COUTELIER, a creditor of Maxime de Trailles. The Coutelier credit,
purchased for five hundred francs by the Claparon-Cerizet firm, came
to thirty-two hundred francs, seventy-five centimes, capital, interest
and costs. It was recovered by Cerizet by means of a strategy worthy
of a Scapin. [A Man of Business.]
COUTURE, a kind of financier-journalist of an equivocal reputation;
born about 1797. One of Mme. Schontz's earliest friends; and she alone
remained faithful to him when he was ruined by the downfall of the
ministry of March 1st, 1840. Couture was always welcome at the home of
the courtesan, who dreamed, perhaps, of making him her husband. But he
presented Fabien du Ronceret to her and the "lorette" married him. In
1836, in company with Finot and Blondet, he was present in a private
room of a well-known restaurant when Jean-Jacques Bixiou related the
origin of the Nucingen fortune. At the time of his transient wealth
Couture splendidly maintained Jenny Cadine. At one time he was
celebrated for his waistcoats. He had no known relationship with the
widow Couture. [Beatrix. The Firm of Nucingen.] The financier drew
upon himself the hatred of Cerizet for having deceived him in a deal
about the purchase of lands and houses situated in the suburbs of the
Madeleine, an affair in which Jerome Thuillier was afterwards
concerned. [The Middle Classes.]
COUTURE (Madame), widow of an ordonnance-commissary of the French
Republic. Relative and protectress of Mlle. Victorine Taillefer with
whom she lived at the Vauquer pension, in 1819. [Father Goriot.]
COUTURIER (Abbe), curate of Saint-Leonard church at Alencon, time of
Louis XVIII. Spiritual adviser of Mlle. Cormon, remaining her
confessor after her marriage with Du Bousquier, and influencing her in
the way of excessive penances. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
CREMIERE, tax-collector at Nemours during the Restoration. Nephew by
marriage of Dr. Minoret, who had secured the position for him,
furnishing his security. One of the three collateral heirs of the old
physician, the two others being Minoret-Levrault, the postmaster, and
Massin-Levrault, copy-clerk to the justice of the peace. In the
curious branching of these four Gatinais bourgeois families--the
Minorets, the Massins, the Levraults and the Cremieres--the tax
collector belonged to the Cremiere-Cremiere branch. He had several
children, among others a daughter named Angelique. After the
Revolution of July, 1830, he became municipal councillor. [Ursule
Mirouet.]
CREMIERE (Madame), nee Massin-Massin, wife of the tax-collector, and
niece of Dr. Minoret--that is, daughter of the old physician's sister.
A stout woman with a muddy blonde complexion splotched with freckles.
Passed for an educated person on account of her novel-reading. Her
_lapsi linguoe_ were maliciously spread abroad by Goupil, the notary's
clerk, who labelled them, "Capsulinguettes"; indeed, Mme. Cremiere
thus translated the two Latin words. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CREMIERE-DIONIS, always called Dionis, which name see.
CREVEL (Celestin), born between 1786 and 1788; clerked for Cesar
Birotteau the perfumer--first as second clerk, then as head-clerk when
Popinot left the house to set up in business for himself. After his
patron's failure in 1819, he purchased for five thousand seven hundred
francs, "The Queen of Roses," making his own fortune thereby. During
the reign of Louis Philippe he lived on his income. Captain, then
chief of battalion in the National Guard; officer of the Legion of
Honor; mayor of one of the arrondissements of Paris, he ended up by
being a very great personage. He had married the daughter of a farmer
of Brie; became a widower in 1833, when he gave himself over to a life
of pleasure. He maintained Josepha, who was taken away from him by his
friend, Baron Hulot. To avenge himself he tried to win Mme. Hulot. He
"protected" Heloise Brisetout. Finally he was smitten with Mme.
