BOURIGNARD (Gratien-Henri-Victor-Jean-Joseph), father of Mme. Jules
Desmarets. One of the "Thirteen" and the former chief of the Order of
the Devorants under the title of Ferragus XXIII. He had been a
laborer, but afterwards was a contractor of buildings. His daughter
was born to an abandoned woman. About 1807 he was sentenced to twenty
years of hard labor, but he managed to escape during a journey of the
chain-gang from Paris to Toulon, and he returned to Paris. In 1820 he
lived there under diverse names and disguises, lodging successively on
rue des Vieux Augustins (now rue d'Argout), corner of rue Soly (an
insignificant street which disappeared when the Hotel des Postes was
rebuilt); then at number seven rue Joquelet; finally at Mme. E.
Gruget's, number twelve rue des Enfants-Rouges (now part of the rue
des Archives running from rue Pastourelle to rue Portefoin), changing
lodgings at this time to evade the investigations of Auguste de
Maulincour. Stunned by the death of his daughter, whom he adored and
with whom he held secret interviews to prevent her becoming amenable
to the law, he passed his last days in an indifferent, almost idiotic
way, idly watching match games at bowling on the Place de
l'Observatoire; the ground between the Luxembourg and the Boulevard de
Montparnasse was the scene of these games. One of the assumed names of
Bourignard was the Comte de Funcal. In 1815, Bourignard, alias
Ferragus, assisted Henri de Marsay, another member of the "Thirteen,"
in his raid on Hotel San-Real, where dwelt Paquita Valdes. [The
Thirteen.]
BOURLAC (Bernard-Jean-Baptiste-Macloud, Baron de), former
procureur-general of the Royal Court of Rouen, grand officer of the
Legion of Honor. Born in 1771. He fell in love with and married the
daughter of the Pole, Tarlowski, a colonel in the French Imperial Guard.
By her he had a daughter, Vanda, who became the Baronne de Mergi. A
widower and reserved by nature, he came to Paris in 1829 to take care
of Vanda, who was seized by a strange and very dangerous malady. After
having lived in the Quartier du Roule in 1838, with his daughter and
grandson, he dwelt for several years, in very straitened circumstances,
in a tumble-down house on the Boulevard du Montparnasse, where
Godefroid, a recent initiate into the "Brotherhood of the Consolation"
and under the direction of Mme. de la Chanterie and her associates,
came to his relief. Afterwards it was discovered that the Baron de
Bourlac was none other than the terrible magistrate who had pronounced
judgment on this noble woman and her daughter during the trial of the
Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809. Nevertheless, the aiding of the family
was not abated in the least. Vanda was cured, thanks to a foreign
physician, Halpersohn, procured by Godefroid. M. de Bourlac was
enabled to publish his great work on the "Spirit of Modern Law." At
Sorbonne a chair of comparative legislation was created for him. At
last he obtained forgiveness from Mme. de la Chanterie, at whose feet
he flung himself. [The Seamy Side of History.] In 1817 the Baron de
Bourlac, then procureur-general, and superior of Soudry the younger,
royal procureur, helped, with the assistance also of the latter, to
secure for Sibilet the position of estate-keeper to the General de
Montcornet at Aigues. [The Peasantry.]
BOURNIER, natural son of Gaubertin and of Mme. Socquard, the wife of
the cafe manager of Soulanges. His existence was unknown to Mme.
Gaubertin. He was sent to Paris where, under Leclercq, he learned the
printer's trade and finally became a foreman. Gaubertin then brought
him to Ville-aux-Fayes where he established a printing office and a
paper known as "Le Courrier de l'Avonne", entirely devoted to the
interests of the triumvirate, Rigou, Gaubertin and Soudry. [The
Peasantry.]
BOSQUIER (Du), or Croisier (Du), or Bourguier (Du), a descendant of an
old Alencon family. Born about 1760. He had been commissary agent in
the army from 1793 to 1799; had done business with Ouvrard, and kept a
running account with Barras, Bernadotte and Fouche. He was at that
time one of the great folk of finance. Discharged by Bonaparte in
1800, he withdrew to his natal town. After selling the Beauseant
house, which he owned, for the benefit of his creditors, he had
remaining an income of not more than twelve hundred francs. About 1816
he married Mlle. Cormon, a spinster who had been courted also by the
Chevalier de Valois and Athanase Granson. This marriage set him on his
feet again financially. He took the lead in the party of the
opposition, established a Liberal paper called "Le Courrier de
l'Orne," and was elected Receiver-General of the Exchequer, after the
Revolution of 1830. He waged bitter war on the white flag Royalists,
his hatred of them causing him secretly to condone the excesses of
Victurnien d'Esgrignon, until the latter involved him in an affair,
when Bousquier had him arrested, thinking thus to dispose of him
summarily. The affair was smoothed over only by tremendous pressure.
But the young nobleman provoked Du Bousquier into a duel where the
latter dangerously wounded him. Afterwards Bousquier gave him in
marriage the hand of his niece, Mlle. Duval, dowered with three
millions. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] Probably he was the father
of Flavie Minoret, the daughter of a celebrated Opera danseuse. But he
never acknowledged this child, and she was dowered by Princesse
Galathionne and married Colleville. [The Middle Classes.]
