TOUPILLIER, born about 1750; of a wretchedly poor family consisting of three sisters and five brothers, one of whom was father of Madame Cardinal. From drum-major in the Gardes-Francaise, Toupillier became beadle in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris; then dispenser of holy water, having been an artist's model in the meantime. Toupillier, at the beginning of the Restoration, suspected either of being a Bonapartist, or of being unfit for his position, was discharged from the service of the church, and had only the right to stand at the threshold as a privileged beggar; however, he profited greatly by his new position, for he knew how to arouse the compassionate feelings of the faithful in every possible way, chiefly by passing as a centenarian. Having been entrusted with the diamonds that Charles Crochard had stolen from Mademoiselle Beaumesnil and which the young thief wished to get off his hands for the time being, Toupillier denied having received them and remained possessor of the stolen jewels. But Corentin, the famous police-agent, followed the pauper of Saint-Sulpice to the rue du Coeur-Volant, and surprised that new Cardillac engrossed in the contemplation of the diamonds. He, however, left them in his custody, on condition of his leaving by will all his property to Lydie Peyrade, Corentin's ward and Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's daughter. Corentin further required Toupillier to live in his house and under his surveillance on the rue Honore-Chevalier. At that time Toupillier had an income of eighteen hundred francs; he might be seen, at the church, munching wretched crusts; but, the church once closed, he went to dine at the Lathuile restaurant, situated on the Barriere de Clichy, and at night he got drunk on the excellent Rousillon wines. Notwithstanding an attack made by Madame Cardinal and Cerizet on the closet containing the diamonds, when the pauper of Saint-Sulpice died in 1840, Lydie Peyrade, now Madame Theodose de la Peyrade, inherited all that Toupillier possessed. [The Middle Classes.]
TOUPINET, a Parisian mechanic, at the time of the Restoration, being married and father of a family, he stole his wife's savings, the fruit of arduous labor; he was imprisoned, about 1828, probably for debts. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
TOUPINET (Madame), wife of the preceding; known under the name Pomponne; kept a fruit-stand; lived, in 1828, on the rue du Petit-Banquier, Paris; unhappy in her married life; obtained from the charitable J.-J. Popinot, under the name of a loan, ten francs for purchasing stock. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
TOURNAN, a hatter of the rue Saint-Martin, Paris; among his customers was young Poiret, who, on July 3, 1823, brought him his head-covering, all greased, as a result of J.-J. Bixiou's practical joking. [The Government Clerks.]
TOURS-MINIERES (Bernard-Polydor Bryond, Baron des), a gentleman of Alencon; born about 1772; in 1793, was one of the most active emissaries of the Comte de Lille (Louis XVIII.), in his conspiracy against the Republic. Having received the King's thanks, he retired to his estate in the department of Orne, which had long been burdened with mortgages; and, in 1807, he married Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, with the concurrence of the Royalists, whose "pet" he was. He pretended to take part in the reactionary revolutionary movement of the West in 1809, implicated his wife in the matter, compromised her, ruined her, and then disappeared. Returning in secrecy to his country, under the assumed name of Lemarchand, he aided the authorities in getting at the bottom of the plot, and then went to Paris, where he became the celebrated police-agent Contenson. [The Seamy Side of History.] He knew Peyrade, and received from Lenoir's old pupil the significant sobriquet of "Philosopher." Being agent for Fouche during the period of the Empire, he abandoned himself in the most sensual way to his passions, and lived a life of irregularity and vice. During the time of the Restoration Louchard had him employed by Nucingen at the time of the latter's amours with Esther van Gobseck. In the service of this noted banker, Contenson (with Peyrade and Corentin) tried to protect him from the snares of Jacques Collin, and followed the pseudo-Carlos Herrera to his place of refuge on a house-top; but being hurled from the roof by his intended victim, he was instantly killed during the winter of 1829-1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
TOURS-MINIERES (Baronne Bryond des), wife of the preceding; born Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, in 1789; only daughter of Monsieur and Madame Le Chantre de la Chanterie; was married after her father's death. Through the machinations of Tours-Minieres she was brought into contact with Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard, became his mistress, and took the field for him in the Royalist cause, in the department of Orne, in 1809. Betrayed by her husband, she was executed in 1810, in accordance with a death-sentence of the court presided over by Mergi, Bourlac being attorney-general. [The Seamy Side of History.]
