five years' imprisonment.
[The Seamy Side of History.]
BIROTTEAU (Jacques), a gardener hard by Chinon. He married the
chambermaid of a lady on whose estate he trimmed vines. Three boys
were born to them: Francois, Jean and Cesar. He lost his wife on the
birth of the last child (1779), and himself died shortly after. [Cesar
Birotteau.]
BIROTTEAU (Abbe Francois), eldest son of Jacques Birotteau; born in
1766; vicar of the church of Saint-Gatien at Tours, and afterwards
cure of Saint-Symphorien in the same city. After the death of the Abbe
de la Berge, in 1817, he became confessor of Mme. de Mortsauf,
attending her last moments. [The Lily of the Valley.] His brother
Cesar, the perfumer, wrote him after his--Cesar's--business failure in
1819, asking aid. Abbe Birotteau, in a touching letter, responded with
the sum of one thousand francs which represented all his own little
hoard and, in addition, a loan obtained from Mme. de Listomere. [Cesar
Birotteau.] Accused of having inveigled Mme. de Listomere to leave him
the income of fifteen hundred francs, which she bequeathed him on her
death, Abbe Birotteau was placed under interdiction, in 1826, the
victim of the terrible hatred of the Abbe Troubert. [The Vicar of
Tours.]
BIROTTEAU (Jean), second son of Jacques Birotteau. A captain in the
army, killed in the historic battle of La Trebia which lasted three
days, June 17-19, 1799. [Cesar Birotteau.]
BIROTTEAU (Cesar), third son of Jacques Birotteau, born in 1779;
dealer in perfumes in Paris at number 397 rue Saint-Honore, near the
Place Vendome, in the old shop once occupied by the grocer Descoings,
who was executed with Andre Chenier in 1794. After the eighteenth
Brumaire, Cesar Birotteau succeeded Sieur Ragon, and moved the source
of the "Queen of Roses" to the above address. Among his customers were
the Georges, the La Billardieres, the Montaurans, the Bauvans, the
Longuys, the Mandas, the Berniers, the Guenics, and the Fontaines.
These relations with the militant Royalists implicated him in the plot
of the 13th Vendemaire, 1795, against the Convention; and he was
wounded, as he told over and over, "by Bonaparte on the borders of
Saint-Roche." In May, 1800, Birotteau the perfumer married Constance-
Barbe-Josephine Pillerault. By her he had an only daughter, Cesarine,
who married Anselme Popinot in 1822. Successively captain, then chief
of battalion in the National Guard and adjunct-mayor of the eleventh
arrondissement, Birotteau was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of
Honor in 1818. To celebrate his nomination in the Order, he gave a
grand ball* which, on account of the very radical changes necessitated
in his apartments, and coupled with some bad speculations, brought
about his total ruin; he filed a petition in bankruptcy the year
following. By stubborn effort and the most rigid economy, Birotteau
was able to indemnify his creditors completely, three years later
(1822). But he died soon after the formal court reinstating. He
numbered among his patrons in 1818 the following: the Duc and Duchesse
de Lenoncourt, the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the Marquise
d'Espard, the two Vandenesses, Marsay, Ronquerolles, and the Marquis
d'Aiglemont. [Cesar Birotteau. A Bachelor's Establishment.] Cesar
Birotteau was likewise on friendly terms with the Guillaumes, clothing
dealers in the rue Saint-Denis. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]
* The 17th of December was really Thursday and not Sunday, as
erroneously given.
BIROTTEAU (Madame), born Constance-Barbe-Josephine Pillerault in 1782.
Married Cesar Birotteau in May, 1800. Previous to her marriage she was
head "saleslady" at the "Little Sailor"* novelty shop, corner of Quai
Anjou and rue des Deux Ponts, Paris. Her surviving relative and
guardian was her uncle, Claude-Joseph Pillerault. [Cesar Birotteau.]
* This shop still exists at the same place, No. 43 Quai d'Anjou and
40 rue des Deux-Ponts, being run by M. L. Bellevaut.
BIROTTEAU (Cesarine). (See Popinot, Madame Anselme.)
BIXIOU,* Parisian grocer, in rue Saint-Honore, before the Revolution
in the eighteenth century. He had a clerk called Descoings, who
married his widow. The grocer Bixiou was the grandfather of Jean-
Jacques Bixiou, the celebrated cartoonist. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
* Pronounced "Bissiou."
BIXIOU, son of the preceding and father of Jean-Jacques Bixiou. He was
a colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment; killed at the battle of
Dresden, on the 26th or 27th of August, 1813. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
BIXIOU (Jean-Jacques), famous artist; son of Colonel Bixiou who was
killed at Dresden; grandson of Mme. Descoings, whose first husband was
the grocer Bixiou. Born in 1797, he pursued a course of study at the
Lyceum, to which he had obtained a scholarship. He had for friends
Philippe and Joseph Bridau, and Master Desroches. Later he entered the
painter Gros's studio. Then in 1819, through the influence of the Ducs
de Maufrigneuse and de Rhetore, whom he met at some dancer's, he
obtained a position with the Minister of Finance. He remained with
this administration until December, 1824, when he resigned. In this
same year he was one of the best men for Philippe Bridau, who married
Flore Brazier, known as La Rabouilleuse, the widow of J.-J. Rouget.
After this woman's death, in 1828, he was led, disguised as a priest,
to the residence of the Soulanges, where he told the comte about the
scandal connected with her death, knowingly caused by her husband; he
told, also, about the bad habits and vulgarities of Philippe Bridau,
and thus caused the breaking off of the marriage of this weather-
beaten soldier with Mlle. Amelie de Soulanges. A talented cartoonist,
distinguished practical joker, and recognized as one of the kings of
/bon mot/, he led a free and easy life. He was on speaking terms with
all the artists and all the lorettes of his day. Among others he knew
the painter, Hippolyte Schinner. He turned a pretty penny, during the
trial of De Fualdes and de Castaing, by illustrating in a fantastic
way the account of this trial. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The
Government Clerks. The Purse.] He designed some vignettes for the
writing of Canalis. [Modeste Mignon.] With Blondet, Lousteau and
Nathan he was a habitue of the house of Esther Gobseck, rue Saint-
Georges, in 1829, 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In a private
room of a well-known restaurant, in 1836, he wittily related to Finot,
Blondet and Couture the source of Nucingen's fortune. [The Firm of
Nucingen.] In January, 1837, his friend Lousteau had him come
especially to upbraid him, Lousteau, on account of the latter's
irregular ways with Mme. de la Baudraye, while she, concealed in an
ante-room, heard it all. This scene had been arranged beforehand; its
object was to give Lousteau a chance to declare, apparently, his
unquenchable attachment for his mistress. [The Muse of the
Department.] In 1838 he attended the house-warming of Heloise
Brisetout in rue Chauchat. In the same year he was attendant at the
marriage of Steinbock with Hortense Hulot, and of Crevel with the
widow Marneffe. [Cousin Betty.] In 1839 the sculptor Dorlange-
Sallenauve knew of Bixiou and complained of his slanders. [The Member
for Arcis.] Mme. Schontz treated him most cordially in 1838, and he
had to pass for her "special," although their relations, in fact, did
not transcend the bounds of friendship. [Beatrix.] In 1840, at the
home of Marguerite Turquet, maintained by the notary Cardot, when
Lousteau, Nathan and La Palferine were also present, he heard a story
by Desroches. [A Man of Business.] About 1844, Bixiou helped in a high
comedy relative to a Selim shawl sold by Fritot to Mistress Noswell.
Bixiou himself had purchased, in a shop with M. du Ronceret, a shawl
for Mme. Schontz. [Gaudissart II.] In 1845 Bixiou showed Paris and the
"Unconscious Humorists" to a Pyrrenean named Gazonal, in company with
Leon de Lora, a cousin of the countryman. At this time Bixiou dwelt at
number 112 rue Richelieu, sixth floor; when he had a regular position
he had lived in rue de Ponthieu. [The Unconscious Humorists.] In the
rue Richelieu period he was the lover of Heloise Brisetout. [Cousin
Pons.]
BLAMONT-CHAUVRY (Princesse de), mother of Mme. d'Espard; aunt of the
Duchesse de Langeais; great aunt of Mme. de Mortsauf; a veritable
d'Hozier in petticoats. Her drawing-room set the fashion in Faubourg
Saint-Germain, and the sayings of this feminine Talleyrand were
listened to as oracles. Very aged at the beginning of the reign of
Louis XVIII., she was one of the most poetic relics of the reign of
Louis XV., the "Well-Beloved;" and to this nick-name--as the records
had it--she had contributed her full share. [The Thirteen.] Mme.
Firmiani was received by the princess on account of the Cadignans, to
whom she was related on her mother's side. [Madame Firmiani.] Felix de
Vandenesse was admitted to her "At Homes," on the recommendation of
Mme. de Mortsauf; nevertheless he found in this old lady a friend
whose affection had a quality almost maternal. The princess was in the
family conclave which met to consider an amorous escapade of the
Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais. [The Lily of the Valley. The
Thirteen.]
BLANDUREAUS (The), wealthy linen merchants at Alencon, time of the
Restoration. They had an only daughter, to whom the President du
Ronceret wished to marry his son. She, however, married Joseph
Blondet, the oldest son of Judge Blondet. This marriage caused secret
hostility between the two fathers, one being the other's superior in
office. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BLONDET, judge at Alencon in 1824; born in 1758; father of Joseph and
Emile Blondet. At the time of the Revolution he was a public
prosecutor. A botanist of note, he had a remarkable conservatory where
he cultivated geraniums only. This conservatory was visited by the
Empress Marie-Louise, who spoke of it to the Emperor and obtained for
the judge the decoration of the Legion of Honor. Following the
Victurien d'Esgrignon episode, about 1825, Judge Blondet was made an
officer in the Order and chosen councillor at the Royal Court. Here he
remained in office no longer than absolutely necessary, retreating to
his dear Alencon home. He married in 1798, at the age of forty, a
young girl of eighteen, who in consequence of this disparity was
unfaithful to him. He knew that his second son, Emile, was not his
own; he therefore cared only for the elder and sent the younger
elsewhere as soon as possible. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] About
1838 Fabien du Ronceret obtained credit in an agricultural convention
for a flower which old Blondet had given him, but which he exhibited
as a product of his own green-house. [Beatrix.]
BLONDET (Madame), wife of the preceding; born in 1780; married in
1798. She was intimate with a prefect of Orne, who was the natural
father of Emile Blondet. Distant ties bound her to the Troisville
family, and it was to them that she sent Emile, her favored son.
Before her death, in 1818, she commended him to her old-time lover and
also to the future Madame de Montcornet, with whom he had been reared.
[Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BLONDET (Joseph), elder son of Judge Blondet of Alencon; born in that
city about 1799. In 1824 he practiced law and aspired to become a
substitute judge. Meanwhile he succeeded his father, whose post he
filled till his death. He was one of the numerous men of ordinary
talent. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BLONDET (Madame Joseph), nee Claire Blandureau, wife of Joseph
Blondet, whom she married when he was appointed judge at Alencon. She
was the daughter of wealthy linen dealers in the city. [Jealousies of
a Country Town.]
BLONDET (Emile), born at Alencon about 1800; legally the younger son
of Judge Blondet, but really the son of a prefect of Orne. Tenderly
loved by his mother, but hated by Judge Blondet, who sent him, in
1818, to study law in Paris. Emile Blondet knew the noble family of
d'Esgrignon in Alencon, and for the youngest daughter of this
illustrious house he felt an esteem that was really admiration.
[Jealousies of a Country Town.] In 1821 Emile Blondet was a remarkably
handsome young fellow. He made his first appearance in the "Debats" by
a series of masterly articles which called forth from Lousteau the
remark that he was "one of the princes of criticism." [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris.] In 1824 he contributed to a review edited by
Finot, where he collaborated with Lucien de Rubempre and where he was
allowed full swing by his chief. Emile Blondet had the most desultory
of habits; one day he would be a boon companion, without compunction,
with those destined for slaughter on the day following. He was always
"broke" financially. In 1829, 1830, Bixiou, Lousteau, Nathan and he
were frequenters of Esther's house, rue Saint-Georges. [Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.] A cynic was Blondet, with little regard for glory
undefiled. He won a wager that he could upset the poet Canalis, though
the latter was full of assurance. He did this by staring fixedly at
the poet's curls, his boots, or his coat-tails, while he recited
poetry or gesticulated with proper emphasis, fixed in a studied pose.
