Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/V
V
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,[1] 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),[2] 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[3] 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 NeuveSainte-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,[4] 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;[5] 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)
VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign with Hyacinthe Chabert and Luigi Porta, was quartermaster of hussars when he left the service. During the Restoration he was, in turn, cow-keeper on the rue du Petit-Banquier, keeper of a livery-stable, and cabman. As cow-keeper, Vergniaud, having a wife and three sons, being in debt to Grados, and giving too generously to Chabert, ended in insolvency; even then he aided Luigi Porta, again in trouble, and was his witness when that Corsican married Mademoiselle di Piombo. Louis Vergniaud, being a party to the conspiracies against Louis XVIII., was imprisoned for his share in these crimes. (Colonel Chabert, The Vendetta)
VERMANTON, a cynic philosopher, and a habitue of Madame Schontz's salon, between 1835 and 1840, when she was keeping house with Arthur de Rochefide. (Beatrix)
VERMICHEL, common nick-name of Vert (Michel-Jean-Jerome.)
VERMUT, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, during the Restoration; brother-in-law of Sarcus, the Soulanges justice of the peace, who had married his eldest sister. Though quite a distinguished chemist, Vermut was the object of the pleasantries and contemptuous remarks of the Soudry salon, especially at the hands of the Gourdons. Despite the slight esteem "of the first society of Soulanges," Vermut gave evidence of ability, when he disturbed Madame Pigeron by finding traces of poison in the body of her dead husband. (The Peasantry)
VERMUT (Madame), wife of the preceding; life and soul of the salon of Madame Soudry, who, however, declared that she was "bad form," and reproached her for flirting with Gourdon, author of "La Bilboqueide." (The Peasantry)
VERNAL (Abbe), one of the four Vendean leaders, in 1799, when Montauran was opposing Hulot, the other three being Chatillon, Suzannet, and the Comte de Fontaine. (The Chouans)
VERNET (Joseph), born in 1714, died in 1789, a famous French artist; patronized the Cat and Racket, a drapery establishment on the rue Saint-Denis, of which M. Guillaume, father-in-law of Sommervieux, was proprietor. (At the Sign of the Cat and Racket)
VERNEUIL (Marquis de), member of a historic family, and probably an ancestor of the Verneuils of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1591, he was on intimate terms, with the Norman Comte d'Herouville, ancestor of the keeper of Josepha Mirah, star of the Royal Academy of Music, about 1838. The relations between the two families continued unbroken through the centuries. (The Hated Son)
VERNEUIL (Victor-Amedee, Duc de), probably descended from the preceding, died before the Revolution; by Mademoiselle Blanche de Casteran, he had a daughter, Marie-Nathalie—afterwards Madame Alphonse de Montauran. He acknowledged his natural daughter at the close of his life, and almost disinherited his legitimate son in her favor. (The Chouans)
VERNEUIL (Mademoiselle de), probably a relative of the preceding; sister of the Prince de Loudon, the Vendean cavalry general; she went to Mans to save her brother, and died on the scaffold in 1793, after the Savenay affair. (The Chouans)
VERNEUIL (Duc de), son of the Duc Victor-Amedee de Verneuil, and brother of Madame Alphonse de Montauran, with whom he had a lawsuit over the inheritance left by their father; during the Restoration he lived in the town of Alencon and was on intimate terms with the D'Esgrignons of that place. He took Victurnien d'Esgrignon under his protection, and introduced him to Louis XVIII. (The Chouans, Jealousies of a Country Town)
VERNEUIL (Duc de), of the family of the preceding, was present at the entertainment given by Josepha Mirah, the mistress of the Duc d'Herouville, when she opened her sumptuous suite of apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, Paris, in Louis Philippe's reign. (Cousin Betty)