TRAILLES (Comte Maxime de), born in 1791, belonged to a family that was descended from an attendant to Louis XI., and raised to the nobility by Francois I. This perfect example of the Parisian condottieri made his beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century as a page to Napoleon. Being loved, in turn, by Sarah Gobseck and Anastasie de Restaud, Maxime de Trailles, himself already ruined, ruined both of these; gaming was his master passion, and his caprices knew no bounds. [Cesar Birotteau. Father Goriot. Gobseck.] He took under his attention the Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere, a novice in Parisian life, whom also he would have served later as his second against Desire Minoret, but for the latter's death by accident. [Ursule Mirouet.] His ready wit usually saved him from the throng of creditors that swarmed about him, but even thus he once paid a debt due Cerizet, in spite of himself. Maxime de Trailles, at that time, was keeping, in a modest way, Antonia Chocardelle, who had a news-stand on the rue Coquenard, near the rue Pigalle, on which Trailles lived; and, at the same time, a certain Hortense, a protegee of Lord Dudley, was seconding the genius of that excellent comedian, Cerizet. [A Man of Business. The Member for Arcis.] The dominant party of the Restoration accused Maxime de Trailles of being a Bonapartist, and rebuked him for his shameless corruption of life; but the citizen monarchy extended him a cordial welcome. Marsay was the chief promoter of the count's fortunes; he moulded him, and sent him on delicate political missions, which he managed with marvelous success. [The Secrets of a Princess.] And so the Comte de Trailles was widely known in social circles: as the guest of Josepha Mirah, by his presence he honored the house-warming in her new apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.] Marsay being dead, he lost the power of his prestige. Eugene de Rastignac, who had become somewhat of a Puritan, showed but slight esteem for him. However, Maxime de Trailles was on easy terms with one of the minister's intimate friends, the brilliant Colonel Franchessini. Nucingen's son-in-law—Eugene de Rastignac—perhaps recalled Madame de Restaud's misfortunes, and doubtless entertained no good feeling for the man who was responsible for them all. None the less, he employed the services of M. de Trailles—who was always at ease in the Marquise d'Espard's salon, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore, though a man over forty years of age, painted and padded and bowed down with debts—and sent him to look after the political situation in Arcis before the spring election of 1839. Trailles worked his wires with judgment; he tried to override the Cinq-Cygnes, partisans of Henri V.; he supported the candidacy of Phileas Beauvisage, and sought the hand of Cecile-Renee Beauvisage, the wealthy heiress, but was unsuccessful on all sides. [The Member for Arcis.] M. de Trailles, furthermore, excelled in the adjustment of private difficulties. M. d'Ajuda-Pinto, Abbe Brossette, and Madame de Grandlieu called for his assistance, and, with the further aid of Rusticoli de la Palferine, effected the reconciliation of the families of Calyste du Guenic and Arthur de Rochefide. [Beatrix.] He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, succeeding Phileas Beauvisage, who had replaced Charles de Sallenauve, at the Palais-Bourbon; here he was pointed out to S.-P. Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
TRANS (Mademoiselle), a young unmarried woman of Bordeaux, who, like Mademoiselle de Belor, was on the lookout for a husband when Paul de Manerville married Natalie Evangelista. [A Marriage Settlement.]
TRANSON (Monsieur and Madame), wholesale dealers in earthenware goods on the rue des Lesdiguieres, were on intimate terms, about 1824, with their neighbors, the Baudoyers and the Saillards. [The Government Clerks.]
TRAVOT (General), with his command, conducted, in 1815, the siege of Guerande, a fortress defended by the Baron du Guenic, who finally evacuated it, but who reached the wood with his Chouans and remained in possession of the country until the second return of the Bourbons. [Beatrix.]
TROGNON (Maitre), a Parisian notary, wholly at the disposal of his neighbor, Maitre Fraisier; during the years 1844-1845 he lived on the rue Saint-Louis-au-Marais—now rue de Turenne—and reached the death-bed of Sylvain Pons before his colleague, Maitre Leopold Hannequin, though the latter actually received the musician's last wishes. [Cousin Pons.]
TROISVILLE (Guibelin, Vicomte de), whose name is pronounced Treville, and who, as well as his numerous family, bore simply the name Guibelin during the period of the Empire; he belonged to a noble line of ardent Royalists well known in Alencon. [The Seamy Side of History.] Very probably several of the Troisvilles, as well as the Chevalier de Valois and the Marquis d'Esgrignon, were among the correspondents of the Vendean chiefs, for it is well known that the department of Orne was counted among the centres of the anti-revolutionary uprising (1799). [The Chouans.] Furthermore, the Bourbons, after their restoration, overwhelmed the Troisvilles with honors, making several of them members of the Chamber of Deputies or peers of France. The Vicomte Guibelin de Troisville served during the emigration in Russia, where he married a Muscovite girl, daughter of the Princesse Scherbeloff; and, during the year 1816, he returned to establish himself permantly among the people of Alencon. Accepting temporarily the hospitality of Rose-Victoire Cormon (eventually Madame du Bousquier), he innocently inspired her with false hopes; the viscount, naturally reserved, failed to inform her of his being son-in-law of Scherbeloff, and legitimate father of the future Marechale de Montcornet. Guibelin de Troisville, a loyal social friend of the Esgrignons, met in their salon the Roche-Guyons and the Casterans, distant cousins of his, but the intimate relations almost came to an end, when Mademoiselle Virginie de Troisville became Madame de Montcornet. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] However, in spite of this union, which he looked upon as a mesalliance, the viscount was never cool towards his daughter and her husband, but was their guest at Aigues, in Bourgogne. [The Peasantry.]
TROMPE-LA-MORT, a sobriquet of Jacques Collin.