[Modeste Mignon.] He was acquainted with Mlle. des Touches, being
present at her home on one occasion, about 1830, when Henri de Marsay
told the story of his first love affair. He took part in the
conversation and depicted the "typical woman" to Comte Adam Laginski.
[Another Study of Woman.] In 1832 he was a guest at Mme. d'Espard's,
where he met his childish flame, Mme. de Montcornet, also the
Princesse de Cadignan, Lady Dudley, d'Arthez, Nathan, Rastignac, the
Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto, Maxime de Trailles, the Marquis d'Esgrignon,
the two Vandenesses, du Tillet, the Baron Nucingen and the Chevalier
d'Espard, brother-in-law of the marquise. [The Secrets of a Princess.]
About 1833 Blondet presented Nathan to Mme. de Montcornet, at whose
home the young Countess Felix de Vandenesse made the acquaintance of
the poet and was much smitten with him for some time. [A Daughter of
Eve.] In 1836 he and Finot and Couture chimed in on the narrative of
the rise of Nucingen, told with much zest by Bixiou in a private room
of a famous restaurant. [The Firm of Nucingen.] Eight or ten years
prior to February, 1848, Emile Blondet, on the brink of suicide,
witnessed an entire transition in his affairs. He was chosen a
prefect, and he married the wealthy widow of Comte de Montcornet, who
offered him her hand when she became free. They had known and loved
each other since childhood. [The Peasantry.]
BLONDET (Virginie), wife by second marriage of Emile Blondet; born in
1797; daughter of the Vicomte de Troisville; granddaughter of the
Russian Princesse Scherbelloff. She was brought up at Alencon, with
her future husband. In 1819 she married the General de Montcornet.
Twenty years later, a widow, she married the friend of her youth, who
this long time had been her lover. [Jealousies of a Country Town. The
Secrets of a Princess. The Peasantry.] She and Mme. d'Espard tried to
convert Lucien de Rubempre to the monarchical side in 1821. [A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] She was present at Mlle. des
Touches', about 1830, when Marsay told about his first love, and she
joined in the conversation. [Another Study of Woman.] She received a
rather mixed set, from an aristocratic standpoint, but here might be
found the stars of finance, art and literature. [The Member for
Arcis.] Mme. Felix de Vandenesse saw Nathan the poet for the first
time and noticed him particularly at Mme. de Montcornet's, in 1834,
1835. [A Daughter of Eve.] Mme. Emile Blondet, then Madame la Generale
de Montcornet, passed the summer and autumn of 1823 in Burgundy, at
her beautiful estate of Aigues, where she lived a burdened and
troubled life among the many and varied types of peasantry. Remarried,
and now the wife of a prefect, eight years or so before February,
1848, time of Louis Philippe, she visited her former properties. [The
Peasantry.]
BLUTEAU (Pierre), assumed name of Genestas. [The Country Doctor.]
BOCQUILLON, an acquaintance of Mme. Etienne Gruget. In 1820, rue des
Enfants-Rouges, Paris, she mistook for him the stock-broker, Jules
Desmarets, who was entering her door. [The Thirteen.]
BOGSECK (Madame van), name bestowed by Jacques Collin on Esther van
Gobseck when, in 1825, he gave her, transformed morally and
intellectually, to Lucien de Rubempre, in an elegant flat on rue
Taitbout. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BOIROUGE, president of the Sancerre Court at the time when the Baronne
de la Baudraye held social sway over that city. Through his wife, he
was related to the Popinot-Chandiers, to Judge Popinot of Paris, and
to Anselme Popinot. He was hereditary owner of a house which he did
not need, and which he very gladly leased to the baronne for the
purpose of starting a literary society that, however, degenerated very
soon into an ordinary clique. Actuated by jealousy, President Boirouge
was one of the principals in the defeat of Procureur Clagny for
deputy. He was reputed to be unchaste at repartee. [The Muse of the
Department.]
BOIROUGE (Madame), nee Popinot-Chandier, wife of President Boirouge;
stood well among the middle-class of Sancerre. After having been
leader in the opposition to Mme. de la Baudraye for nine years, she
induced her son Gatien to attend the Baudraye receptions, persuading
herself that he would soon make his way. Profiting by the visit of
Bianchon to Sancerre, Mme. Boirouge obtained of the famous physician,
her relative, a gratuitous consultation by giving him full particulars
regarding some pretended nervous trouble of the stomach, in which
complaint he recognized a periodic dyspepsia. [The Muse of the
Department.]
BOIROUGE (Gatien), son of President Boirouge; born in 1814; the junior
"patito" of Mme. de la Baudraye, who employed him in all sorts of
small ways. Gatien Boirouge was made game of by Lousteau, to whom he
had confessed his love for that masterful woman. [The Muse of the
Department.]
BOISFRANC (De), procureur-general, then first president of a royal
court under the Restoration. (See Dubut.)
BOISFRANC (Dubut de), president of the Aides court under the old
regime; brother of Dubut de Boisfrelon and of Dubut de Boislaurier.
[The Seamy Side of History.]
BOISFRELON (Dubut de), brother of Dubut de Boisfranc and of Dubut de
Boislaurier; at one time councillor in Parliament; born in 1736; died
in 1832 in the home of his niece, the Baronne de la Chanterie.
Godefroid succeeded him. M. de Boisfrelon had been one of the
"Brotherhood of Consolation." He was married, but his wife probably
died before him. [The Seamy Side of History.]
BOISLAURIER (Dubut de), junior brother of Dubut de Boisfranc and of
Dubut de Boisfrelon. Commander-in-chief of the Western Rebellion in
1808-1809, and designated then by the surname of Augustus. With
Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard, he plotted the organization of the
"Chauffeurs" of Mortagne. Then, in the trial of the "brigands," he was
condemned to death by default. [The Seamy Side of History.]
BOIS-LEVANT, chief of division under the Minister of Finance in 1824,
at the time when Xavier Rabourdin and Isidore Baudoyer contested the
succession of office in another division, that of F. de la
Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.]
BOLESLAS, Polish servant of the Comte and Comtesse Laginski, in rue de
la Pepiniere, Paris, between 1835 and 1842. [The Imaginary Mistress.]
BONAMY (Ida), aunt of Mlle. Antonia Chocardelle. At the time of Louis
Philippe, she conducted, on rue Coquenard (since 1848 rue Lamartine),
"just a step or two from rue Pigalle," a reading-room given to her
niece by Maxime de Trailles. [A Man of Business.]
BONAPARTE (Napoleon), Emperor of the French; born at Ajaccio, August
15, 1768, or 1769, according to varying accounts; died at St. Helena
May 5, 1821. As First Consul in 1800 he received at the Tuileries the
Corsican, Bartholomeo di Piombo, and disentangled his countryman from
the latter's implication in a vendetta. [The Vendetta.] On the evening
of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he was met on that ground by
Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, who had come post haste from France, and to
whom he accorded pardon for the Simeuses and the Hauteserres,
compromised in the abduction of Senator Malin de Gondreville. [The
Gondreville Mystery.] Napoleon Bonaparte was strongly concerned in the
welfare of his lieutenant, Hyacinthe Chabert, during the battle of
Eylau. [Colonel Chabert.] In November, 1809, he was to have attended a
grand ball given by Senator Malin de Gondreville; but he was detained
at the Tuileries by a scene--noised abroad that same evening--between
Josephine and himself, a scene which disclosed their impending
divorce. [Peace in the House.] He condoned the infamous conduct of the
police officer Contenson. [The Seamy Side of History.] In April, 1813,
during a dress-parade on the Place du Carrousel, Paris, Napoleon
noticed Mlle. de Chatillonest, who had come with her father to see the
handsome Colonel d'Aiglemont, and leaning towards Duroc he made a
brief remark which made the Grand Marshal smile. [A Woman of Thirty.]
BONAPARTE (Lucien), brother of Napoleon Bonaparte; born in 1775; died
in 1840. In June, 1800, he went to the house of Talleyrand, the
Foreign Minister, and there announced to him and also to Fouche,
Sieyes and Carnot, the victory of his brother at Montebello. [The
Gondreville Mystery.] In the month of October of the same year he was
encountered by his countryman, Bartholomeo di Piombo, whom he
introduced to the First Consul; he also gave his purse to the Corsican
and afterwards contributed towards relieving his difficulties. [The
Vendetta.]
BONFALOT, or BONVALOT (Madame), an aged relative of F. du Bruel at
Paris. La Palferine first met Mme. du Bruel in 1834 on the boulevard,
and boldly followed her all the way to Mme. de Bonfalot's, where she
was calling. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
BONFONS (Cruchot de), nephew of Cruchot the notary and Abbe Cruchot;
born in 1786; president of the Court of First Instance of Saumur in
1819. The Cruchot trio backed by a goodly number of cousins and allied
to twenty families in the city, formed a party similar to that of the
olden-time Medicis at Florence; and also, like the Medicis, the
Cruchots had their Pazzis in the persons of the Grassins. The prize
contested for between the Cruchots and the Grassins was the hand of
the rich heiress, Eugenie Grandet. In 1827, after nine years of suing,
the President Cruchot de Bonfons married the young woman, now left an
orphan. Previous to this he had been commissioned by her to settle in
full, both principal and interest, with the creditors of Charles
Grandet's father. Six months after his marriage, Bonfons was elected
councillor to the Royal Court of Angers. Then after some years
signalized by devoted service he became first president. Finally
chosen deputy for Saumur in 1832, he died within a week, leaving his
widow in possession of an immense fortune, still further augmented by
the bequests of the Abbe and the notary Cruchot. Bonfons was the name
of an estate of the magistrate. He married Eugenie only through
cupidity. He looked like "a big, rusty nail." [Eugenie Grandet.]
BONFONS (Eugenie Cruchot de), only daughter of M. and Mme. Felix
Grandet; born at Saumur in 1796. Strictly reared by a mother gentle
and devout, and by a father hard and avaricious. The single bright ray
across her life was an absolutely platonic love for her cousin Charles
Grandet. But, once away from her, this young man was forgetful of her;
and, on his return from the Indies in 1827, a rich man, he married the
young daughter of a nobleman. Upon this occurrence, Eugenie Grandet,
now an orphan, settled in full with the creditors of Charles' father,
and then bestowed her hand upon the President Cruchot de Bonfons, who
had paid her court for nine years. At the age of thirty-six she was
left a widow without having ceased to be a virgin, following her
expressed wish. Sadly she secluded herself in the gloomy home of her
childhood at Saumur, where she devoted the rest of her life to works
of benevolence and charity. After her father's death, Eugenie was
often alluded to, by the Cruchot faction, as Mlle. de Froidfond, from
the name of one of her holdings. In 1832 an effort was made to induce
Mme. de Bonfons to wed with Marquis de Froidfond, a bankrupt widower
of fifty odd years and possessed of numerous progeny. [Eugenie
Grandet.]
BONGRAND, born in 1769; first an advocate at Melun, then justice of
the peace at Nemours from 1814 to 1837. He was a friend of Doctor
Mirouet's and helped educate Ursule Mirouet, protecting her to the
best of his ability after the death of the old physician, and aiding
in the restitution of her fortune which Minoret-Levrault had impaired
by the theft of the doctor's will. M. Bongrand had wanted to make a
match between Ursule Mirouet and his son, but she loved Savinien de
Portenduere. The justice of the peace became president of the court at
Melun, after the marriage of the young lady with Savinien. [Ursule
Mirouet.]
BONGRAND (Eugene), son of Bongrand the justice of the peace. He
studied law at Paris under Derville the attorney, this constituting
all his course. He became public prosecutor at Melun after the
Revolution of 1830, and general prosecutor in 1837. Failing in his
love suit with Ursule Mirouet, he probably married the daughter of M.
Levrault, former mayor of Nemours. [Ursule Mirouet.]
BONNAC, a rather handsome young fellow, who was head clerk for the
notary Lupin at Soulanges in 1823. His accomplishments were his only
dowry. He was loved in platonic fashion by his employer's wife, Mme.
Lupin, otherwise known as Bebelle, a fat ridiculous female without
education. [The Peasantry.]