VERNEUIL (Duc de), a good-natured great nobleman, son-in-law of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800; he was the father of four children, among them being Mademoiselle Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; owned the historic chateau of Rosembray, in the vicinity of Havre, and close by the forest of Brotonne; there he received, one day in October, 1829, the Mignon de la Basties, accompanied by the Herouvilles, Canalis, and Ernest de la Briere, all of whom were at that time desirous to marry Modeste Mignon, soon to become Madame de la Briere de la Bastie. (Modeste Mignon)
VERNEUIL (Duchesse Hortense de), wife of the preceding, a haughty and pious personage, daughter of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800. Of her four children, only two lived—her daughter Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; she was on very intimate terms with the Herouvilles, and especially with the elderly Mademoiselle d'Herouville, and received a visit from them, one day in October, 1829, with the Mignon de la Basties, followed by Melchior de Canalis and Ernest de la Briere. (Modeste Mignon)
VERNEUIL (Laure de), daughter of the preceding couple. At the entertainment at Rosembray in October, 1829, Eleonore de Chaulieu gave her advice on the subject of tapestry and embroidery. (Modeste Mignon)
VERNEUIL (Duchesse de), sister of the Prince de Blamont-Chauvry; an intimate friend of the Duchesse de Bourbon, sorely tried by the disasters of the Revolution; aunt and, in a way, mother by adoption of Blanche-Henriette de Mortsauf (born Lenoncourt). She belonged to a society of which Saint-Martin was the soul. The Duchesse de Verneuil, who owned the Clochegourde estate in Touraine, gave it, in her lifetime, to Madame de Mortsauf, reserving for herself only one room of the mansion. Madame de Verneuil died in the early part of the nineteenth century. (The Lily of the Valley)
VERNEUIL (Marie-Nathalie de).[6] (See Montauran, Marquise Alphonse de.)
VERNIER (Baron), intendant-general, under obligations to Hector Hulot d'Ervy, whom he met, in 1843, at the Ambigu theatre, as escort of a gloriously handsome woman. He afterwards received a visit from the Baronne Adeline Hulot, coming for information. (Cousin Betty)
VERNIER, formerly a dyer, who lived on his income at Vouvray (Touraine), about 1821; a cunning countryman, father of a marriageable daughter named Claire; was challenged by Felix Gaudissart in 1831, for having played a practical joke on that illustrious traveling merchant, and fought a bloodless pistol duel. (Gaudissart the Great)
VERNIER (Madame), wife of the preceding, a stout little woman, of robust health; a friend of Madame Margaritis; she gladly contributed her share to the mystification of Gaudissart as conceived by her husband. (Gaudissart the Great)
VERNISSET (Victore de), a poet of the "Angelic School," at the head of which stood Canalis, the academician; a contemporary of Beranger, Delavigne, Lamartine, Lousteau, Nathan, Vigny, Hugo, Barbier, Marie Gaston and Gautier, he moved in various Parisian circles; he was seen at the Brothers of Consolation on the rue Chanoinesse, and he received pecuniary assistance from the Baronne de la Chanterie, president of the above-mentioned association; he was to be found, with Heloise Brisetout, on the rue Chauchat, at the time of her house-warming in the apartments in which she succeeded Josepha Mirah; there he met J.-J. Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Etienne Lousteau and Stidmann; he fell madly in love with Madame Schontz. He was invited to the marriage of Celestin Crevel and Valerie Marneffe. (The Seamy Side of History, Beatrix, Cousin Betty)
VERNON (Marechal) father of the Duc de Vissembourg and the Prince Chiavari. (Beatrix)
VERNOU (Felicien), a Parisian journalist. He used his influence in starting Marie Godeschal, usually called Mariette, at the Porte Saint-Martin. The husband of an ugly, vulgar, and crabbed woman, he had by her children that were by no means welcome. He lived in wretched lodgings on the rue Mandar, when Lucien de Rubempre was presented to him. Vernou was a caustic critic on the side of the oppositon. The uncongeniality of his domestic life embittered his character and his genius. He was a finished specimen of the envious man, and pursued Lucien de Rubempre with an alert and malicious jealousy. (A Bachelor's Establishment, Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) In 1834, Blondet recommended him to Nathan as a "Handy Andy" for a newspaper. (A Daughter of Eve) Celestin Crevel invited him to his marriage with Valerie Marneffe. (Cousin Betty)