TROUBERT (Abbe Hyacinthe), favorite priest of M. de Bourbonne; rose rapidly during the Restoration and Louis Philippe's reign, canon and vicar-general, in turn, of Tours, he was afterwards bishop of Troyes. His early career in Touraine showed him to be a deep, ambitious, and dangerous man, knowing how to remove from his path those that impeded his advance, and knowing how to conceal the full power of his animosity. The secret support of the Congregation and the connivance of Sophie Gamard allowed him to take advantage of Abbe Francois Birotteau's unsuspecting good nature, and to rob him of all the inheritance of Abbe Chapeloud, whom he had hated in his lifetime, and over whom he triumphed thus again, despite the shrewdness of the deceased priest. Abbe Troubert even won over to his side the Listomeres, defenders of Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.] About 1839, at Troyes, Monsiegneur Troubert was on terms of intimacy with the Cinq-Cygnes, the Hauteserres, the Cadignans, the Maufrigneuses, and Daniel d'Arthez, who were more or less concerned in the matter of the Champagne elections. [The Member for Arcis.]
TROUSSENARD (Doctor), a physician of Havre, during the Restoration, at the time that the Mignon de la Bastie family lived in that sub-prefecture of the Seine-Inferieure. [Modeste Mignon.]
TRUDON, in 1818, a grocer of Paris, in the same quarter as Cesar Birotteau, whom he furnished, on December 17th of that year, with nearly two hundred francs' worth of wax candles. [Cesar Birotteau.]
TULLIA, professional sobriquet of Madame du Bruel.
TULLOYE, the name of the owner of a small estate near Angouleme, where M. de Bargeton, in the autumn of 1821, severely wounded M. de Chandour, an unsophisticated hot-head, whom he had challenged to a duel. The name Tulloye furnished a good opportunity in the affair for a play on words. [Lost Illusions.]
TURQUET (Marguerite), born about 1816, better known under the sobriquet of Malaga, having a further appellaton of the "Aspasia of the Cirque-Olympique," was originally a rider in the famous Bouthor Traveling Hippodrome, and was later a Parisian star at the Franconi theatre, in the summer on the Champs-Elysees, in the winter on the Boulevard du Crime. In 1837, Mademoiselle Turquet was living in the fifth story of a house on the rue des Fosses-du-Temple—a thoroughfare that has been built up since 1862—when Thaddee Paz set her up in sumptuous style elsewhere. But she wearied of the role of supposed mistress of the Pole. [The Imaginary Mistress.] Nevertheless, this position had placed Marguerite in a prominent light, and she shone thenceforth among the artists and courtesans. She had in Maitre Cardot, a notary on the Place du Chatelet, an earnest protector; and as her lover she had a quite young musician. [The Muse of the Department.] A shrewd girl, she held on to Maitre Cardot, and made a popular hostess, in whose salon Desroches, about 1840, gave an entertaining account of a strange battle between two roues, Trailles and Cerizet, debtor and creditor, that resulted in a victory for Cerizet. [A Man of Business.] In 1838, Malaga Turquet was present at Josepha Mirah's elegant house-warming in her gorgeous new apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]
URBAIN, servant of Soudry, mayor of Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the Restoration; was at one time a cavalry soldier, who entered into the service of the mayor, an ex-brigadier of gendarmes, after failing to receive an appointment as gendarme. [The Peasantry.]
URRACA, aged Spanish woman, nurse of Baron de Macumer; the only family servant kept by her master after his ruin and during his exile in France. Urraca prepared the baron's chocolate in the very best style. [Letters of Two Brides.]
URRACA Y LORA (Mademoiselle), paternal aunt of Leon de Lora, remained a spinster. As late as 1845 this quasi-Spaniard was still living in poverty in a commune of the Pyrenees-Orientales, with the father and elder brother of the artist. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
URSULE, servant employed by the Abbe Bonnet, cure of Montegnac, in 1829; a woman of canonical age. She received the Abbe de Rastignac, who had been sent by the Bishop of Limoges to bring the village curate to Jean-Francois Tascheron. It was desired that this man, although he was condemned to death, should be brought back within the "pale of the Church." Ursule learned from the Abbe de Rastignac of the reprieve that had been given the murderer, and being not only inquisitive, but also a gossip; she spread it throughout the whole village, during the time that she was buying the articles necessary for the preparation of breakfast for the Cure Bonnet and the Abbe de Rastignac. [The Village Parson.]
URSULE, from Picardie, very large; cook employed by Ragon, perfumer on rue Saint-Honore, Paris, towards the end of the eighteenth century; about 1793 she took in hand the amorous education of Cesar Birotteau, the little Tourraine peasant just employed by the Ragons as errand-boy. Ill-natured, wanton, wheedling, dishonest, selfish and given to drink, Ursule did not suit the candid Cesar, whom she abandoned, moreover, two years later, for a young Picardie rebel, who owned a few acres of land. He found concealment in Paris, and let her marry him. [Cesar Birotteau.]
UXELLES (Marquise d'), related to the Princess de Blamont-Chauvry, and to the Duc and Duchesse de Lenoncourt; god-mother of Cesar Birotteau. [Cesar Birotteau.]
UXELLES (Duchesse d'), born about 1769, mother of Diane d'Uxelles; beloved by the Duc de Maufrigneuse, and about 1814 gave him her daughter in marriage; ten years later she withdrew to her Uxelles estate, where she lived a life of piety and selfishness. [The Secrets of a Princess.]