BONNEBAULT, retired cavalry soldier, the Lovelace of the village of
Blangy, Burgundy, and its suburbs in 1823. Bonnebault was the lover of
Marie Tonsard who was perfectly foolish about him. He had still other
"good friends" and lived at their expense. Their generosity did not
suffice for his dissipations, his cafe bills and his unbridled taste
for billiards. He dreamed of marrying Aglae Socquard, only daughter of
Pere Socquard, proprietor of the "Cafe de la Paix" at Soulanges.
Bonnebault obtained three thousand francs from General de Montcornet
by coming to him to confess voluntarily that he had been commissioned
to kill him for this price. The revelation, with other things, lead
the general to weary of his fierce struggle with the peasantry, and to
put up for sale his property at Aigues, which became the prey of
Gaubertin, Rigou and Soudry. Bonnebault was squint-eyed and his
physical appearance did not belie his depravity. [The Peasantry.]
BONNEBAULT (Mere), grandmother of Bonnebault the veteran. In 1823, at
Conches, Burgandy, where she lived, she owned a cow which she did not
hesitate to pasture in the fields belonging to General de Montcornet.
The numerous depredations of the old woman, added to convictions for
many similar offences, caused the general to decide to confiscate the
cow. [The Peasantry.]
BONNET (Abbe), Cure of Montegnac near Limoges from 1814 on. In this
capacity, he assisted at the public confession of his penitent, Mme.
Graslin, in the summer of 1844. Upon leaving the seminary of Saint-
Sulpice, Paris, he was sent to this village of Montegnac, which he
never after wished to leave. Here, sometimes unaided, sometimes with
the help of Mme. Graslin, he toiled for a material and moral
betterment, bringing about an entire regeneration of a wretched
country. It was he who brought the outlawed Tascheron back into the
Church, and who accompanied him to the very foot of the scaffold, with
a devotion which caused his own very sensitive nature much cringing.
Born in 1788, he had embraced the ecclesiastical calling through
choice, and all his studies had been to that end. He belonged to a
family of more than easy circumstancaes. His father was a self-made
man, stern and unyielding. Abbe Bonnet had an older brother, and a
sister whom he counseled with his mother to marry as soon as possible,
in order to release the young woman from the terrible paternal yoke.
[The Country Parson.]
BONNET, older brother of Abbe Bonnet, who enlisted as a private about
the beginning of the Empire. He became a general in 1813; fell at
Leipsic. [The Country Parson.]
BONNET (Germain), /valet de chambre/ of Canalis in 1829, at the time
when the poet went to Havre to contest the hand of Modeste Mignon. A
servant full of /finesse/ and irreproachable in appearance, he was of
the greatest service to his master. He courted Philoxene Jacmin,
chambermaid of Mme. de Chaulieu. Here the pantry imitated the parlor,
for the academician's mistress was the great lady herself. [Modest
Mignon.]
BONTEMS, a country landowner in the neighborhood of Bayeux, who
feathered his nest well during the Revolution, by purchasing
government confiscations at his own terms. He was pronounced "red
cap," and became president of his district. His daughter, Angelique
Bontems, married Granville during the Empire; but at this time Bontems
was dead. [A Second Home.]
BONTEMS (Madame), wife of the preceding; outwardly pious, inwardly
vain; mother of Angelique Bontems, whom she had reared in much the
same attitude, and whose marriage with a Granville was, in
consequence, so unhappy. [A Second Home.]
BONTEMS (Angelique). (See Granville, Madame de.)
BORAIN (Mademoiselle), the most stylish costumer in Provins, at the
time of Charles X. She was commissioned by the Rogrons to make a
complete wardrobe for Pierrette Lorrain, when that young girl was sent
them from Brittany. [Pierrette.]
BORDEVIN (Madame), Parisian butcher in rue Charlot, at the time when
Sylvain Pons dwelt hard by in rue de Normandie. Mme. Bordevin was
related to Mme. Sabatier. [Cousin Pons.]
BORDIN, procureur at the Chatelet before the Revolution; then advocate
of the Court of First Instance of the Seine, under the Empire. In 1798
he instructed and advised with M. Alain, a creditor of Monegod's. Both
had been clerks at the procureur's. In 1806, the Marquis de
Chargeboeuf went to Paris to hunt for Master Bordin, who defended the
Simeuses before the Criminal Court of Troyes in the trial regarding
the abduction and sequestration of Senator Malin. In 1809 he also
defended Henriette Bryond des Tours-Minieres, nee La Chanterie, in the
trial docketed as the "Chauffeurs of Mortagne." [The Gondreville
Mystery. The Seamy Side of History.] In 1816 Bordin was consulted by
Mme. d'Espard regarding her husband. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
During the Restoration a banker at Alencon made quarterly payments of
one hundred and fifty livres to the Chevalier de Valois through the
Parisian medium of Bordin. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] For ten
years Bordin represented the nobility. Derville succeeded him. [The
Gondreville Mystery.]
BORDIN (Jerome-Sebastien), was also procureur at the Chatelet, and, in
1806, advocate of the Seine Court. He succeeded Master Guerbet, and
sold his practice to Sauvagnest, who disposed of it to Desroches. [A
Start in Life.]
BORN (Comte de), brother of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu. In the winter
of 1829-1830, he is discovered at the home of his sister, taking part
in a conversation in which the advocate Derville related the marital
infelicities of M. de Restaud, and the story of his will and his
death. The Comte de Born seized the chance to exploit the character of
Maxime de Trailles, the lover of Mme. de Restaud. [Gobseck.]
BORNICHE, son-in-law of M. Hochon, the old miser of Issoudun. He died
of chagrin at business failures, and at not having received any
assistance from his father or mother. His wife preceded him but a
short time to the tomb. They left a son and a daughter, Baruch and
Adolphine, who were brought up by their maternal grandfather, with
Francois Hochon, another grandchild of the goodman's. Borniche was
probably a Calvinist. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BORNICHE (Monsieur and Madame), father and mother of the preceding.
They were still living in 1823, when their son and their daughter-in-
law had been deceased some time. In April of this year, old Mme.
Borniche and her friend Mme. Hochon, who ruled socially in Issoudun,
assisted at the wedding of La Rabouilleuse with Jean-Jacques Rouget.
[A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BORNICHE (Baruch), grandson of the preceding, and of M. and Mme.
Hochon. Born in 1800. Early left an orphan, he and his sister were
reared by his grandfather on the maternal side. He had been one of the
accomplices of Maxence Gilet, and took part in the nocturnal raids of
the "Knights of Idlesse." When his conduct became known to his
grandfather, in 1822, the latter lost no time in removing him from
Issoudun, sending him to Monegod's office, Paris, to study law. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BORNICHE (Adolphine), sister of Baruch Borniche; born in 1804. Brought
up almost a recluse in the frigid, dreary house of her grandfather,
Hochon, she spent most of her time peering through the windows, in the
hope of discovering some of the terrible things which--as Dame Rumor
had it--occurred in the home of Jean-Jacques Rouget, next door. She
likewise awaited with some impatience the arrival of Joseph Bridau in
Issoudun, wishing to inspire some sentiment in him, and taking the
liveliest interest in the painter, on account of the monstrosities
which were attributed to him because of his being an artist. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BOUCARD, head-clerk of the attorney Derville in 1818, at the time when
Colonel Chabert sought to recover his rights with his wife who had
been remarried to Comte Ferraud. [Colonel Chabert.]
BOUCHER, Besancon merchant in 1834, who was the first client of Albert
Savarus in that city. He assumed financial control of the "Revue de
l'Est," founded by the lawyer. M. Boucher was related by marriage to
one of the ablest editors of great theological works. [Albert
Savarus.]
BOUCHER (Alfred), eldest son of the preceding. Born in 1812. A youth,
eager for literary fame, whom Albert Savarus put on the staff of his
"Revue de l'Est," giving him his themes and subjects. Alfred Boucher
conceived a strong admiration for the managing editor, who treated him
as a friend. The first number of the "Revue" contained a "Meditation"
by Alfred. This Alfred Boucher believed he was exploiting Savarus,
whereas the contrary was the case. [Albert Savarus.]
BOUFFE (Marie), alias Vignol, actor born in Paris, September 4, 1800.
He appeared about 1822 at the Panorama-Dramatique theatre, on the
Boulevard du Temple, Paris, playing the part of the Alcade in a three-
act imbroglio by Raoul Nathan and Du Bruel entitled "L'Alcade dans
l'embarras." At the first night performance he announced that the
authors were Raoul and Cursy. Although very young at the time, this
artist made his first great success in this role, and revealed his
talent for depicting an old man. The critique of Lucien de Rubempre
established his position. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
BOUGIVAL (La). (See Cabirolle, Madame.)
BOUGNIOL (Mesdemoiselles), proprietors of an inn at Guerande (Loire-
Inferieure), at the time of Louis Philippe. They had as guests some
artist friends of Felicite des Touches--Camille Maupin--who had come
from Paris to see her. [Beatrix.]
BOURBONNE (De), wealthy resident of Tours, time of Louis XVIII. and
Charles X. An uncle of Octave de Camps. In 1824 he visited Paris to
ascertain the cause of the ruin of his nephew and sole heir, which
ruin was generally credited to dissipations with Mme. Firmiani. M. de
Bourbonne, a retired musketeer in easy circumstances, was well
connected. He had entry into the Faubourg Saint-Germain through the
Listomeres, the Lenoncourts and the Vandenesses. He caused himself to
be presented at Mme. Firmiani's as M. de Rouxellay, the name of his
estate. The advice of Bourbonne, which was marked by much
perspicacity, if followed, would have extricated Francois Birotteau
from Troubert's clutches; for the uncle of M. de Camps fathomed the
plottings of the future Bishop of Troyes. Bourbonne saw a great deal
more than did the Listomeres of Tours. [Madame Firmiani. The Vicar of
Tours.]
BOURDET (Benjamin), old soldier of the Empire, formerly serving under
Philippe Bridau's command. He lived quietly in the suburbs of Vatan,
in touch with Fario. In 1822 he placed himself at the entire disposal
of the Spaniard, and also of the officer who previously had put him
under obligations. Secretly he served them in their hatred of and
plots against Maxence Gilet. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BOURGEAT, foundling of Saint-Flour. Parisian water-carrier about the
end of the eighteenth century. The friend and protector of the young
Desplein, the future famous surgeon. He lived in rue Quatre-Vents in
an humble house rendered doubly famous by the sojourn of Desplein and
by that of Daniel d'Arthez. A fervent Churchman of unswerving faith.
The future famous savant (Desplein) watched by his bedside at the last
and closed his eyes. [The Atheist's Mass.]
BOURGET, uncle of the Chaussard brothers. An old man who became
implicated in the trial of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. He died
during the taking of the testimony, while making some confessions. His
wife, also apprehended, appeared before the court and was sentenced to
twenty-two years' imprisonment. [The Seamy Side of History.]
BOURGNEUFS (The), a family ruined by the De Camps and living in
poverty and seclusion at Saint-Germain en Laye, during the early part
of the nineteenth centruy. This family consisted of: the aged father,
who ran a lottery-office; the mother, almost always sick; and two
delightful daughters, who took care of the home and attended to the
correspondence. The Bourgneufs were rescued from their troubles by
Octave de Camps who, prompted by Mme. Firmiani, and at the cost of his
entire property, restored to them the fortune made away with by his
father. [Madame Firmiani.]
BOURGNIER (Du). (See Bousquier, Du.)
BOURIGNARD (Gratien-Henri-Victor-Jean-Joseph), father of Mme. Jules
Desmarets. One of the "Thirteen" and the former chief of the Order of
the Devorants under the title of Ferragus XXIII. He had been a
laborer, but afterwards was a contractor of buildings. His daughter
was born to an abandoned woman. About 1807 he was sentenced to twenty
years of hard labor, but he managed to escape during a journey of the
chain-gang from Paris to Toulon, and he returned to Paris. In 1820 he
lived there under diverse names and disguises, lodging successively on
rue des Vieux Augustins (now rue d'Argout), corner of rue Soly (an
insignificant street which disappeared when the Hotel des Postes was
rebuilt); then at number seven rue Joquelet; finally at Mme. E.