BOSQUIER (Madame du), born Cormon (Rose-Marie-Victoire) in 1773. She
was a very wealthy heiress, living with her maternal uncle, the Abbe
de Sponde, in an old house of Alencon (rue du Val-Noble), and
receiving, in 1816, the aristocracy of the town, with which she was
related through marriage. Courted simultaneously by Athanase Granson,
the Chevalier de Valois and Du Bousquier, she gave her hand to the old
commissariat, whose athletic figure and _passe_ libertinism had
impressed her vaguely. But her secret desires were utterly dashed by
him; she confessed later that she couldn't endure the idea of dying a
maid. Mme. du Bousquier was very devout. She was descended from the
stewards of the ancient Ducs d'Alencon. In this same year of 1816, she
hoped in vain to wed a Troisville, but he was already married. She
found it difficult to brook the state of hostility declared between M.
du Bousquier and the Esgrignons. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
BOUTIN, at one time sergeant in the cavalry regiment of which Chabert
was colonel. He lived at Stuttgart in 1814, exhibiting white bears
very well trained by him. In this city he encountered his former
ranking officer, shorn of all his possessions, and just emerging from
an insane asylum. Boutin aided him as best he could and took it upon
himself to go to Paris and inform Mme. Chabert of her husband's
whereabouts. But Boutin fell on the field of Waterloo, and could
hardly have accomplished his mission. [Colonel Chabert.]
BOUVARD (Doctor), physician of Paris, born about 1758. A friend of Dr.
Minoret, with whom he had some lively tilts about Mesmer. He had
adopted that system, while Minoret gainsaid the truth thereof. These
discussions ended in an estrangement, for some time, between the two
cronies. Finally, in 1829, Bouvard wrote Minoret asking him to come to
Paris to assist in some conclusive tests of magnetism. As a result of
these tests, Dr. Minoret, materialist and atheist that he was, became
a devout Spiritualist and Catholic. In 1829 Dr. Bouvard lived on rue
Ferou. [Ursule Mirouet.] He had been as a father to Dr. Lebrun,
physician of the Conciergerie in 1830, who, according to his own
avowal, owed to him his position, since he often drew from his master
his own ideas regarding nervous energy. [Scenes from a Courtesan's
Life.]
BOUYONNET, a lawyer at Mantes, under Louis Philippe, who, urged by his
confreres and stimulated by the public prosecutor, "showed up"
Fraisier, another lawyer in the town, who had been retained in a suit
for both parties at once. The result of this denunciation was to make
Fraisier sell his office and leave Mantes. [Cousin Pons.]
BRAMBOURG (Comte de), title of Philippe Bridau to which his brother
Joseph succeeded. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The Unconscious
Humorists.]
BRANDON (Lady Marie-Augusta), mother of Louis and Marie Gaston,
children born out of wedlock. Together with the Vicomtesse de
Beauseant she assisted, in company with Colonel Franchessini, probably
her lover, at the famous ball on the morning following which the duped
mistress of D'Ajuda-Pinto secretly left Paris. [The Member for Arcis.]
In 1820, while living with her two children in seclusion at La
Grenadiere, in the neighborhood of Tours, she saw Felix de Vandenesse,
at the time when Mme. de Mortsauf died, and charged him with a
pressing message to Lady Arabelle Dudley. [The Lily of the Valley.]
She died, aged thirty-six, during the Restoration, in the house at La
Grenadiere, and was buried in the Saint-Cyr Cemetery. Her husband,
Lord Brandon, who had abandoned her, lived in London, Brandon Square,
Hyde Park, at this time. In Touraine Lady Brandon was known only by
the assumed name of Mme. Willemsens. [La Grenadiere.]
BRASCHON, upholsterer and cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine,
famous under the Restoration. He did a considerable amount of work for
Cesar Birotteau and figured among the creditors in his bankruptcy.
[Cesar Birotteau. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BRAULARD, born in 1782. The head _claquer_ at the theatre of the
Panorama-Dramatique, and then at the Gymnase, about 1822. The lover of
Mlle. Millot. At this time he lived in rue Faubourg du Temple, in a
rather comfortable flat where he gave fine dinners to actresses,
managing editors and authors--among others, Adele Dupuis, Finot,
Ducange and Frederic du Petit-Mere. He was credited with having gained
an income of twenty thousand francs by discounting authors' and other
complimentary tickets. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] When
chief _claquer_, about 1843, he had in his following Chardin, alias
Idamore [Cousin Betty], and commanded his "Romans" at the Boulevard
theatre, which presented operas, spectaculars and ballets at popular
prices, and was run by Felix Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]
BRAZIER, this family included the following: A peasant of Vatan
(Indre), the paternal uncle and guardian of Mlle. Flore Brazier, known
as "La Rabouilleuse." In 1799 he placed her in the house of Dr. Rouget
on very satisfactory conditions for himself, Brazier. Rendered
comparatively rich by the doctor, he died two years before the latter,
in 1805, from a fall received on leaving an inn where he spent his
time after becoming well-to-do. His wife, who was a very harsh aunt of
Flore's. Lastly the brother and brother-in-law of this girl's
guardians, the real father of "La Rabouilleuse," who died in 1799, a
demented widower, in the hospital of Bourges. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]