VAILLANT (Madame), wife of a cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; mother of three children. In 1819 and 1820, for forty sous per month, she kept house for a young author,[*] who lived in a garret in rue Lesdiguieres. She utilized her remaining time in turning the crank for a mechanic, and received only ten sous a day for this hard work. This woman and her husband were perfectly upright. At the wedding of Madame Vaillant's sister, the young writer became acquainted with Pere Canet—Facino Cane—clarinetist at the Quinze-Vingts—who told him his strange story. [Facino Cane.] In 1818, Madame Vaillant, already aged, kept house for Claude-Joseph Pillerault, the former Republican, on rue des Bourdonnais. The old merchant was good to his servant and did not let her shine his shoes. [Cesar Birotteau.]
VALDES (Paquita), born in the West Indies about 1793, daughter of a slave bought in Georgia on account of her great beauty; lived in the early part of the Restoration and during the Hundred Days in Hotel San-Real, rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, with her mother and her foster-father, Christemio. In April, 1815, in the Jardin des Tuileries, she was met by Henri de Marsay, who loved her. She agreed to receive him secretly in her own home. She gave up everything for his sake, but in a transport of love, she cried out from force of habit: "O Mariquita!" This put her lover in such a fury that he tried to kill her. Not being able to do this, he returned, accompanied by some other members of "The Thirteen," only to find Paquita murdered; for, the Marquise de San-Real, Marsay's own sister, who was very jealous of the favors granted the man by this girl, has slashed her savagely with a dagger. Having been kept in retirement since she was twelve years old, Paquita Valdes knew neither how to read nor to write. She spoke only English and Spanish. On account of the peculiar color of her eyes she was known as "the girl with the golden eyes," by some young men, one of whom was Paul de Manerville, who had noticed her during his promenades. [The Thirteen.]
VALDEZ, a Spanish admiral, constitutional minister of King Ferdinand VII. in 1820; was obliged to flee at the time of the reaction, and embarked on an English vessel. His escape was due to the warning given him by Baron de Macumer, who told him in time. [Letters of Two Brides.]
VALENTIN (De), head of a historic house of Auvergne, which had fallen into poverty and obscurity; cousin of the Duc de Navarreins; came to Paris under the monarchy, and made for himself an excellent place at the "very heart of power." This he lost during the Revolution. Under the Empire he bought many pieces of property given by Napoleon to his generals; but the fall of Napoleon ruined him completely. He reared his only son, Raphael, with great harshness, although he expected him to restore the house to its former position. In the autumn of 1826, six months after he had paid his creditors, he died of a broken heart. The Valentins had on their arms: an eagle of gold in a field of sable, crowned with silver, beak and talons with gules, with this device: "The soul has not perished." [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Madame de), born Barbe-Marie O'Flaharty, wife of the preceding; heiress of a wealthy house; died young, leaving to her only son an islet in the Loire. [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Marquis Raphael de),[*] only son of the preceding couple, born in 1804, and probably in Paris, where he was reared; lost his mother when he was very young, and, after an unhappy childhood, received on the death of his father the sum of eleven hundred and twelve francs. On this he lived for nearly three years, boarding at the rate of a franc per day at the Hotel de Saint-Quintin, rue des Cordiers. He began two great works there: a comedy, which was to bring him fame in a day, and the "Theory of the Will," a long work, like that of Louis Lambert, meant to be a continuation of the books by Mesmer, Lavater, Gall and Bichat. Raphael de Valentin as a doctor of laws was destined by his father for the life of a statesman. Reduced to extreme poverty, and deprived of his last possession, the islet in the Loire, inherited from his mother, he was on the point of committing suicide, in 1830, when a strange dealer in curiosities of the Quai Voltaire, into whose shop he had entered by chance, gave him a strange piece of shagreen, the possession of which assured him the gratification of every desire, although his life would be shortened by each wish. Shortly after this he was invited to a sumptuous feast at Frederic Taillefer's. On the next morning Raphael found himself heir to six million francs. In the autumn of 1831 he died of consumption in the arms of Pauline Gaudin; they were mutual lovers. He tried in vain to possess himself of her, in a supreme effort. As a millionaire, Raphael de Valentin lived in friendship with Rastignac and Blondet, looked after by his faithful servant, Jonathas, in a house on rue de Varenne. At one time he was madly in love with a certain Comtesse Foedora. Neither the waters of Aix, nor those of Mont-Dore, both of which he tried, were able to give him back his lost health. [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTINE, given name and title of the heroine of a vaudeville play[*] in two acts, by Scribe and Melesville, which was performed at the Gymnase-Dramatique, January 4, 1836. This was more than twenty years after the death of M. and Madame de Merret, whose lives and tragic adventures were more or less vividly pictured in the play. [The Muse of the Department.]
VALLAT (Francois), deputy to the king's attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes, Bourgogne, under the Restoration, at the time of the peasant uprising against General de Montcornet. He was a cousin of Madame Sarcus, wife of Sarcus the Rich. He sought promotion through Gaubertin, the mayor, who was influential throughout the entire district. [The Peasantry.]
VALLET, haberdasher in Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the Restoration, at the time of General de Montcornet's struggle against the peasants. The Vallet house was next to Socquard's Cafe de la Paix. [The Peasantry.]
VAL-NOBLE (Madame du). (See Gaillard, Madame Theodore.)