Gruget's, number twelve rue des Enfants-Rouges (now part of the rue
des Archives running from rue Pastourelle to rue Portefoin), changing
lodgings at this time to evade the investigations of Auguste de
Maulincour. Stunned by the death of his daughter, whom he adored and
with whom he held secret interviews to prevent her becoming amenable
to the law, he passed his last days in an indifferent, almost idiotic
way, idly watching match games at bowling on the Place de
l'Observatoire; the ground between the Luxembourg and the Boulevard de
Montparnasse was the scene of these games. One of the assumed names of
Bourignard was the Comte de Funcal. In 1815, Bourignard, alias
Ferragus, assisted Henri de Marsay, another member of the "Thirteen,"
in his raid on Hotel San-Real, where dwelt Paquita Valdes. [The
Thirteen.]
BOURLAC (Bernard-Jean-Baptiste-Macloud, Baron de), former procureur-
general of the Royal Court of Rouen, grand officer of the Legion of
Honor. Born in 1771. He fell in love with and married the daughter of
the Pole, Tarlowski, a colonel in the French Imperial Guard. By her he
had a daughter, Vanda, who became the Baronne de Mergi. A widower and
reserved by nature, he came to Paris in 1829 to take care of Vanda,
who was seized by a strange and very dangerous malady. After having
lived in the Quartier du Roule in 1838, with his daughter and
grandson, he dwelt for several years, in very straitened
circumstances, in a tumble-down house on the Boulevard du
Montparnasse, where Godefroid, a recent initiate into the "Brotherhood
of the Consolation" and under the direction of Mme. de la Chanterie
and her associates, came to his relief. Afterwards it was discovered
that the Baron de Bourlac was none other than the terrible magistrate
who had pronounced judgment on this noble woman and her daughter
during the trial of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. Nevertheless,
the aiding of the family was not abated in the least. Vanda was cured,
thanks to a foreign physician, Halpersohn, procured by Godefroid. M.
de Bourlac was enabled to publish his great work on the "Spirit of
Modern Law." At Sorbonne a chair of comparative legislation was
created for him. At last he obtained forgiveness from Mme. de la
Chanterie, at whose feet he flung himself. [The Seamy Side of
History.] In 1817 the Baron de Bourlac, then procureur-general, and
superior of Soudry the younger, royal procureur, helped, with the
assistance also of the latter, to secure for Sibilet the position of
estate-keeper to the General de Montcornet at Aigues. [The Peasantry.]
BOURNIER, natural son of Gaubertin and of Mme. Socquard, the wife of
the cafe manager of Soulanges. His existence was unknown to Mme.
Gaubertin. He was sent to Paris where, under Leclercq, he learned the
printer's trade and finally became a foreman. Gaubertin then brought
him to Ville-aux-Fayes where he established a printing office and a
paper known as "Le Courrier de l'Avonne", entirely devoted to the
interests of the triumvirate, Rigou, Gaubertin and Soudry. [The
Peasantry.]
BOSQUIER (Du), or Croisier (Du), or Bourguier (Du), a descendant of an
old Alencon family. Born about 1760. He had been commissary agent in
the army from 1793 to 1799; had done business with Ouvrard, and kept a
running account with Barras, Bernadotte and Fouche. He was at that
time one of the great folk of finance. Discharged by Bonaparte in
1800, he withdrew to his natal town. After selling the Beauseant
house, which he owned, for the benefit of his creditors, he had
remaining an income of not more than twelve hundred francs. About 1816
he married Mlle. Cormon, a spinster who had been courted also by the
Chevalier de Valois and Athanase Granson. This marriage set him on his
feet again financially. He took the lead in the party of the
opposition, established a Liberal paper called "Le Courrier de
l'Orne," and was elected Receiver-General of the Exchequer, after the
Revolution of 1830. He waged bitter war on the white flag Royalists,
his hatred of them causing him secretly to condone the excesses of
Victurnien d'Esgrignon, until the latter involved him in an affair,
when Bousquier had him arrested, thinking thus to dispose of him
summarily. The affair was smoothed over only by tremendous pressure.
But the young nobleman provoked Du Bousquier into a duel where the
latter dangerously wounded him. Afterwards Bousquier gave him in
marriage the hand of his niece, Mlle. Duval, dowered with three
millions. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] Probably he was the father
of Flavie Minoret, the daughter of a celebrated Opera danseuse. But he
never acknowledged this child, and she was dowered by Princesse
Galathionne and married Colleville. [The Middle Classes.]
BOSQUIER (Madame du), born Cormon (Rose-Marie-Victoire) in 1773. She
was a very wealthy heiress, living with her maternal uncle, the Abbe
de Sponde, in an old house of Alencon (rue du Val-Noble), and
receiving, in 1816, the aristocracy of the town, with which she was
related through marriage. Courted simultaneously by Athanase Granson,
the Chevalier de Valois and Du Bousquier, she gave her hand to the old
commissariat, whose athletic figure and /passe/ libertinism had
impressed her vaguely. But her secret desires were utterly dashed by
him; she confessed later that she couldn't endure the idea of dying a
maid. Mme. du Bousquier was very devout. She was descended from the
stewards of the ancient Ducs d'Alencon. In this same year of 1816, she
hoped in vain to wed a Troisville, but he was already married. She
found it difficult to brook the state of hostility declared between M.
du Bousquier and the Esgrignons. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BOUTIN, at one time sergeant in the cavalry regiment of which Chabert
was colonel. He lived at Stuttgart in 1814, exhibiting white bears
very well trained by him. In this city he encountered his former
ranking officer, shorn of all his possessions, and just emerging from
an insane asylum. Boutin aided him as best he could and took it upon
himself to go to Paris and inform Mme. Chabert of her husband's
whereabouts. But Boutin fell on the field of Waterloo, and could
hardly have accomplished his mission. [Colonel Chabert.]
BOUVARD (Doctor), physician of Paris, born about 1758. A friend of Dr.
Minoret, with whom he had some lively tilts about Mesmer. He had
adopted that system, while Minoret gainsaid the truth thereof. These
discussions ended in an estrangement, for some time, between the two
cronies. Finally, in 1829, Bouvard wrote Minoret asking him to come to
Paris to assist in some conclusive tests of magnetism. As a result of
these tests, Dr. Minoret, materialist and atheist that he was, became
a devout Spiritualist and Catholic. In 1829 Dr. Bouvard lived on rue
Ferou. [Ursule Mirouet.] He had been as a father to Dr. Lebrun,
physician of the Conciergerie in 1830, who, according to his own
avowal, owed to him his position, since he often drew from his master
his own ideas regarding nervous energy. [Scenes from a Courtesan's
Life.]
BOUYONNET, a lawyer at Mantes, under Louis Philippe, who, urged by his
confreres and stimulated by the public prosecutor, "showed up"
Fraisier, another lawyer in the town, who had been retained in a suit
for both parties at once. The result of this denunciation was to make
Fraisier sell his office and leave Mantes. [Cousin Pons.]
BRAMBOURG (Comte de), title of Philippe Bridau to which his brother
Joseph succeeded. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The Unconscious
Humorists.]
BRANDON (Lady Marie-Augusta), mother of Louis and Marie Gaston,
children born out of wedlock. Together with the Vicomtesse de
Beauseant she assisted, in company with Colonel Franchessini, probably
her lover, at the famous ball on the morning following which the duped
mistress of D'Ajuda-Pinto secretly left Paris. [The Member for Arcis.]
In 1820, while living with her two children in seclusion at La
Grenadiere, in the neighborhood of Tours, she saw Felix de Vandenesse,
at the time when Mme. de Mortsauf died, and charged him with a
pressing message to Lady Arabelle Dudley. [The Lily of the Valley.]
She died, aged thirty-six, during the Restoration, in the house at La
Grenadiere, and was buried in the Saint-Cyr Cemetery. Her husband,
Lord Brandon, who had abandoned her, lived in London, Brandon Square,
Hyde Park, at this time. In Touraine Lady Brandon was known only by
the assumed name of Mme. Willemsens. [La Grenadiere.]
BRASCHON, upholsterer and cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
famous under the Restoration. He did a considerable amount of work for
Cesar Birotteau and figured among the creditors in his bankruptcy.
[Cesar Birotteau. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BRAULARD, born in 1782. The head /claquer/ at the theatre of the
Panorama-Dramatique, and then at the Gymnase, about 1822. The lover of
Mlle. Millot. At this time he lived in rue Faubourg du Temple, in a
rather comfortable flat where he gave fine dinners to actresses,
managing editors and authors--among others, Adele Dupuis, Finot,
Ducange and Frederic du Petit-Mere. He was credited with having gained
an income of twenty thousand francs by discounting authors' and other
complimentary tickets. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] When
chief /claquer/, about 1843, he had in his following Chardin, alias
Idamore [Cousin Betty], and commanded his "Romans" at the Boulevard
theatre, which presented operas, spectaculars and ballets at popular
prices, and was run by Felix Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]
BRAZIER, this family included the following: A peasant of Vatan
(Indre), the paternal uncle and guardian of Mlle. Flore Brazier, known
as "La Rabouilleuse." In 1799 he placed her in the house of Dr. Rouget
on very satisfactory conditions for himself, Brazier. Rendered
comparatively rich by the doctor, he died two years before the latter,
in 1805, from a fall received on leaving an inn where he spent his
time after becoming well-to-do. His wife, who was a very harsh aunt of
Flore's. Lastly the brother and brother-in-law of this girl's
guardians, the real father of "La Rabouilleuse," who died in 1799, a
demented widower, in the hospital of Bourges. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
BRAZIER (Flore). (See Bridau, Madame Philippe.)
BREAUTEY (Comtesse de), a venerable woman of Provins, who maintained
the only aristocratic salon in that city, in 1827-1828. [Pierrette.]
BREBIAN (Alexandre de), member of the Angouleme aristocracy in 1821.
He frequented the Bargeton receptions. An artist like his friend
Bartas, he also was daft over drawing and would ruin every album in
the department with his grotesque productions. He posed as Mme. de
Bartas' lover, since Bartas paid court to Mme. de Brebian. [Lost
Illusions.]
BREBIAN (Charlotte de), wife of the preceding. Currently called
"Lolotte." [Lost Illusions.]
BREINTMAYER, a banking house of Strasbourg, entrusted by Michu in 1803
with the transmission of funds to the De Simeuses, young officers of
the army of Conde. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
BREZACS (The), Auvergnats, dealers in general merchandise and the
furnishings of chateaux during the Revolution, the Empire and the
Restoration. They had business dealings with Pierre Graslin, Jean-
Baptiste Sauviat and Martin Falleix. [The Country Parson. The
Government Clerks.]
BRIDAU, father of Philippe and Joseph Bridau; one of the secretaries
of Roland, Minister of the Interior in 1792, and the right arm of
succeeding ministers. He was attached fanatically to Napoleon, who
could appreciate him, and who made him chief of division in 1804. He
died in 1808, at the moment when he had been promised the offices of
director general and councillor of state with the title of comte. He
first met Agathe Rouget, whom he made his wife, at the home of the
grocer Descoings, the man whom he tried to save from the scaffold. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BRIDAU (Agathe Rouget, Madame), wife of the preceding; born in 1773.