VERNOU (Madame Felicien), wife of the preceding, whose vulgarity was one of the causes of her husband's bitterness, revealed herself in her true light to Lucien de Rubempre, when she mentioned a certain Madame Mahoudeau as one of her friends. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
VERT (Michel-Jean-Jerome), nick-named Vermichel, formerly violinist in the Bourgogne regiment, was occupied, during the Restoration, with the various callings of fiddler, door-keeper of the Hotel de Ville, drum-beater of Soulanges, jailer of the local prison, and finally bailiff's deputy in the service of Brunet. He was intimate friend of Fourchon, with whom he was in the habit of getting on sprees, and whose hatred for the Montcornets, owners of Aigues, he shared. (The Peasantry)
VERT (Madame Michel), wife of the preceding, commonly called Vermichel, as was the case with her husband; a mustached virago, a metre in width, and of two hundred and forty pounds weight, but active in spite of this; she ruled her husband absolutely. (The Peasantry)
VERVELLE (Antenor), an eccentric bourgeois of Paris, made his fortune in the cork business. Retiring from the trade, Vervelle became, in his own way, an amateur artist; wished to form a gallery of paintings, and believed that he was collecting Flemish specimens, works of Tenier, Metzu, and Rembrandt; employed Elie Magus to form the collection, and, with that Jew as go-between, married his daughter Virginie to Pierre Grassou. Vervelle, at that time, was living in a house of his own on the rue Boucherat, a part of the rue Saint-Louis (now rue de Turenne), near the rue Charlot. He also owned a cottage at Ville-d'Avray, in which the famous Flemish collection was stored—pictures really painted by Pierre Grassou. (Pierre Grassou)
VERVELLE (Madame Antenor), wife of the preceding, gladly accepted Pierre Grassou for a son-in-law, as soon as she found out that Maitre Cardot was his notary. Madame Vervelle, however, was horrified at the idea of Joseph Bridau's bursting in Pierre's studio, and "touching up" the portrait of Mademoiselle Virginie, afterwards Madame Grassou. (Pierre Grassou)
VERVELLE (Virginie). (See Grassou, Madame Pierre.)
VEZE (Abbe de), a priest of Mortagne, during the Empire, administered the last sacrament to Madame Bryond des Tours-Minieres just before her execution in 1810; he was afterwards one of the Brothers of Consolation, installed in the home of the Baronne de la Chanterie on the rue Chanoinesse, Paris. (The Seamy Side of History)
VIALLET, an excellent gendarme, appointed brigadier at Soulanges, Bourgogne; replaced Soudry, retired. (The Peasantry)
VICTOIRE, in 1819, a servant of Charles Claparon, a banker on the rue de Provence, Paris; "a real Leonarde bedizened like a fish-huckster." (Cesar Birotteau)
VICTOR, otherwise known as the Parisian, a mysterious personage who lived in marital relations with the Marquis d'Aiglemont's eldest daughter, and made her the mother of several children. Victor, while dodging the pursuit of the police, who were on his track for the murder of Mauny, had found refuge for two hours in Versailles, on Christmas night of one of the last years of the Restoration, in a house near the Barriere de Montreuil (57, Avenue de Paris), with the parents of Helene d'Aiglemont, the last named of whom fled with him. During Louis Philippe's reign, Victor was captain of the "Othello," a Colombian pirate, and lived very happily with his family—Mademoiselle d'Aiglemont and the children he had by her. He met with General d'Aiglemont, his mistress's father, who was at that time a passenger on board the "Saint-Ferdinand," and saved his life. Victor perished at sea in a shipwreck. (A Woman of Thirty)
VICTORINE, a celebrated seamstress of Paris, had among her customers the Duchesse Cataneo, Louise de Chaulieu, and, probably, Madame de Bargeton. (Massimilla Doni, Lost Illusions, Letters of Two Brides) Her successors assumed and handed down her name; Victorine IV.'s "intelligent scissors" were praised in the latter part of Louis Philippe's reign, when Fritot sold Mistress Noswell the Selim shawl. (Gaudissart II)