VALOIS (Chevalier de), born about 1758; died, as did his friend and fellow-countryman, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, with the legitimate monarchy, August, 1830. This poor man passed his youth in Paris, where he was surprised by the Revolution. He was finally a Chouan, and when the western Whites arose in arms against the Republic, he was one of the members of the Alencon royal committee. At the time of the Restoration he was living in this city very modestly, but received by the leading aristocracy of the province as a true Valois. The chevalier carried snuff in an old gold snuffbox, ornamented with the picture of the Princess Goritza, a Hungarian, celebrated for her beauty, under Louis XV. He spoke only with emotion of this woman, for whom he had battled with Lauzun. The Chevalier de Valois tried vainly to marry the wealthy heiress of Alencon, Rose-Victoire Cormon, a spinster, who had the misfortune to become the wife, platonically speaking, of M. du Bousquier, the former contractor. In his lodging at Alencon with Madame Lardot, a laundress, the chevalier had as mistress one of the working women, Cesarine, whose child was usually attributed to him. Cesarine was, as a result, the sole legatee of her lover. The chevalier also took some liberties with another employe of Madame Lardot, Suzanne, a very beautiful Norman girl, who was afterwards known at Paris as a courtesan, under the name of Val-Noble, and who still later married Theodore Gaillard. M. de Valois, although strongly attached to this girl, did not allow her to defraud him. He was intimate with Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de Verneuil, de Fontaine, de la Billardiere, de Maufrigneuse and de Chaulieu. Valois made a living by gambling, but pretended to gain his modest livelihood from a Maitre Bordin, in the name of a certain M. de Pombreton. [The Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.]
VANDENESSE (Marquis de), a gentleman of Tours; had by his wife four children: Charles, who married Emilie de Fontaine, widow of Kergarouet; Felix, who married Marie-Angelique de Granville; and two daughters, the elder of whom was married to her cousin, the Marquis de Listomere. The Vandenesse motto was: "Ne se vend." [The Lily of the Valley.]
VANDENESSE (Marquise de), born Listomere, wife of the preceding; tall, slender, emaciated, selfish and fond of cards; "insolent, like all the Listomeres, with whom insolence always counts as a part of the dowry." She was the mother of four children, whom she reared harshly, keeping them at a distance, especially her son Felix. She had something of a weakness for her son Charles, the elder. [The Lily of the Valley.]
VANDENESSE (Marquis Charles de), son of the preceding, born towards the close of the eighteenth century; shone as a diplomatist under the Bourbons; during this period was the lover of Madame Julie d'Aiglemont, wife of General d'Aiglemont; by her he had some natural children. With Desroches as his attorney, Vandenesse entered into a suit with his younger brother, Comte Felix, in regard to some financial matters. He married the wealthy widow of Kergarouet, born Emilie de Fontaine. [A Woman of Thirty. A Start in Life. A Daughter of Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Marquise Charles de), born Emilie de Fontaine about 1802; the youngest of the Comte de Fontaine's daughters; having been overindulged as a child, her insolent bearing, a distinctive trait of character, was made manifest at the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau, to which she accompanied her parents. [Cesar Birotteau.] She refused Paul de Manerville, and a number of other excellent offers, before marrying her mother's uncle, Admiral Comte de Kergarouet. This marriage, which she regretted later, was resolved upon during a game of cards with the Bishop of Persepolis, as a result of the anger which she felt on learning that M. Longueville, on whom she had centred her affections, was only a merchant. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Madame de Kergarouet scorned her nephew by marriage, Savinien de Portenduere, who courted her. [Ursule Mirouet.] Having become a widow, she married the Marquis de Vandenesse. A little later she endeavored to overthrow her sister-in-law, the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Comte Felix de), brother-in-law of the preceding, born late in the eighteenth century, bore the title of vicomte until the death of his father; suffered much in childhood and youth, first in his home life, then as a pupil in a boarding-school at Tours and in the Oratorien college at Pontlevoy. He was unhappy also at the Lepitre school in Paris, and during his holidays spent on the Ile Saint-Louis with one of the Listomeres, a kinswoman. Felix de Vandenesse at last found happiness at Frapesle, a castle near Clochegourde. It was then that his platonic liaison with Madame de Mortsauf began—a union which occupied an important place in his life. He was, moreover, the lover of Lady Arabelle Dudley, who called him familiarly Amedee, pronounced "my dee." Madame de Mortsauf, having died, he was subjected to the secret hatred of her daughter Madeleine, later Madame de Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. About this time began his career in public life. During the "Hundred Days" Louis XVIII. entrusted to him a mission in Vendee. The King received him into favor, and finally employed him as private secretary. He was also appointed master of petitions in the State Council. Vandenesse frequently visited the Lenoncourts. He excited admiration, mingled with envy, in the mind of Lucien de Rubempre, who had recently arrived in Paris. Acting for the King, he helped Cesar Birotteau. He was acquainted with the Prince de Talleyrand, and asked of him information about Macumer, for Louise de Chaulieu. [The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Cesar Birotteau. Letters of Two Brides.] After his father's death, Felix de Vandenesse assumed the title of count, and probably