Legal daughter of Dr. Rouget of Issoudun, but possibly the natural
daughter of Sub-delegate Lousteau. The doctor did not waste any
affection upon her, and lost no time in sending her to Paris, where
she was reared by her uncle, the grocer Descoings. She died at the
close of 1828. Of her two sons, Philippe and Joseph, Mme. Bridau
always preferred the elder, though he caused her nothing but grief. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
BRIDAU (Philippe), elder son of Bridau and Agathe Rouget. Born in
1796. Placed in the Saint-Cyr school in 1813, he remained but six
months, leaving it to become under-lieutenant of the cavalry. On
account of a skirmish of the advance guard he was made full
lieutenant, during the French campaign, then captain after the battle
of La Fere-Champenoise, where Napoleon made him artillery officer. He
was decorated at Montereau. After witnessing the farewell at
Fontainebleu, he came back to his mother in July, 1814, being then
hardly nineteen. He did not wish to serve the Bourbons. In March,
1815, Philippe Bridau rejoined the Emperor at Lyons, accompanying him
to the Tuileries. He was promised a captaincy in a squadron of
dragoons of the Guard, and made officer of the Legion of Honor at
Waterloo. Reduced to half-pay, during the Restoration, he nevertheless
preserved his rank and officer's cross. He rejoined General Lallemand
in Texas, returning from America in October, 1819, thoroughly
degenerated. He ran an opposition newspaper in Paris in 1820-1821. He
led a most dissolute life; was the lover of Mariette Godeschal; and
attended all the parties of Tullia, Florentine, Florine, Coralie,
Matifat and Camusot. Not content with using the income of his brother
Joseph, he stole a coffer entrusted to him, and despoiled of her last
savings Mme. Descoings, who died of grief. Involved in a military plot
in 1822, he was sent to Issoudun, under the surveillance of the
police. There he created a disturbance in the "bachelor's
establishment" of his uncle, Jean-Jacques Rouget; killed in a duel
Maxence Gilet, the lover of Flore Brazier; brought about the girl's
marriage with his uncle; and married her himself when she became a
widow in 1824. When Charles X. succeeded to the throne, Philippe
Bridau re-entered the army as lieutenant-colonel of the Duc de
Maufrigneuse's regiment. In 1827 he passed with this grade into a
regiment of cavalry of the Royal Guard, and was made Comte de
Brambourg from the name of an estate which he had purchased. He was
promised further the office of commander in the Legion of Honor, as
well as in the Order of Saint-Louis. After having consciously caused
the death of his wife, Flore Brazier, he tried to marry Amelie de
Soulanges, who belonged to a great family. But his manoeuvres were
frustrated by Bixiou. The Revolution of 1830 resulted in the loss to
Philippe Bridau of a portion of the fortune which he had obtained from
his uncle by his marriage. Once more he entered military service,
under the July Government, which made him a colonel. In 1839 he fell
in an engagement with the Arabs in Africa. [A Bachelor's
Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BRIDAU (Joseph), painter; younger brother of Philippe Bridau; born in
1799. He studied with Gros, and made his first exhibit at the Salon of
1823. He received great stimulus from his fellow-members of the
"Cenacle," in rue Quatre-Vents, also from his master, from Gerard and
from Mlle. des Touches. Moreover he was a hard-worker and an artist of
genius. He was decorated in 1827, and about 1839, through the interest
of the Comte de Serizy, for whose home he had formerly done some work,
he married the only daughter of a retired farmer, now a millionaire.
On the death of his brother Philippe, he inherited his house in rue de
Berlin, his estate of Brambourg, and his title of comte. [A Bachelor's
Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Start in Life.]
Joseph Bridau made some vignettes for the works of Canalis. [Modeste
Mignon.] He was intimate with Hippolyte Schinner, whom he had known at
Gros' studio. [The Purse.] Shortly after 1830, he was present at an
"at home" at Mlle. des Touches, when Henri de Marsay told about his
first love affair. [Another Study of Woman.] In 1832 he rushed in to
see Pierre Grassou, borrowed five hundred francs of him, and told him
to "cater to his talent" and even to plunge into literature since he
was nothing more than a poor painter. At this same time, Joseph Bridau
painted the dining-hall in the D'Arthez chateau. [Pierre Grassou.] He
was a friend of Marie Gaston, and was attendant at his marriage with
Louise de Chaulieu, widow of Macumer, in 1833. [Letters of Two
Brides.] He also assisted at the wedding of Steinbock with Hortense
Hulot, and in 1838, at the instigation of Stidmann, clubbed in with
Leon de Lora to raise four thousand francs for the Pole, who was
imprisoned for debt. He had made the portrait of Josepha Mirah.
[Cousin Betty.] In 1839, at Mme. Montcornet's, Joseph Bridau praised
the talent and character displayed by Dorlange, the sculptor. [The
Member for Arcis.]
BRIDAU (Flore Brazier, Madame Philippe), born in 1787 at Vatan Indre,
known as "La Rabouilleuse," on account of her uncle having put her to
work, when a child, at stirring up (to "rabouiller") the streamlets,
so that he might find crayfishes. She was noticed on account of her
great beauty by Dr. Rouget of Issoudun, and taken to his home in 1799.
Jean-Jacques Rouget, the doctor's son become much enamored of her, but
obtained favor only through his money. On her part she was smitten
with Maxence Gilet, whom she entertained in the house of the old
bachelor at the latter's expense. But everything was changed by the
arrival of Philippe Bridau at Issoudun. Gilet was killed in a duel,
and Rouget married La Rabouilleuse in 1823. Left a widow soon after,
she married the soldier. She died in Paris in 1828, abandoned by her
husband, in the greatest distress, a prey to innumerable terrible
complaints, the products of the dissolute life into which Philippe
Bridau had designedly thrown her. She dwelt then on rue du Houssay, on
the fifth floor. She left here for the Dubois Hospital in Faubourg
Saint-Denis. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BRIDAU (Madame Joseph), only daughter of Leger, an old farmer,
afterwards a multi-millionaire at Beaumont-sur-Oise; married to the
painter Joseph Bridau about 1839. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
BRIGAUT (Major), of Pen-Hoel, Vendee; retired major of the Catholic
Army which contested with the French Republic. A man of iron, but
devout and entirely unselfish. He had served under Charette, Mercier,
the Baron du Guenic and the Marquis de Montauran. He died in 1819, six
months after Mme. Lorrain, the widow of a major in the Imperial Army,
whom he was said to have consoled on the loss of her husband. Major
Brigaut had received twenty-seven wounds. [Pierrette. The Chouans.]
BRIGAUT (Jacques), son of Major Brigaut; born about 1811. Childhood
companion of Pierrette Lorrain, whom he loved in innocent fashion
similar to that of Paul and Virginia, and whose love was reciprocated
in the same way. When Pierrette was sent to Provins, to the home of
the Rogrons, her relatives, Jacques also went to this town and worked
at the carpenter's trade. He was present at the death-bed of the young
girl and immediately thereafter enlisted as a soldier; he became head
of a battalion, after having several times sought death vainly.
[Pierrette.]
BRIGITTE. (See Cottin, Madame.)
BRIGITTE, servant of Chesnel from 1795 on. In 1824 she was still with
him in rue du Bercail, Alencon, at the time of the pranks of the young
D'Esgrignon. Brigette humored the gormandizing of her master, the only
weakness of the goodman. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BRIGNOLET, clerk with lawyer Bordin in 1806. [A Start in Life.]
BRISETOUT (Heloise), mistress of Celestin Crevel in 1838, at the time
when he was elected mayor. She succeeded Josepha Mirah, in a little
house on rue Chauchat, after having lived on rue Notre-Dame-de
Lorette. [Cousin Betty.] In 1844-1845 she was /premiere danseuse/ in
the Theatre du Boulevard, when she was claimed by both Bixiou and
Gaudissart, her manager. She was a very literary young woman, much
spoken of in Bohemian circles for elegance and graciousness. She knew
all the great artists, and favored her kinsman, the musician
Garangeot. [Cousin Pons.] Towards the end of the reign of Louis
Philippe, she had Isidore Baudoyer for a "protector"; he was then
mayor of the arrondissement of Paris, which included the Palais
Royale. [The Middle Classes.]
BRISSET, a celebrated physician of Paris, time of Louis Philippe. a
materialist and successor to Bichat, and Cabanis. At the head of the
"Organists," opposed to Cameristus head of the "Vitalists." He was
called in consultation regarding Raphael de Valentin, whose condition
was serious. [The Magic Skin.]
BROCHON, a half-pay soldier who, in 1822, tended the horses and did
chores for Moreau, manager of Presles, the estate of the Comte de
Serizy. [A Start in Life.]
BROSSARD (Madame), widow received at Mme. de Bargeton's at Angouleme
in 1821. Poor but well-born, she sought to marry her daughter, and in
the end, despite her precise dignity and "sour-sweetness," she got
along fairly well with the other sex. [Lost Illusions.]
BROSSARD (Camille du), daughter of the preceding. born in 1794. Fleshy
and imposing. Posed as a good pianist. Not yet married at twenty-
seven. [Lost Illusions.]
BROSSETTE (Abbe), born about 1790; cure of Blangy, Burgundy, in 1823,
at the time when General de Montcornet was struggling with the
peasantry. The abbe himself was an object of their defiance and
hatred. He was the fourth son of a good bourgeoisie family of Autun, a
faithful prelate, an obstinate Royalist and a man of intelligence.
[The Peasantry.] In 1840 he became a cure at Paris, in the faubourg
Saint-Germain, and at the request of Mme. de Grandlieu, he interested
himself in removing Calyste du Guenic from the clutches of Mme. de
Rochefide and restoring him to his wife. [Beatrix.]
BROUET (Joseph), a Chouan who died of wounds received in the fight of
La Pelerine or at the siege of Fougeres, in 1799. [The Chouans.]
BROUSSON (Doctor), attended the banker Jean-Frederic Taillefer, a
short time before the financier's death. [The Red Inn.]
BRUCE (Gabriel), alias Gros-Jean, one of the fiercest Chouans of the
Fontaine division. Implicated in the affair of the "Chauffeurs of
Mortagne" in 1809. Condemned to death for contumacy. [The Seamy Side
of History.]
BRUEL (Du), chief of division to the Ministers of the Interior, under
the Empire. A friend of Bridau senior, retired on the advent of
Restoration. He was on very friendly terms with the widow Bridau,
coming each evening for a game of cards at her house, on rue Mazarine,
with his old-time colleagues, Claparon and Desroches. These three old
employes were called the "Three Sages of Greece" by Mmes. Bridau and
Descoings. M. du Bruel was descended of a contractor ennobled at the
end of the reign of Louis XIV. He died about 1821. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
BRUEL (Madame du), wife of the preceding. She survived him. She was
the mother of the dramatic author Jean-Francois du Bruel, christened
Cursy on the Parisian bill-boards. Although a bourgeoisie of strict
ideas, Mme. du Bruel welcomed the dancer Tullia, who became her
daughter-in-law. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
BRUEL (Jean-Francois du), son of the preceding; born about 1797. In
1816 he obtained a place under the Minister of Finance, thanks to the
favor of the Duc de Navarreins. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] He was
sub-chief of Rabourdin's office when the latter, in 1824, contested
with M. Baudoyer for a place of division chief. [The Government
Clerks.] In November, 1825, Jean-Francois du Bruel assisted at a
breakfast given at the "Rocher de Cancale" to the clerks of Desroches'
office by Frederic Marest who was treating to celebrate his incoming.
He was present also at the orgy which followed at Florentine's home.
[A Start in Life.] M. du Bruel successively rose to be chief of
bureau, director, councillor of state, deputy, peer of France and
commander of the Legion of Honor; he received the title of count and
entered one of the classes in the Institute. All this was accomplished
through his wife, Claudine Chaffaroux, formerly the dancer, Tullia,
whom he married in 1829. [A Prince of Bohemia. The Middle Classes.]
For a long time he wrote vaudeville sketches over the name of Cursy.
Nathan, the poet, found it necessary to unite with him. Du Bruel would
make use of the author's ideas, condensing them into small, sprightly
skits which always scored successes for the actors. Du Bruel and
Nathan discovered the actress Florine. They were the authors of
"L'Alcade dans l'embarras," an imbroglio in three acts, played at the
Theatre du Panorama-Dramatique about 1822, when Florine made her
debut, playing with Coralie and Bouffe, the latter under the name of
Vignol. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Daughter of Eve.]
BRUEL (Claudine Chaffaroux, Madame du), born at Nanterre in 1799. One
of the /premiere danseuses/ of the Opera from 1817 to 1827. For
several years she was the mistress of the Duc de Rhetore [A Bachelor's
Establishment.], and afterwards of Jean-Francois du Bruel, who was
much in love with her in 1823, and married her in 1829. She had then
left the stage. About 1834 she met Charles Edouard de la Palferine and
formed a violent attachment for him. In order to please him and pose
in his eyes as a great lady, she urged her husband to the constant
pursuit of honors, and finally achieved the title of countess.
Nevertheless she continued to play the lady of propriety and found
entrance into bourgeoisie society. [A Prince of Bhoemia. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides.] In 1840, to
please Mme. Colleville, her friend, she tried to obtain a decoration
for Thuillier. [The Middle Classes.] Mme. du Bruel bore the name of
Tullia on the stage and in the "gallant" circle. She lived then in rue
Chauchat, in a house afterwards occupied by Mmes. Mirah and Brisetout,
when Claudine moved after her marriage to rue de la Victoire.
BRUNET, bailiff at Blagny, Burgundy, in 1823. He was also councillor
of the Canton during the Terror, having for practitioners Michel Vert
alias Vermichel and Fourchon the elder. [The Peasantry.]