VIDAL & PORCHON, book-sellers on commission, Quai des Augustins, Paris, in 1821. Lucien de Rubempre had an opportunity to judge of their method of doing business, when his "Archer of Charles IX." and a volume of poems were brutally refused by them. Vidal & Porchon had in stock at that time the works of Keratry, Arlincourt, and Victor Ducange. Vidal was a stout, blunt man, who traveled for the firm. Porchon, colder and more diplomatic, seemed to have special charge of negotiations. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
VIEN (Joseph-Marie), a celebrated painter, born at Montpellier in 1716, died at Rome in 1809. In 1758, with Allegrain and Loutherbourg, he aided his friend Sarrasine in abducting Zambinella, with a view to taking him to the apartments of the sculptor, who was madly in love with the eunuch, believing him to be a woman. At a later period, Vien made for Madame de Lantry a copy of the statue modeled by Sarrasine after Zambinella, and it was from this picture of Vien's that Girodet, the signer of "Endymion," received his inspiration. This statue of Sarrasine's was, long afterwards, reproduced by the sculptor Dorlange-Sallenauve. (Sarrasine, The Member for Arcis)
VIEUX-CHAPEAU, a soldier in the Seventy-second demi-brigade; was killed in an engagement with the Chouans, in September, 1799. (The Chouans)
VIGNEAU, of the commune of Isere, of which Benassis was creator, so to speak; he courageously took charge of an abandoned tile-factory, made a successful business of it, and lived with his family around him, which consisted of his mother, his mother-in-law, and his wife, who had formerly been in the service of the Graviers of Grenoble. (The Country Doctor)
VIGNEAU (Madame), wife of the preceding, a perfect housekeeper; she received Genestas cordially, when brought to call by Benassis; Madame Vigneau was then on the point of becoming a mother. (The Country Doctor)
VIGNOL (See Bouffe.)
VIGNON (Claude), a French critic, born in 1799, brought a remarkable power of analysis to the study of all questions of art, literature, philosophy, or political problems. A clear, deep, and unerring judge of men, a strong psychologist, he was famous in Paris as early as 1821, and was present, at the apartments of Florine, then acting at the Panorama-Dramatique, at the supper following the presentation of the "Alcade dans l'Embarras," and had a brilliant conversation on the subject of the press with Emile Blondet, in the presence of a German diplomatist. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) In 1834, Claude Vignon was entrusted with the haute critique of the newspaper founded by Raoul Nathan. (A Daughter of Eve) For quite a period Vignon had Felicite des Touches (Camille Maupin) as his mistress. In 1836, he brought her back from Italy, accompanied by Lora, when he heard the story of the domestic difficulties of the Bauvans from Maurice de l'Hostal, French consul at Genoa. (Honorine) Again, in 1836, at Les Touches, Vignon, on the point of giving up Camille Maupin, delivered to his former mistress a veritable dissertation, of surprising insight, on the subject of the heart, with reference to Calyste du Guenic, Gennaro Conti, and Beatrix de Rochefide. Such intimate knowledge of the human heart had gradually saddened and wearied him; he sought relief for his ennui in debauchery; he paid attention to La Schontz, really a courtesan of superior stamp, and moulded her. (Beatrix) Afterwards, he became ambitious, and was secretary to Cottin de Wissembourg, minister of war; this position brought him into contact with Valerie Marneffe, whom he secretly loved; he, Stidmann, Steinbock, and Massol, were witnesses of her marriage to Crevel, this being the second time she had been led to the altar. He was counted among the habitues of Valerie's salon, when "Jean-Jacques Bixiou was going . . . to cozen Lisbeth Fischer." (Cousin Betty) He rallied to the support of Louis Philippe, and as editor of the Journal des Debats, and master of requests in the Council of State, he gave his attention to the lawsuit pending between S.-P. Gazonal and the prefect of the Pyrenees-Orientales; a position as librarian, a chair at the Sorbonne, and the decoration bore further testimony to the favor that he enjoyed. (The Unconscious Humorists) Vignon's reputation remained undiminished, and, even in our own time, Madame Noemi Rouvier, sculptor and novelist, signs the critic's name to her works.