won a suit in regard to a land-sale against his brother, the marquis, who had been badly served by a rascally clerk of Maitre Desroches, Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] At this time, Comte Felix de Vandenesse began a very close relationship with Natalie de Manerville. She herself broke this off as a result of the detailed description that he gave her of the love which he had formerly felt for Madame de Mortsauf. [The Marriage Settlement.] The year following, he married Angelique-Marie de Granville, elder daughter of the celebrated magistrate of that name, and began to keep house on rue du Rocher, where he had a house, furnished with the best of taste. At first he was not able to gain his wife's affection, as his known profligacy and his patronizing manners filled her with fear. She did not go with him to the evening entertainment given by Madame d'Espard, where he found himself with his elder brother, and where many gossiping tongues directed their speech against Diane de Cadignan, despite the presence of her lover, Arthez. Felix de Vandenesse went with his wife to a rout at the home of Mademoiselle des Touches, where Marsay told the story of his first love. The Comte and Comtesse de Vandenesse, who, under Louis Philippe, still frequented the houses of the Cadignans and the Montcornets, came very near having serious trouble. Madame de Vandenesse, had foolishly fallen in love with Raoul Nathan, but was kept from harm by her husband's skilful management. [The Secrets of a Princess. Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Comtesse Felix de), wife of the preceding; born Angelique-Marie de Granville in 1808; a brunette like her father. In bearing the cruel treatment of her prejudiced mother, in the Marais house, where she spent her youth, the Comtesse Felix was consoled by the tender affection of a younger sister, Marie-Eugenie, later Madame F. du Tillet. The lessons in harmony given them by Wilhelm Schmucke afforded them some diversion. Married about 1828, and dowered handsomely, to the detriment of Marie-Eugenie, she underwent, when about twenty-five years old, a critical experience. Although mother of at least one child, becoming suddenly of a romantic turn of mind, she narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a worldly conspiracy formed against her by Lady Dudley and by Mesdames Charles de Vandenesse and de Manerville. Marie, moved by the strength of her passion for the writer, Raoul Nathan, and wishing to save him from financial trouble, appealed to the good offices of Madame de Nucingen and to the devotion of Schmucke. The proof furnished to her by her husband of the debasing relations and the extreme Bohemian life of Raoul, kept Madame Felix de Vandenesse from falling. [A Second Home. A Daughter of Eve.] Afterwards, her adventure, the dangers which she had run, and her rupture with the poet, were all recounted by M. de Clagny, in the presence of Madame de la Baudraye, Lousteau's mistress. [The Muse of the Department.]
VANDENESSE (Alfred de), son of the Marquis Charles de Vandenesse, a coxcomb who, under the reign of Louis Philippe, at the Faubourg Saint-Germain, compromised the reputation of the Comtesse de Saint-Hereen, despite the presence of her mother, Madame d'Aiglemont, the former mistress of the marquis. [A Woman of Thirty.]
VANDIERES (General, Comte de), old, feeble and childish, when, with his wife and a large number of soldiers, November 29, 1812, he started on a raft to cross the Beresina. When the boat struck the other bank the shock threw the count into the river. His head was severed from his body by a cake of ice, and went down the river like a cannon-ball. [Farewell.]
VANDIERES (Comtesse Stephanie de), wife of the preceding, niece of the alienist Doctor Fanjat; mistress of Major de Sucy, who afterwards was a general. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia, she shared with her husband all the dangers, and managed to cross the Beresina with her lover's aid, although she was unable to rejoin him. She wandered for a long time in northern or eastern Europe. Having become insane, she could say nothing but the word "Farewell"! She was found later at Strasbourg by the grenadier, Fleuriot. Having been taken to the Bons-Hommes near the Isle-Adam, she was attended by Fanjat. She there had as a companion an idiot by the name of Genevieve. In September, 1819, Stephanie again saw Philippe de Sucy, but did not recognize him. She died not far from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, January, 1820, soon after the reproduction of the scene on the Beresina, arranged by her lover. Her sudden return of reason killed her. [Farewell.]
VANIERE, gardener to Raphael de Valentin; obtained from the well, into which his frightened employer had thrown it, the wonderful piece of shagreen, which no weight, no reagent, and no pounding could either stretch or injure, and which none of the best known scientists could explain. [The Magic Skin.]
VANNEAULX (Monsieur and Madame des), small renters at Limoges, living with their two children on rue des Cloches towards the end of Charles X.'s reign. They inherited in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand francs from Pingret, of whom Madame des Vanneaulx was the only niece. This was after their uncle's murderer, J.-F. Tascheron, having been urged by the Cure Bonnet, restored a large portion of the money stolen in Faubourg Saint-Etienne. M. and Madame des Vanneaulx, who had accused the murderer of "indelicacy," changed their opinion entirely when he made this restitution. [The Country Parson.]
VANNI (Elisa), a Corsican woman who, according to one Giacomo, rescued a child, Luigi Porta, from the fearful vendetta of Bartolomeo di Piombo. [The Vendetta.]
VANNIER, patriot, conscript of Fougeres, Bretagne, during the autumn of 1799 received an order to convey marching orders to the National Guard of his city—a body of men who were destined to aid the Seventy-second demi-brigade in its engagements with the Chouans. [The Chouans.]