Marneffe, whom he had for mistress and afterwards married when she
became a widow in 1843. In May of this same year, Crevel and his wife
died of a horrible disease which had been communicated to Valerie by a
negro belonging to Montes the Brazilian. In 1838 Crevel lived on rue
des Saussaies; at the same time he owned a little house on rue du
Dauphin, where he had prepared a secret chamber for Mme. Marneffe;
this last house he leased to Maxime de Trailles. Besides these Crevel
owned: a house on rue Barbet de Jouy; the Presles property bought of
Mme. de Serizy at a cost of three million francs. He caused himself to
be made a member of the General Council of Seine-et-Oise. By his first
marriage he had an only daughter, Celestine, who married Victorin
Hulot. [Cesar Birotteau. Cousin Betty.] In 1844-1845 Crevel owned a
share in the management of the theatre directed by Gaudissart. [Cousin
Pons.]
CREVEL (Celestine), only child of the first marriage of the preceding.
(See Hulot, Mme. Victorin.)
CREVEL (Madame Celestin), born Valerie Fortin in 1815; natural
daughter of the Comte de Montcornet, marshal of France; married, first
Marneffe, an employe in the War Office, with whom she broke faith by
agreement with the clerk; and second, Celestin Crevel. She bore
Marneffe a child, a stunted, scrawny urchin named Stanislas. An
intimate friend of Lisbeth Fischer who utilized Valerie's irresistible
attractions for the satisfying of her hatred towards her rich
relatives. At this time Mme. Marneffe belonged jointly to Marneffe, to
the Brazilian Montes, to Steinbock the Pole, to Celestin Crevel and to
Baron Hulot. Each of these she held responsible for a child born in
1841, and which died on coming into the world. By prearrangement, she
was surprised with Hulot by the police-commissioners, during this
period, in Crevel's cottage on rue du Dauphin. After having lived with
Marneffe on rue du Doyenne in the house occuped by Lisbeth Fischer
--"Cousin Betty"--she was installed by Baron Hulot on rue Vaneau; then
by Crevel in a mansion on rue Barbet-de-Jouy. She died in 1843, two
days prior to Celestin. She perished while trying to "cajole God"--to
use her own expression. She bequeathed, as a restitution, 300,000
francs to Hector Hulot. Valerie Marneffe did not lack spirit. Claude
Vignon, the great critic, especially appreciated this woman's
intellectual depravity. [Cousin Betty.]
CROCHARD, Opera dancer in the second half of the eighteenth century.
Director of theatrical evolutions. He commanded a band of assailants
upon the Bastile, July 14, 1789; became an officer, a colonel, dying
of wounds received at Lutzen, May 2, 1813. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Madame), widow of the preceding. Before the Revolution she
had sung with her husband in the chorus. In 1815 she lived wretchedly
with her daughter Caroline, following the embroiderer's trade, in a
house on rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean, which belonged to Molineux.
Wishing to find a protector for her daughter, Caroline, Mme. Crochard
favored the attentions of the Comte de Granville. He rewarded her with
a life-annuity of three thousand francs. She died, in 1822, in a
comfortable lodging on rue Saint-Louis at Marais. She constantly wore
on her breast the cross of chevalier of the Legion of Honor conferred
on her husband by the Emperor. The widow Crochard, watched by an eager
circle, received, at her last moments, a visit from Abbe Fontanon,
confessor of the Comtesse de Granville, and was greatly troubled by
the prelate's proceedings. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Caroline), daughter of the proceding; born in 1797. For
several years during the Restoration she was the mistress of Comte de
Granville; at that time she was known as Mlle. de Bellefeuille, from
the name of a small piece of property at Gatinais given to the young
woman by an uncle of the comte who had taken a liking to her. Her
lover installed her in an elegant apartment on rue Taitbout, where
Esther Gobseck afterwards lived. Caroline Crochard abandoned M. de
Granville and a good position for a needy young fellow named Solvet,
who ran through with all her property. Sick and poverty-stricken in
1833, she lived in a wretched two-story house on rue Gaillon. She gave
the Comte de Granville a son, Charles, and a daughter, Eugenie. [A
Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Charles), illegitimate child of Comte de Granville and
Caroline Crochard. In 1833 he was apprehended for a considerable
theft, when he appealed to his father through the agency of Eugene de
Granville, his half-brother. The comte gave the latter money enough to
clear up the miserable business, if such were possible. [A Second
Home.] The theft in question was committed at the home of Mlle.
Beaumesnil. He carried off her diamonds. [The Middle Classes.]