BRUNNER (Gedeon), father of Frederic Brunner. At the time of the
French Restoration and of Louis Philippe he owned the great Holland
House at Frankford-on-the-Main. One of the early railway projectors.
He died about 1844, leaving four millions. Calvinist. Twice married.
[Cousin Pons.]
BRUNNER (Madame), first wife of Gedeon Brunner, and mother of Frederic
Brunner. A relative of the Virlaz family, well-to-do Jewish furriers
of Leipsic. A converted Jew. Her dowry was the basis of her husband's
fortune. She died young, leaving a son aged but twelve. [Cousin Pons.]
BRUNNER (Madame), second wife of Gedeon Brunner. The only daughter of
a German inn-keeper. She had been very badly spoiled by her parents.
Sterile, dissipated and prodigal, she made her husband very unhappy,
thus avenging the first Mme. Brunner. She was a step-mother of the
most abominable sort, launching her stepson into an unbridled life,
hoping that debauchery would devour both the child and the Jewish
fortune. After ten years of wedded life she died before her parents,
having made great inroads upon Gedeon Brunner's property. [Cousin
Pons.]
BRUNNER (Frederic), only son of Gedeon Brunner, born within the first
four years of the century. He ran through his maternal inheritance by
silly dissipations, and then helped his friend Wilhelm Schwab to make
away with the hundred thousand francs his parents had left him.
Without resources and cast adrift by his father he went to Paris in
1835, where, upon the recommendation of Graff, the inn-keeper, he
obtained a position with Keller at six hundred francs per annum. In
1843 he was only two thousand francs ahead; but Gedeon Brunner having
died, he became a multi-millionaire. Then for friendship's sake he
founded, with his chum Wilhelm, the banking house of "Brunner, Schwab
& Co.," on rue Richelieu, between rue Neuve-des-Petits-Champs and rue
Villedo, in a magnificent building belonging to the tailor, Wolfgang
Graff. Frederic Brunner had been presented by Sylvain Pons to the
Camusots de Marville; he would have married their daughter had she not
been the only child. The breaking off of this match involved also, the
relations of Pons with the De Marville family and resulted in the
death of the musician. [Cousin Pons.]
BRUNO, /valet de chambre/ of Corentin at Passy, on rue des Vignes, in
1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] About 1840 he was again in the
service of Corentin, who was now known as M. du Portail and lived on
rue Honore-Chevalier, at Paris. [The Middle Classes.] This name is
sometimes spelled Bruneau.
BRUTUS, proprietor of the Hotel des Trois-Maures in the Grand-Rue,
Alencon, in 1799, where Alphonse de Montauran met Mlle. de Verneuil
for the first time. [The Chouans.]
BUNEAUD (Madame), ran a bourgeoisie boarding-house in opposition to
Mme. Vauquer on the heights of Sainte-Genevieve, Paris, in 1819.
[Father Goriot.]
BUTIFER, noted hunter, poacher and smuggler, living in the village
hard by Grenoble, where Dr. Benassis located, during the Restoration.
When the doctor arrived in the country, Butifer drew a bead on him, in
a corner of the forest. Later, however, he became entirely devoted to
him. He was charged by Genestas with the physical education of this
officer's adopted son. It may be that Butifer enlisted in Genestas'
regiment, after the death of Dr. Benassis. [The Country Doctor.]
BUTSCHA (Jean), head-clerk of Maitre Latournelle, a notary at Havre in
1829. Born about 1804. The natural son of a Swedish sailor and a
Demoiselle Jacmin of Honfleur. A hunchback. A type of intelligence and
devotion. Entirely subservient to Modeste Mignon, whom he loved
without hope; he aided, by many adroit methods, to bring about her
marriage with Ernest de la Briere. Butscha decided that this union
would make the young lady happy. [Modeste Mignon.]
C
CABIROLLE, in charge of the stages of Minoret-Levrault, postmaster of
Nemours. Probably a widower, with one son. About 1837, a sexagenarian,
he married Antoinette Patris, called La Bougival, who was over fifty,
but whose income amounted to twelve hundred francs. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CABIROLLE, son of the preceding. In 1830 he was Dr. Minoret's coachman
at Nemours. Later he was coachman for Savinien de Portenduere, after
the vicomte's marriage with Ursule Mirouet. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CABIROLLE (Madame), wife of Cabirolle senior. Born Antoinette Patris
in 1786, of a poor family of La Bresse. Widow of a workman named
Pierre alias Bougival; she was usually designated by the latter name.
After having been Ursule Mirouet's nurse, she became Dr. Minoret's
servant, marrying Cabirolle about 1837. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CABIROLLE (Madame), mother of Florentine, the /danseuse/. Formerly
janitress on rue Pastourelle, but living in 1820 with her daughter on
rue de Crussol in a modest affluence assured by Cardot the old silk-
dealer, since 1817. According to Girondeau, she was a woman of sense.
[A Start in Life. A Bachelor's Establishment.]
CABIROLLE (Agathe-Florentine), known as Florentine; born in 1804. In
1817, upon leaving Coulon's class, she was discovered by Cardot, the
old silk-merchant, and established by him with her mother in a
relatively comfortable flat on rue de Crussol. After having been
featured at the Gaite theatre, in 1820, she danced for the first time
in a spectacular drama entitled "The Ruins of Babylon."* Immediately
afterwards she succeeded Mariette as /premiere danseuse/ at the
theatre of the Porte-Saint-Martin. Then in 1823 she made her debut at
the Opera in a trio skit with Mariette and Tullia. At the time when
Cardot "protected" her, she had for a lover the retired Captain
Girondeau, and was intimate with Philippe Bridau, to whom she gave
money when in need. In 1825 Florentine occupied Coralie's old flat,
now for some three years, and it was at this place that Oscar Husson
lost at play the money entrusted to him by his employer, Desroches the
attorney, and was surprised by his uncle, Cardot. [A Start in Life.
Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
* By Renee-Charles Guilbert de Pixerecourt; played for the first
time at Paris in 1810.
CABOT (Armand-Hippolyte), a native of Toulouse who, in 1800,
established a hair-dressing salon on the Place de la Bourse, Paris. On
the advice of his customer, the poet Parny, he had taken the name of
Marius, a sobriquet which stuck to the establishment. In 1845 Cabot
had earned an income of twenty-four thousand francs and lived at
Libourne, while a fifth Marius, called Mougin, managed the business
founded by him. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
CABOT (Marie-Anne), known as Lajeunesse, an old servant of Marquis
Carol d'Esgrignon. Implicated in the affair of the "Chauffeurs of
Mortagne" and executed in 1809. [The Seamy Side of History.]
CACHAN, attorney at Angouleme under the Restoration. He and Petit-
Claud had similar business interests and the same clients. In 1830
Cachan, now mayor of Marsac, had dealings with the Sechards. [Lost
Illusions. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
CADENET, Parisian wine-merchant, in 1840, on the ground-floor of a
furnished lodging-house, corner of rue des Postes and rue des Poules.
Cerizet also dwelt there at that time. Cadenet, who was proprietor of
the house, had something to do with the transactions of Cerizet, the
"banker of the poor." [The Middle Classes.]
CADIGNAN (Prince de), a powerful lord of the former regime, father of
the Duc de Maufrigneuse, father-in-law of the Duc de Navarreins.
Ruined by the Revolution, he had regained his properties and income on
the accession of the Bourbons. But he was a spendthrift and devoured
everything. He also ruined his wife. He died at an advanced age some
time before the Revolution of July. [The Secrets of a Princess.] At
the end of 1829, the Prince de Cadignan, then Grand Huntsman to
Charles X., rode in a great chase where were also found, amid a very
aristocratic throng, the Duc d'Herouville, organizer of the jaunt,
Canalis and Ernest de la Briere, all three of whom were suitors for
the hand of Modeste Mignon. [Modeste Mignon.]
CADIGNAN (Prince and Princesse de), son and daughter-in-law of the
preceding. (See Maufrigneuse, Duc and Duchesse de.)
CADINE (Jenny), actress at the Gymnase theatre, times of Charles X.
and Louis Philippe. The most frolicsome of women, the only rival of
Dejazet. Born in 1814. Discovered, trained and "protected" from
thirteen years old on, by Baron Hulot. Intimate friend of Josepha
Mirah. [Cousin Betty.] Between 1835 and 1840, while maintained by
Couture, she lived on rue Blanche in a delightful little ground-floor
flat with its own garden. Fabien du Ronceret and Mme. Schontz
succeeded her here. [Beatrix.] In 1845 she was Massol's mistress and
lived on rue de la Victoire. At this time, she apparently led astray
in short order Palafox Gazonal, who had been taken to her home by
Bixiou and Leon de Lora. [The Unconscious Humorists.] About this time
she was the victim of a jewelry theft. After the arrest of the thieves
her property was returned by Saint-Esteve--Vautrin--who was then chief
of the special service. [The Member for Arcis.]
CADOT (Mademoiselle), old servant-mistress of Judge Blondet at
Alencon, during the Restoration. She pampered her master, and, like
him, preferred the elder of the magistrate's two sons. [Jealousies of
a Country Town.]
CALVI (Theodore), alias Madeleine. Born in 1803. A Corsican condemned
to the galleys for life on account of eleven murders committed by the
time he was eighteen. A member of the same gang with Vautrin from 1819
to 1820. Escaped with him. Having assassinated the widow Pigeau of
Nanterre, in May, 1830, he was rearrested and this time sentenced to
death. The plotting of Vautrin, who bore for him an unnatural
affection, saved his life; the sentence was commuted. [Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.]
CAMBON, lumber merchant, a deputy mayor to Benassis, in 1829, in a
community near Grenoble, and a devoted assistant in the work of
regeneration undertaken by the doctor. [The Country Doctor.]
CAMBREMER (Pierre), fisherman of Croisic on the Lower-Loire, time of
Louis Philippe, who, for the honor of a jeopardized name, had cast his
only son into the sea and afterwards remained desolate and a widower
on a cliff near by, in expiation of his crime induced by paternal
justice. [A Seaside Tragedy. Beatrix.]
CAMBREMER (Joseph), younger brother of Pierre Cambremer, father of
Pierrette, called Perotte. [A Seaside Tragedy.]
CAMBREMER (Jacques), only son of Pierre Cambremer and Jacquette
Brouin. Spoiled by his parents, his mother especially, he became a
rascal of the worst type. Jacques Cambremer evaded justice only by
reason of the fact that his father gagged him and cast him into the
sea. [A Seaside Tragedy.]
CAMBREMER (Madame), born Jacquette Brouin, wife of Pierre Cambremer
and mother of Jacques. She was of Guerande; was educated; could write
"like a clerk"; taught her son to read and this brought about his
ruin. She was usually spoken of as the beautiful Brouin. She died a
few days after Jacques. [A Seaside Tragedy.]
CAMBREMER (Pierrette), known as Perotte; daughter of Joseph Cambremer;
niece of Pierre and his goddaughter. Every morning the sweet and
charming creature came to bring her uncle the bread and water upon
which he subsisted. [A Seaside Tragedy.]
CAMERISTUS, celebrated physician of Paris under Louis Philippe; the
Ballanche of medicine and one of the defenders of the abstract
doctrines of Van Helmont; chief of the "Vitalists" opposed to Brisset
who headed the "Organists." He as well as Brisset was called in
consultation regarding a very serious malady afflicting Raphael de
Valentin. [The Magic Skin.]
CAMPS (Octave de), lover then husband of Mme. Firmiani. She made him
restore the entire fortune of a family named Bourgneuf, ruined in a
lawsuit by Octave's father, thus reducing him to the necessity of
making a living by teaching mathematics. He was only twenty-two years
old when he met Mme. Firmiani. He married her first at Gretna Green.
The marriage at Paris took place in 1824 or 1825. Before marriage,
Octave de Camps lived on rue de l'Observance. He was a descendant of
the famous Abbe de Camps, so well known among bookmen and savants.
[Madame Firmiani.] Octave de Camps reappears as an ironmaster, during
the reign of Louis Philippe. At this time he rarely resided at Paris.
[The Member for Arcis.]