VARESE (Emilio Memmi, Prince of), of the Cane-Memmis, born in 1797, a member of the greater nobility, descendant of the ancient Roman family of Memmius, received the name of Prince of Varese on the death of Facino Cane, his relative. During the time of Austrian rule in Venice, Memmi lived there in poverty and obscurity. In the early part of the Restoration he was on friendly terms with Marco Vendramini, his fellow-countryman. His poverty would not permit of his keeping more than one servant, the gondolier, Carmagnola. For Massimilla Doni, wife of the Duke Cataneo, he felt a passion, which was returned, and which for a long time remained platonic, despite its ardor. He was unfaithful to her at one time, not being able to resist the unforeseen attractions of Clarina Tinti, a lodger in the Memmi palace, and unrivaled prima donna at the Fenice. Finally, conquering his timidity, and breaking with the "ideal," he rendered Massimilla Cataneo a mother, and married her when she became a widow. Varese lived in Paris under the reign of Louis Philippe, and, having been enriched by his marriage, one evening at the Champs-Elysees, aided certain destitute artists, the Gambaras, who were obliged to sing in the open air. He asked for the story of their misfortunes, and Marianina told it to him without bitterness. [Massimilla Doni. Gambara.]
VARESE (Princess of), wife of the preceding, born Massimilla Doni, about 1800, of an ancient and wealthy Florentine family of the nobility; married, at first, the Duke Cataneo, a repulsive man who lived in Venice at the time of Louis XVIII. She was an enthusiastic attendant of the Fenice theatre during the winter when "Moses" and the "Semiramide" were given by a company, in which were found Clarina Tinti, Genovese and Carthagenova. Massimilla conceived a violent but at first a platonic love for Emilio Memmi, Prince of Varese, married him after Cataneo's death, following him to Paris, during the time of Louis Philippe, where she met with him the Gambaras and helped them in their poverty. [Massimilla Doni. Gambara.]
VARLET, an Arcis physician, early in the nineteenth century, at the time of the political and local quarrels of the Gondrevilles, Cinq-Cygnes, Simeuses, Michus, and Hauteserres; had a daughter who afterwards became Madame Grevin. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]
VARLET, son of the preceding, brother-in-law of Grevin; like his father, later a physician. [The Member for Arcis.]
VASSAL, in 1822 at Paris, third clerk of Maitre Desroches, an advocate, by whom were employed also Marest, Husson and Godeschal. [A Start in Life.]
VATEL, formerly an army child, then corporal of the Voltigeurs, became, during the Restoration, one of the three guards of Montcornet's estate in Aigues, Bourgogne, under head-keeper Michaud; he detected Mere Tonsard in her trespassing. He was a valuable servant; gay as a lark, rather loose in his conduct with women, without any religious principles, and brave unto rashness. [The Peasantry.]
VATINELLE (Madame), a pretty and rather loose woman of Mantes, courted at the same time by Maitre Fraisier and the king's attorney, Olivier Vinet; she was "kind" to the former, thereby causing his ruin; the attorney soon found a means of compelling Fraisier, who was representing both sides in a lawsuit, to sell his practice and leave town. [Cousin Pons.]
VAUCHELLES (De), maintained relations of close friendship, about 1835, at Besancon, with Amedee de Soulas, his fellow-countryman, and Chavoncourt, the younger, a former collegemate. Vauchelles was of equally high birth with Soulas, and was also equally poor. He sought the hand of Mademoiselle Victoire, Chavoncourt's eldest sister, on whom a godmother aunt had agreed to settle an estate yielding an income of seven thousand francs, and a hundred thousand francs in cash, in the marriage contract. To Rosalie de Watteville's satisfaction, he opposed Albert Savarus, the rival of the elder Chavoncourt, in his candidacy for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. [Albert Savarus.]
VAUDOYER, a peasant of Ronquerolles, Bourgogne, appointed forest-keeper of Blangy, but discharged about 1821, in favor of Groison, by Montcornet, at that time mayor of the commune; supported G. Rigou and F. Gaubertin as against the new owner of Aigues. [The Peasantry.]
VAUDREMONT (Comtesse de), born in 1787; being a wealthy widow of twenty-two years in 1809, she was considered the most beautiful Parisian of the day, and was known as the "Queen of Fashion." In the month of November of the same year, she attended the great ball given by the Malin de Gondrevilles, who were disappointed at the Emperor's failure to appear on that occasion. Being the mistress of the Comte de Soulanges and Martial de la Roche-Hugon, Madame de Vaudremont had received from the former a ring taken from his wife's jewel-casket; she made a present of it to Martial, who happening to be wearing it on the evening of the Gondreville ball, gave it to Madame de Soulanges, without once suspecting that he was restoring it to its lawful owner. Madame de Vaudremont's death followed shortly after this incident, which brought about the reconciliation of the Soulanges couple, urged by the Duchesse de Lansac; the countess perished in the famous fire that broke out at the Austrian embassy during the party given on the occasion of the wedding of the Emperor and the Arch-duchess Marie-Louise. [Domestic Peace.] The embassy was located on the part of the rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin (at that time rue du Mont-Blanc) comprised between the rue de la Victoire and the rue Saint-Lazare.
VAUMERLAND (Baronne de), a friend of Madame de l'Ambermesnil's, boarded with one of Madame Vauquer's rivals in the Marais, and intended, as soon as her term expired, to become a patron of the establishment on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; at least, so Madame de l'Ambermesnil declared. [Father Goriot.]