VIGOR, manager of the post-station at Ville-aux-Fayes, during the Restoration; officer in the National Guard of that sub-prefecture of Bourgogne; brother-in-law of Leclercq, the banker, whose sister he had married. (The Peasantry)
VIGOR, son of the preceding, and, like the rest of his family, interested in protecting Francois Gaubertin from Montcornet; he was deputy judge of the court of Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. (The Peasantry)
VILLEMOT, head-clerk of Tabareau, the bailiff, was entrusted, in April, 1845, with the work of superintending the details of the interment of Sylvain Pons, and also to look after the interests of Schmucke, who had been appointed residuary legatee by the deceased. Villemot was entirely under the influence of Fraisier, business agent of the Camusot de Marvilles. (Cousin Pons)
VILLENOIX (Salomon de), son of a wealthy Jew named Salomon, who in his old age had married a Catholic. Brought up in his mother's religion; he raised the Villenoix estate to a barony. (Louis Lambert)
VILLENOIX (Pauline Salomon de), born about 1800; natural daughter of the preceding. During the Restoration, she was made to feel her origin. Her character and her superiority made her an object of envy in her provincial circle. Her meeting with Louis Lambert at Blois was the turning point in her life. Community of age, country, disappointments, and pride of spirit brought them in touch—a reciprocated passion was the result. Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was going to marry Lambert, when the scholar's terrible mental malady asserted itself. She was frequently able to avert the sick man's paroxysms; she nursed him, advised him, and guided him, notably at Croisic, where at her suggestion Lambert related in letter-form the tragic misfortunes of the Cambremers, which he had just learned. On her return to Villenoix, Pauline took her fiance with her where she noted down and understood his last thoughts, sublime in their incoherence; he died in her arms, and from that time forth she considered herself the widow of Louis Lambert, whom she had buried in one of the islands of the lake park at Villenoix. (Louis Lambert, A Seaside Tragedy) Two years later, being sensibly aged, and living in almost total retirement from the world at the town of Tours, but full of sympathy for weak mortals, Pauline de Villenoix protected the Abbe Francois Birotteau, the victim of Troubert's hatred. (The Vicar of Tours)
VILQUIN, the richest ship-owner of Havre, during the Restoration, purchased the estates of the bankrupt Charles Mignon, with the exception of a chalet given by Mignon to Dumay; this dwelling, being in close proximity to the millionaire's superb villa, and being occupied by the families of Mignon and Dumay, was the despair of Vilquin, Dumay obstinately refusing to sell it. (Modeste Mignon)
VILQUIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, had G.-C. d'Estourny as lover, previous to his amour with Bettina-Caroline Mignon; by her husband she had three children, two of whom were girls. The eldest of these, being richly endowed, was eventually Madame Francisque Althor. (Modeste Mignon)
VIMEUX, in 1824, an unassuming justice of the peace in a department of the North, rebuked his son Adolphe for the kind of life he was leading in Paris. (The Government Clerks)
VIMEUX (Adolphe), son of the preceding, in 1824, was copyist emeritus in Xavier Rabourdin's bureau in the Finance Department. A great dandy, he thought only of his dress, and was satisfied with meagre fare at the Katcomb's restaurant; he became a debtor of Antoine, the messenger boy; secretly his ambition was to marry a rich old lady. (The Government Clerks)
VINET had a painful career to start with; a disappointment crossed his path at the very outset. He had seduced a Mademoiselle de Chargeboeuf, and he supposed that her parents would acknowledge him as son-in-law, and endow their daughter richly; so he married her, but her family disowned her, and he therefore had to rely on himself entirely. As an attorney at Provins, Vinet made his mark by degrees; as head of the local opposition, with the aid of Goraud, he succeeded in making use of Denis Rogron, a wealthy retired merchant, established the "Courrier de Provins," a Liberalist paper, adroitly defended the Rogrons against the charge of killing Pierrette Lorrain by slow degrees, was elected to the Chamber of Deputies about 1830, and became also attorney-general, and probably minister of justice. (Pierrette, The Member for Arcis, The Middle Classes, Cousin Pons)