CAMPS (Madame Octave de), nee Cadignan; niece of the old Prince de
Cadignan; cousin of the Duc de Maufrigneuse. In 1813, at the age of
sixteen, she married M. Firmiani, receiver-general in the department
of Montenotte. M. Firmiani died in Greece about 1822, and she became
Mme. de Camps in 1824 or 1825. At this time she dwelt on rue du Bac
and had entree into the home of Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the
oracle of Faubourg Saint-Germain. An accomplished and excellent lady,
loved even by her rivals, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse, her cousin,
Mme. de Macumer--Louise de Chaulieu--and the Marquise d'Espard.
[Madame Firmiani.] She welcomed and protected Mme. Xavier Rabourdin.
[The Government Clerks.] At the close of 1824 she gave a ball where
Charles de Vandenesse made the acquaintance of Mme. d'Aiglemont whose
lover he became. [A Woman of Thirty.] In 1834 Mme. Octave de Camps
tried to check the slanders going the rounds at the expense of Mme.
Felix de Vandenesse, who had compromised herself somewhat on account
of the poet Nathan; and Mme. de Camps gave the young woman some good
advice. [A Daughter of Eve.] On another occasion she gave exceedingly
good counsel to Mme. de l'Estorade, who was afraid of being smitten
with Sallenauve. [The Member for Arcis.] Mme. Firmiani, "that was,"
shared her time between Paris and the furnaces of M. de Camps; but she
gave the latter much the preference--at least so said one of her
intimate friends, Mme. de l'Estorade. [The Member for Arcis.]
CAMUSET, one of Bourignard's assumed names.
CAMUSOT, silk-merchant, rue des Bourdonnais, Paris, under the
Restoration. Born in 1765. Son-in-law and successor of Cardot, whose
eldest daughter he had married. At that time he was a widower, his
first wife being a Demoiselle Pons, sole heiress of the celebrated
Pons family, embroiderers to the Court during the Empire. About 1834
Camusot retired from business, and became a member of the
Manufacturers' Council, deputy, peer of France and baron. He had four
children. In 1821-1822 he maintained Coralie, who became so violently
enamored of Lucien de Rubempre. Although she abandoned him for Lucien,
he promised the poet, after the actress' death, that he would purchase
for her a permanent plot in the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise. [A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment. Cousin
Pons.] Later he was intimate with Fanny Beaupre for some time. [The
Muse of the Department.] He and his wife were present at Cesar
Birotteau's big ball in December, 1818; he was also chosen commissary-
judge of the perfumer's bankruptcy, instead of Gobenheim-Keller, who
was first designated. [Cesar Birotteau.] He had dealings with the
Guillaumes, clothing merchants, rue Saint-Denis. [At the Sign of the
Cat and Racket.]
CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE, son of Camusot the silk-merchant by his first
marriage. Born about 1794. During Louis Philippe's reign he took the
name of a Norman estate and green, Marville, in order to distinguish
between himself and a half-brother. In 1824, then a judge at Alencon,
he helped render an alibi decision in favor of Victurnien d'Esgrignon,
who really was guilty. [Cousin Pons. Jealousies of a Country Town.] He
was judge at Paris in 1828, and was appointed to replace Popinot in
the court which was to render a decision concerning the appeal for
interdiction presented by Mme. d'Espard against her husband. [The
Commission in Lunacy.] In May, 1830, in the capacity of judge of
instruction, he prepared a report tending to the liberation of Lucien
de Rubempre, accused of assassinating Esther Gobseck. But the suicide
of the poet rendered the proposed measure useless, besides upsetting,
momentarily, the ambitious projects of the magistrate. [Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.] Camusot de Marville had been president of the Court
of Nantes. In 1844 he was president of the Royal Court of Paris and
commander of the Legion of Honor. At this time he lived in a house on
rue de Hanovre, purchased by him in 1834, where he received the
musician Pons, a cousin of his. The President de Marville was elected
deputy in 1846. [Cousin Pons.]
CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE (Madame), born Thirion, Marie-Cecile-Amelie, in
1798. Daughter of an usher of the Cabinet of Louis XVIII. Wife of the
magistrate. In 1814 she frequented the studio of the painter Servin,
who had a class for young ladies. This studio contained two factions;
Mlle. Thirion headed the party of the nobility, though of ordinary
birth, and persecuted Ginevra di Piombo, of the Bonapartist party.
[The Vendetta.] In 1818 she was invited to accompany her father and
mother to the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau. It was about the time
her marriage with Camusot de Marville was being considered. [Cesar
Birotteau.] This wedding took place in 1819, and immediately the
imperious young woman gained the upper hand with the judge, making him
follow her own will absolutely and in the interests of her boundless
ambition. It was she who brought about the discharge of young
d'Esgrignon in 1824, and the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre in 1830.
Through her, the Marquis d'Espard failed of interdiction. However,
Mme. de Marville had no influence over her father-in-law, the senior
Camusot, whom she bored dreadfully and importuned excessively. She
caused, also, by her evil treatment, the death of Sylvain Pons "the
poor relation," inheriting with her husband his fine collection of
curios. [Jealousies of a Country Town. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.
Cousin Pons.]
CAMUSOT (Charles), son of the preceding couple. He died young, at a
time when his parents had neither land nor title of Marville, and when
they were in almost straitened circumstances. [Cousin Pons.]
CAMUSOT DE MARVILLE (Cecile). (See Popinot, Vicomtesse.)
CANALIS (Constant-Cyr-Melchior, Baron de), poet--chief of the
"Angelic" school--deputy minister, peer of France, member of the
French Academy, commander of the Legion of Honor. Born at Canalis,
Correze, in 1800. About 1821 he became the lover of Mme. de Chaulieu,
who was constantly aiding him to high positions, but who, at the same
time, was always very exacting. Not long after, Canalis is seen at the
opera in Mme. d'Espard's box, being presented to Lucien de Rubempre.
From 1824 he was the fashionable poet. [Letters of Two Brides. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1829 he lived at number 29 rue
Paradis-Poissoniere (now simply rue Paradis) and was master of
requests in the Council of State. This is the time when he was in
correspondence with Modeste Mignon and wished to espouse that rich
heiress. [Modeste Mignon.] Shortly after 1830, now a great man, he was
present at Mlle. des Touches', when Henri de Marsay told of his first
love affair. Canalis took part in the conversation and uttered a most
vigorous tirade against Napoleon. [The Magic Skin. Another Study of
Woman.] In 1838 he married the daughter of Moreau (de l'Oise), who
brought him a very large dowry. [A Start in Life.] In October, 1840,
he and Mme. de Rochefide were present at a performance at the Varietes
theatre, where that dangerous woman was encountered again after a
lapse of three years by Calyste du Guenic. [Beatrix.] In 1845 Canalis
was pointed out in the Chamber of Deputies by Leon de Lora to Palafox
Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.] In 1845, he consented to act as
second to Sallenauve in his duel with Maxime de Trailles. [The Member
for Arcis.]
CANALIS (Baronne Melchior de), wife of the preceding and daughter of
M. and Mme. Moreau (de l'Oise). About the middle of the reign of Louis
Philippe, she being then recently married, she made a journey to
Seine-et-Oise. She went first to Beaumont and Presles. Mme. de Canalis
with her daughter and the Academician, occupied Pierrotin's stage-
coach. [A Start in Life.]
CANE (Marco-Facino), known as Pere Canet, a blind old man, an inmate
of the Hospital des Quinze-Vingts, who during the Restoration followed
the vocation of musician, at Paris. He played the clarionet at a ball
of the working-people of rue de Charenton, on the occasion of the
wedding of Mme. Vaillant's sister. He said he was a Venetian, Prince
de Varese, a descendant of the /condottiere/ Facino Cane, whose
conquests fell into the hands of the Duke of Milan. He told strange
stories regarding his patrician youth. He died in 1820, more than an
octogenarian. He was the last of the Canes on the senior branch, and
he transmitted the title of Prince de Varese to a relative, Emilio
Memmi. [Facino Cane. Massimilla Doni.]
CANTE-CROIX (Marquis de), under-lieutenant in one of the regiments
which tarried at Angouleme from November, 1807, to March, 1808, while
on its way to Spain. He was a Colonel at Wagram on July 6, 1809,
although only twenty-six years old, when a shot crushed over his heart
the picture of Mme. de Bargeton, whom he loved. [Lost Illusions.]
CANTINET, an old glass-dealer, and beadle of Saint-Francois church,
Marais, Paris, in 1845; dwelt on rue d'Orleans. A drunken idler.
[Cousin Pons.]
CANTINET (Madame), wife of preceding; renter of seats in Saint-
Francois. Last nurse of Sylvain Pons, and a tool to the interests of
Fraisier and Poulain. [Cousin Pons.]
CANTINET, Junior, would have been made beadle of Saint-Francois, where
his father and mother were employed, but he preferred the theatre. He
was connected with the Cirque-Olympique in 1845. He caused his mother
sorrow, by a dissolute life and by forcible inroads on the maternal
purse. [Cousin Pons.]
CAPRAJA, a noble Venetian, a recognized dilettante, living only by and
through music. Nicknamed "Il Fanatico." Known by the Duke and Duchess
Cataneo and their friends. [Massimilla Doni.]
CARABINE, assumed name of Seraphine Sinet, which name see.
CARBONNEAU, physician whom the Comte de Mortsauf spoke of consulting
about his wife, in 1820, instead of Dr. Origet, whom he fancied to be
unsatisfactory. [The Lily of the Valley.]
CARCADO (Madame de), founder of a Parisian benevolent society, for
which Mme. de la Baudraye was appointed collector, in March, 1843, on
the request of some priests, friends of Mme. Piedefer. This choice
resulted, noteworthily, in the re-entrance into society of the "muse,"
who had been beguiled and compromised by her relations with Lousteau.
[The Muse of the Department.]
CARDANET (Madame de), grandmother of Mme. de Senonches. [Lost
Illusions.]
CARDINAL (Madame), Parisian fish-vender, daughter of one Toupillier, a
carrier. Widow of a well-known marketman. Niece of Toupillier the
pauper of Saint-Sulpice, from whom in 1840, with Cerizet's assistance,
she tried to capture the hidden treasure. This woman had three
sisters, four brothers, and three uncles, who would have shared with
her the pauper's bequest. The scheming of Mme. Cardinal and Cerizet
was frustrated by M. du Portail--Corentin. [The Middle Classes.]
CARDINAL (Olympe). (See Cerizet, Madame.)
CARDOT (Jean-Jerome-Severin), born in 1755. Head-clerk in an old silk-
house, the "Golden Cocoon," rue des Bourdonnais. He bought the
establishment in 1793, at the "maximum" moment, and in ten years had
made a large fortune, thanks to the dowry of one hundred thousand
francs brought him by his wife; she was a Demoiselle Husson, and gave
him four children. Of these, the elder daughter married Camusot, who
succeeded his father-in-law; the second, Marianne, married Protez, of
the firm of Protez & Chiffreville; the elder son became a notary; the
younger son, Joseph, took an interest in Matifat's drug business.
Cardot was the "protector" of the actress, Florentine, whom he
discovered and started. In 1822 he lived at Belleville in one of the
first houses above Courtille; he had then been a widower for six
years. He was an uncle of Oscar Husson, and had taken some interest in
and helped the dolt, until an incident occurred that changed
everything: the old man discovered the young fellow asleep one
morning, on one of Florentine's divans, after an orgy wherein he had
squandered the money entrusted to him by his employer, Desroches the
attorney. [A Start in Life. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial
at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment.] Cardot had dealings with the
Guillaumes, clothiers, rue Saint-Denis. [At the Sign of the Cat and
Racket.] He and his entire family were invited to the great ball given
by Cesar Birotteau, December 17, 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]
CARDOT, elder son of the preceding. Parisian notary, successor of
Sorbier. Born in 1794. Married to a Demoiselle Chiffreville, of a
family of celebrated chemists. Three children were born to them: a son
who in 1836 was fourth clerk in his father's business, and should have
succeeded him, but dreamed instead of literary fame; Felicie, who
married Berthier; and another daughter, born in 1824. The notary
Cardot maintained Malaga, during the reign of Louis Philippe. [The
Muse of the Department. A Man of Business. Jealousies of a Country
Town.] He was attorney for Pierre Grassou, who deposited his savings
with him every quarter. [Pierre Grassou.] He was also notary to the
Thuilliers, and, in 1840, had presented in their drawing-rooms, on rue
Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, Godeschal an aspirant for the hand of Celeste
Colleville. After living on Place du Chatelet, Cardot become one of
the tenants of the house purchased by the Thuilliers, near the
Madeleine. [The Middle Classes.] In 1844 he was mayor and deputy of
Paris. [Cousin Pons.]