VAUQUELIN (Nicolas-Louis), a famous chemist, and a member of the Institute; born at Saint-Andre d'Hebertot, Calvadts, in 1763, died in 1829; son of a peasant; praised by Fourcroy; in turn, pharmacist in Paris, mine-inspector, professor at the School of Pharmacy, the School of Medicine, the Jardin des Plantes, and the College de France. He gave Cesar Birotteau the formula for a cosmetic for the hands, that the perfumer called "la double pate des Sultanes," and, being consulted by him on the subject of "cephalic oil," he denied the possibility of restoring a suit of hair. Nicolas Vauquelin was invited to the perfumer's great ball, given on December 17, 1818. In recognition of the good advice received from the scientist, Cesar Birotteau offered him a proof, before the time of printing, on China paper, of Muller's engraving of the Dresden Virgin, which proof had been found in Germany after two years of searching, and cost fifteen hundred francs. [Cesar Birotteau.]
VAUQUER (Madame), a widow, born Conflans about 1767. She claimed to have lost a brilliant position through a series of misfortunes, which, by the way, she never detailed specifically. For a long time she kept a bourgeois boarding-house on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve (now rue Tournefort), near the rue de l'Arbalete. In 1819-1820, Madame Vauquer, a short, stout, languid woman, but rather well preserved in spite of being a little faded, had Horace Bianchon as table-boarder, and furnished with board and lodging the following: on the first floor of her house, Madame Couture and Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer; on the second floor, Poiret, the elder, and Jacques Collin; on the third, Christine-Michelle Michonneau—afterwards Madame Poiret,—Joachim Goriot; whom she looked upon as a possible husband for herself, and Eugene de Rastignac. She was deserted by her various boarders shortly after the arrest of Jacques Collin. [Father Goriot.]
VAUREMONT (Princesse de), one of the most prominent figures of the eighteenth century; grandmother of Madame Marie Gaston, who adored her; she died in 1817, the year of Madame de Stael's death, in a mansion belonging to the Chaulieus and situated near the Boulevard des Invalides. Madame de Vauremont, at the time of her death, was occupying a suite of apartments in which she was shortly afterwards succeeded by Louise de Chaulieu (Madame Marie Gaston). Talleyrand, an intimate friend of the princess was executor of her will. [Letters of Two Brides.]
VAUTHIER, commonly called Vieux-Chene, former servant of the famous Longuy; hostler at the Ecu de France, Mortagne, in 1809; was implicated in the affair of the Chauffeurs, and condemned to twenty years of penal servitude, but was afterwards pardoned by the Emperor. During the Restoration he was murdered in the streets of Paris by an obscure and devoted countryman of the Chevalier du Vissard. [The Seamy Side of History.]
VAUTHIER (Madame), originally, in 1809, kitchen-girl in the household of the Prince de Wissembourg, on the rue Louis-le-Grand; then cook to Barbet, the publisher, owner of a lodging-house on the Boulevard Montparnasse; still later, about 1833, she managed this establishment for him, serving the same time as door-keeper in the house mentioned. At that time Madame Vauthier employed Nepomucene and Felicite for the house-work; as lodgers she had Bourlac, Vanda and Auguste Mergi, and Godefroid. [The Seamy Side of History.]
VAUTRIN,[*] the most famous of Jacques Collin's assumed names.
VAUVINET, born about 1817, a money-lender of Paris, was of the elegant modern type, altogether different from Chaboisseau-Gobseck; he made the Boulevard des Italiens the centre of his operations; was a creditor of the Baron Hulot, first in the sum of seventy thousand francs; and then in an additional sum of forty thousand, really lent by Nucingen. [Cousin Betty.] In 1845, Leon de Lora and J.-J. Bixiou called S.-P. Gazonal's attention to him. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
VAVASSEUR, clerk in the Treasury Department, during the Empire, in Clergeot's division. He was succeeded by E.-L.-L.-E.-Cochin. [The Government Clerks.]
VEDIE (La), born in 1756, a homely spinster, her face being pitted with small-pox; a relative of La Cognette, a distinguished cook; on the recommendation of Flore Brazier and Maxence Gilet, she was employed as cook by J.-J. Rouget, after the death of a curate, whom she had served long, and who died without leaving her anything. She was to receive a pension of three hundred livres a year, after ten years of competent, faithful and loyal service. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
VENDRAMINI (Marco), whose name is also pronounced Vendramin;[*] probably a descendant of the last Doge of Venice; brother of Bianca Sagredo, born Vendramini; a Venetian patriot; an intimate friend of Memmi-Cane, Prince of Varese. In the intoxication caused by opium, his great resource about 1820, Marco Vendramini dreamed that his dear city, then under Austrian dominion, was free and powerful once more. He talked with Memmi of the Venice of his dreams, and of the famous Procurator Florain, now in the modern Greek, now in their native tongue; sometimes as they walked together, sometimes before La Vulpato and the Cataneos, during a presentation of "Semiramide," "Il Barbiere," or "Moses," as interpreted by La Tinti and Genovese. Vendramini died from excessive use of opium, at quite an early age, during the reign of Louis XVIII., and was greatly mourned by his friends. [Facino Cane. Massimilla Doni.]