VINET (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Chargeboeuf, and therefore one of the descendants of the "noble family of La Brie, a name derived from the exploit of a knight in the expedition of Saint-Louis," was mother of two children, who suffered for her happiness. Absolutely controlled by her husband, rejected and sacrificed by her family from the time of her marriage, Madame Vinet scarcely dared in the Rogrons' salon to speak in defence of Pierrette Lorrain, their victim. (Pierrette)
VINET (Olivier), son of the preceding couple, born in 1816. A magistrate, like his father, began his career as deputy king's attorney at Arcis, advanced to the position of king's attorney in the town of Mantes, and, still further, was deputy king's attorney, but now in Paris. Supported by his father's influence, and being noted for his independent raillery, Vinet was dreaded everywhere. Among the people of Arcis, he mixed only with the little coterie of government officials, composed of Goulard, Michu, and Marest. (The Member for Arcis) Being a rival of Maitre Fraisier in the affections of Madame Vatinelle of Mantes, he resolved to destroy this contestant in the race, and so thwarted his career. (Cousin Pons) At the Thuilliers', on the rue Saint-Dominique-d'Enfer, Paris, where he displayed his usual impertinence, Vinet was an aspirant to the hand of Celeste Colleville, the heiress, who was eventually Madame Felix Phellion. (The Middle Classes)
VIOLETTE, a husbandman, tenanted in the department of Aube, near Arcis, the Grouage farm, that was a part of the Gondreville estate, at the time that Peyrade and Corentin, in accordance with Fouche's instructions, undertook the singular abduction of Senator Malin de Gondreville. A miserly and deceitful man, this fellow Violette secretly aided with Malin de Gondreville and the powers of the day against Michu, the mysterious agent of the Cinq-Cygne, Hauteserre, and Simeuse families. (The Gondreville Mystery)
VIOLETTE (Jean), a descendant of the preceding; hosier of Arcis in 1837; took in hand Pigoult's business, as successor to Phileas Beauvisage. In the electoral stir of 1839, Jean Violette seemed to be entirely at the disposal of the Gondreville faction. (The Member for Arcis)
VIRGINIE, cook in the household of Cesar Birotteau, the perfumer, in 1818. (Cesar Birotteau)
VIRGINIE, during the years 1835-1836, lady's maid, on the rue Neuve-des-Mathurins (at present rue des Mathurins), Paris, to Marie-Eugenie du Tillet, who was at that time engrossed in righting the imprudent conduct of Angelique-Marie de Vandenesse. (A Daughter of Eve)
VIRGINIE, mistress of a Provencal soldier, who, at a later period, during Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt, was lost for some time in a desert, where he lived with a female panther. The jealous mistress was constantly threatening to stab her lover, and he dubbed her Mignonne, by antiphrasis; in memory of her he gave the same name to the panther. (A Passion in the Desert)
VIRGINIE, a Parisian milliner, whose hats were praised, for a consideration, by Andoche Finot in his newspaper in 1821. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)
VIRLAZ, a rich furrier of Leipsic, from whom his nephew, Frederic Brunner, inherited, about the middle of Louis-Philippe's reign. In his lifetime this Jew, head of the house of Virlaz & Co., had the fortune of Madame Brunner (first of the name) placed in the coffers of the Al-Sartchild bank. (Cousin Pons)
VISSARD (Marquis du), in memory of his younger brother, the Chevalier Rifoel du Vissard, was created a peer of France by Louis XVIII., who entered him as a lieutenant in the Maison-Rouge, and made him a prefect upon the dissolution of the Maison-Rouge. (The Seamy Side of History)
VISSARD (Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du), noble and headstrong gentleman; played an important part, after 1789, in the various anti-revolutionary insurrections of western France. In December, 1799, he was at the Vivetiere, and his impulsiveness was a contrast with the coolness of Marquis Alphonse de Montauran, also called Le Gars. (The Chouans) He took part in the battle of Quiberon, and, in company with Boislaurier, took a leading part in the uprising of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne. Several circumstances, indeed, helped to strengthen his Royalist inclinations. Fergus found in Henriette Bryond des Tours-Minieres (Contenson, the spy), who secretly betrayed him. Like his accomplices, Rifoel du Vissard was executed in 1809. At times during his anti-revolutionary campaigns he assumed the name of Pierrot. (The Seamy Side of History)
VISSEMBOURG (Duc de), son of Marechal Vernon; brother of the Prince de Chiavari; between 1835 and 1840 presided over a horticultural society, the vice-president of which was Fabien du Ronceret. (Beatrix)