CARDOT (Madame) nee Chiffreville, wife of Cardot the notary. Very
devoted, but a "wooden" woman, a "veritable penitential brush." About
1840 she lived on Place du Chatelet, Paris, with her husband. At this
time, the notary's wife took her daughter Felicie to rue des Martyrs,
to the home of Etienne Lousteau, whom she had planned to have for a
son-in-law, but whom she finally threw over on account of the
journalist's dissipated ways. [The Muse of the Department.]
CARDOT (Felicie or Felicite). (See Berthier, Madame.)
CARIGLIANO (Marechal, Duc de), one of the illustrious soldiers of the
Empire; husband of a Demoiselle Malin de Gondreville, whom he
worshipped, obeyed and stood in awe of, but who deceived him. [At the
Sign of the Cat and Racket.] In 1819, Marechal de Carigliano gave a
ball where Eugene de Rastignac was presented by his cousin, the
Vicomtesse de Beauseant, at the time he entered the world of fashion.
[Father Goriot.] During the Restoration he owned a beautiful house
near the Elysee-Bourbon, which he sold to M. de Lanty. [Sarrasine.]
CARIGLIANO (Duchesse de), wife of the preceding, daughter of Senator
Malin de Gondreville. At the end of the Empire, when thirty-six years
of age, she was the mistress of the young Colonel d'Aiglemont, and of
Sommervieux, the painter, almost at the same time; the latter had
recently wedded Augustine Guillaume. The Duchesse de Carigliano
received a visit from Mme. de Sommervieux, and gave her very ingenious
advice concerning the method of conquering her husband, and binding
him forever to her by her coquetry. [At the Sign of the Cat and
Racket.] In 1821-1822 she had an opera-box near Mme. d'Espard. Sixte
du Chatelet came to her to make his acknowledgments on the evening
when Lucien de Rubempre, a newcomer in Paris, cut such a sorry figure
at the theatre in company with Mme. de Bargeton. [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris.] It was the Duchesse de Carigliano who, after a
great effort, found a wife suited to General de Montcornet, in the
person of Mlle. de Troisville. [The Peasantry.] Mme. de Carigliano,
although a Napoleonic duchesse, was none the less devoted to the House
of the Bourbons, being attached especially to the Duchesse de Berry.
Becoming imbued also with a high degree of piety, she visited nearly
every year a retreat of the Ursulines of Arcis-sur-Aube. In 1839
Sallenauve's friends counted on the duchesse's support to elect him
deputy. [The Member for Arcis.]
CARMAGNOLA (Giambattista), an old Venetian gondolier, entirely devoted
to Emilio Memmi, in 1820. [Massimilla Doni.]
CARNOT (Lazare-Nicolas-Marguerite), born at Nolay--Cote-d'Or--in 1753;
died in 1823. In June, 1800, while Minister of War, he was present in
company with Talleyrand, Fouche and Sieyes, at a council held at the
home of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, rue du Bac, when the
overthrow of First Consul Bonaparte was discussed. [The Gondreville
Mystery.]
CAROLINE (Mademoiselle), governess, during the Empire, of the four
children of M. and Mme. de Vandenesse. "She was a terror." [The Lily
of the Valley.]
CAROLINE, chambermaid of the Marquis de Listomere, in 1827-1828, on
rue Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain, Paris, when the marquis received a
letter from Eugene de Rastignac intended for Delphine de Nucingen. [A
Study of Woman.]
CAROLINE, servant of the Thuilliers in 1840. [The Middle Classes.]
CARON, lawyer, in charge of the affairs of Mlle. Gamard at Tours in
1826. He acted against Abbe Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]
CARPENTIER, formerly captain in the Imperial Army, retired at Issoudun
during the Restoration. He had a position in the mayor's office. He
was allied by marriage to one of the strongest families of the city,
the Borniche-Hereaus. He was an intimate friend of the artillery
captain, Mignonnet, sharing with him his aversion for Commandant
Maxence Gilet. Carpentier and Mignonnet were seconds of Philippe
Bridau in his duel with the chief of the "Knights of Idlesse." [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
CARPI (Benedetto), jailer of a Venetian prison, where Facino Cane was
confined between the years 1760 and 1770. Bribed by the prisoner, he
fled with him, carrying a portion of the hidden treasure of the
Republic. But he perished soon after, by drowning, while trying to
cross the sea. [Facino Cane.]
CARTHAGENOVA, a superb basso of the Fenice theatre at Venice. In 1820
he sang the part of Moses in Rossini's opera, with Genovese and La
Tinti. [Massimilla Doni.]
CARTIER, gardener in the Montparnasse quarter, Paris, during the reign
of Louis Philippe. In 1838 he supplied flowers to M. Bernard--Baron de
Bourlac--for his daughter Vanda. [The Seamy Side of History.]
CARTIER (Madame), wife of the preceding; vender of milk, eggs and
vegetables to Mme. Vauthier, landlady of a miserable boarding-house on
Boulevard Montparnasse, and also to M. Bernard, lessee of real estate.
[The Seamy Side of History.]
CASA-REAL (Duc de), younger brother of Mme. Balthazar Claes; related
to the Evangelistas of Bordeaux; of an illustrious family under the
Spanish monarchy; his sister had renounced the paternal succession in
order to procure for him a marriage worthy of a house so noble. He
died young, in 1805, leaving to Mme. Claes, a considerable fortune in
money. [The Quest of the Absolute. A Marriage Settlement.]
CASTAGNOULD, mate of the "Mignon," a pretty, hundred-ton vessel owned
by Charles Mignon, the captain. In this he made several important and
prosperous voyages, from 1826 to 1829. Castagnould was a Provencal and
an old servant of the Mignon family. [Modeste Mignon.]
CASTANIER (Rodolphe), retired chief of squadron in the dragoons, under
the Empire. Cashier of Baron de Nucingen during the Restoration. Wore
the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He maintained Mme. de la
Garde--Aquilina--and on her account, in 1821, he counterfeited the
banker's name on a letter of credit for a considerable amount. John
Melmoth, an Englishman, got him out of this scrape by exchanging his
own individuality for that of the old officer. Castanier was thus all-
powerful, but becoming promptly at outs with the proceeding, he
adopted the same tactics of exchange, transferring his power to a
financier named Claparon. Castanier was a Southerner. He had seen
service from sixteen till nearly forty. [Melmoth Reconciled.]
CASTANIER (Madame), wife of the preceding, married during the first
Empire. Her family--that of the bourgeoisie of Nancy--fooled Castanier
about the size of her dowry and her "expectations." Mme. Castanier was
honest, ugly and sour-tempered. She was separated from her husband, to
his relief, and for several years previous to 1821 lived in the
suburbs of Strasbourg. [Melmoth Reconciled.]
CASTERAN (De), a very ancient aristocracy of Normandy; related to
William the Conqueror; allied with the Verneuils, the Esgrignons and
the Troisvilles. The name is pronounced "Cateran." A Demoiselle
Blanche de Casteran was the mother of Mlle. de Verneuil, and died
Abbess of Notre-Dame de Seez. [The Chouans.] In 1807 Mme. de la
Chanterie, then a widow, was hospitably received in Normandy by the
Casterans. [The Seamy Side of History.] In 1822 a venerable couple,
Marquis and Marquise de Casteran visited the drawing-room of Marquis
d'Esgrignon at Alencon. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] The Marquise
de Rochefide, nee Beatrix Maximilienne-Rose de Casteran, was the
younger daughter of a Marquis de Casteran who wished to marry off both
his daughters without dowries, and thus save his entire fortune for
his son, the Comte de Casteran. [Beatrix.] A Comte de Casteran, son-
in-law of the Marquis of Troisville, relative of Mme. de Montcornet,
was prefect of a department of Burgundy between 1820 and 1825. [The
Peasantry.]
CATANEO (Duke), noble Sicilian, born in 1773; first husband of
Massimilla Doni. Physically ruined by early debaucheries, he was a
husband only in name, living only by and through the influence of
music. Very wealthy, he had educated Clara Tinti, discovered by him
when still a child and a simple tavern servant. The young girl became,
thanks to him, the celebrated prima donna of the Fenice theatre, at
Venice in 1820. The wonderful tenor Genovese, of the same theatre, was
also a protege of Duke Cataneo, who paid him a high salary to sing
only with La Tinti. The Duke Cataneo cut a sorry figure. [Massimilla
Doni.]
CATANEO (Duchess), nee Massimilla Doni, wife of the preceding; married
later to Emilio Memmi, Prince de Varese. (See Princesse de Varese.)
CATHERINE, an old woman in the service of M. and Mme. Saillard, in
1824. [The Government Clerks.]
CATHERINE, chambermaid and foster sister of Laurence de Cinq-Cygne in
1803. A handsome girl of nineteen. According to Gothard, Catherine was
in all her mistress' secrets and furthered all her schemes. [The
Gondreville Mystery.]
CAVALIER, Fendant's partner; both were book-collectors, publishers and
venders in Paris, on rue Serpente in 1821. Cavalier traveled for the
house, whose firm name appeared as "Fendant and Cavalier." The two
associates failed shortly after having published, without success, the
famous romance of Lucien de Rubempre, "The Archer of Charles IX.,"
which title they had changed for one more fantastic. [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris.] In 1838, a firm of Cavalier published "The
Spirit of Modern Law" by Baron Bourlac, sharing the profits with the
author. [The Seamy Side of History.]
CAYRON, of Languedoc, a vender of parasols, umbrellas and canes, on
rue Saint-Honore in a house adjacent to that inhabited by Birotteau
the perfumer in 1818. With the consent of the landlord, Molineux,
Cayron sublet two apartments over his shop to his neighbor. He fared
badly in business, suddenly disappearing a short time after the grand
ball given by Birotteau. Cayron admired Birotteau. [Cesar Birotteau.]
CELESTIN, /valet de chambre/ of Lucien de Rubempre, on the Malaquais
quai, in the closing years of the reign of Charles X. [Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.]
CERIZET, orphan from the Foundling Hospital, Paris; born in 1802; an
apprentice of the celebrated printers Didot, at whose office he was
noticed by David Sechard, who took him to Angouleme and employed him
in his own shop, where Cerizet performed triple duties of form-maker,
compositor and proof-reader. Presently he betrayed his master, and by
leaguing with the Cointet Brothers, rivals of David Sechard, he
obtained possession of his property. [Lost Illusions.] Following this
he was an actor in the provinces; managed a Liberal paper during the
Restoration; was sub-prefect at the beginning of the reign of Louis
Philippe; and finally was a "man of business." In the latter capacity
he was sentenced to two years' imprisonment for swindling. After
business partnership with Georges d'Estourny, and later with Claparon,
he was stranded and reduced to transcribing for a justice of the peace
in the quartier Saint-Jacques. At the same time he began lending money
on short time, and by speculating with the poorer class he acquired a
certain competence. Although thoroughly debauched, Cerizet married
Olympe Cardinal about 1840. At this time he was implicated in the
intrigues of Theodose de la Peyrade and in the interests of Jerome
Thuillier. Becoming possessed of a note of Maxime de Trailles in 1833,
he succeeded by Scapinal tactics in obtaining face value of the paper.
[A Man of Business. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Middle
Classes.]
CERIZET (Olympe Cardinal, Madame), wife of foregoing; born about 1824;
daughter of Mme. Cardinal the fish-dealer. Actress at the Bobino,
Luxembourg, then at the Folies-Dramatiques, where she made her debut
in "The Telegraph of Love." At first she was intimate with the first
comedian. Afterwards she had Julien Minard for lover. From the father
of the latter she received thirty thousand francs to renounce her son.
This money she used as a dowry and it aided in consummating her
marriage with Cerizet. [The Middle Classes.]
CESARINE, laundry girl at Alencon. Mistress of the Chevalier de
Valois, and mother of a child that was attributed to the old
aristocrat. It was also said in the town, in 1816, that he had married
Cesarine clandestinely. These rumors greatly annoyed the chevalier,
since he had hoped at this time to wed Mlle. Cormon. Cesarine, the
sole legatee of her lover, received an income of only six hundred
livres. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
CESARINE, dancer at the Opera de Par
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