VITAGLIANI, tenor at the Argentina, Rome, when Zambinella took the soprano parts in 1758. Vitagliani was acquainted with J.-E. Sarrasine. (Sarrasine)
VITAL, born about 1810, a Parisian hatter, who succeeded Finot Pere, whose store on rue du Coq was very popular about 1845, and deservedly so, apparently. He amused J.-J. Bixiou and Leon de Lora by his ridiculous pretensions. They wished him to supply S.-P. Gazonal with a hat, and he proposed to sell him a hat like that of Lousteau. On this occasion Vital showed them the head-covering that he had devised for Claude Vignon, who was undecided in politics. Vital really pretended to make each hat according to the personality of the person ordering it. He praised the Prince de Bethune's hat and dreamed of the time when high hats would go out of style. (The Unconscious Humorists)
VITAL (Madame), wife of the preceding, believed in her husband's genius and greatness. She was in the store when the hatter received a call from Bixiou, Lora and Gazonal. (The Unconscious Humorists)
VITEL, born in 1776, Paris justice of the peace in 1845, an acquaintance of Doctor Poulain; was succeeded by Maitre Fraisier, a protege of the Camusot de Marvilles. (Cousin Pons)
VITELOT, partner of Sonet, the marble-cutter; designed tombstones. He failed to obtain the contract for monuments to Marsay, the minister, and to Keller, the officer. It was given to Stidmann. The plans made by Vitelot having been retouched, were submitted to Wilhelm Schmucke for the grave of Sylvain Pons, who was buried in Pere-Lachaise. (Cousin Pons)
VITELOT (Madame), wife of the preceding, severely rebuked an agent of the firm for bringing in as a customer W. Schmucke, heir-contestant to the Pons property. (Cousin Pons)
VIVET (Madeleine), servant to the Camusot de Marvilles; during nearly twenty-five years was their feminine Maitre-Jacques. She tried in vain to gain Sylvain Pons for a husband, and thus to become their cousin. Madeleine Vivet, having failed in her matrimonial attempts, took a dislike for Pons, and persecuted him in a thousand ways. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Cousin Pons)
VOLFGANG,[7] cashier of Baron du Saint-Empire, F. de Nucingen, when this well-known Parisian banker of rue Saint-Lazare fell madly in love with Esther van Gobseck, and when Jacques Falleix's discomfiture occurred. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
VORDAC (Marquise de), born in 1769, mistress of the rich Lord Dudley; she had by him a son, Henry. To legitimize this child she arranged a marriage with Marsay, a bankrupt old gentleman of tarnished reputation. He demanded payment of the interest on a hundred thousand francs as a reward for his marriage, and he died without having known his wife. The widow of Marsay became by her second marriage the well-known Marquise de Vordac. She neglected her duties as mother until late in life, and paid no attention to Henri de Marsay except to propose Miss Stevens as a suitable wife for him. (The Thirteen)
VULPATO (La), noble Venetian, very frequently present in Fenice; about 1820 tried to interest Emilio Memmi, Prince of Varese, and Massimilla Doni, Duchesse Cataneo, in each other. (Massimilla Doni)
VYDER, anagram formed from d'Ervy, and one of the three names taken successively by Baron Hector Hulot d'Ervy, after deserting his wife. He hid under this assumed name, when he became a petition-writer in Paris, in the lower part of Petite Pologne, opposite rue de la Pepiniere, on Passage du Soleil, to-day called Galerie de Cherbourg. (Cousin Betty)
- ↑ Honore de Balzac. He employed Madame Vaillant as a servant.
- ↑ During the year 1851, at the Ambigu-Comique, was performed a drama by Alphonse Arnault and Louis Judicis, in which the life of Raphael Valentin was reproduced.
- ↑ Madame Eugenie Savage played the principal part.
- ↑ On March 14, 1840, a Parisian theatre, the Porte-Saint-Martin, presented a play in which the famous convict was a principal character. Although Frederic Lemaitre took the leading role, the play was presented only once. In April, 1868, however, the Ambigu-Comique revived it, with Frederic Lemaitre again in the leading role.
- ↑ The palace in Venice formerly owned by the Duchesse de Berri and the Comte de Chambord, in which Wagner, the musician, died, is even now called the Vendramin Palace. It is on the Grand-Canal, quite near the Justiniani Palace (now the Hotel de-l'Europe.)
- ↑ On June 23, 1837, under the title of Le Gars, the Ambigu-Comique presented a drama of Antony Beraud's in five acts and six tableaux, which was a modified reproduction of the adventures of Marie-Nathalie de Montauran.
- ↑ He lived on rue de L'Arcade, near rue des Mathurins, Paris.