GIGUET (Colonel), native probably of Arcis-sur-Aube, where he lived
after retirement. One of Mme. Marion's brothers. One of the most
highly esteemed officers of the Grand Army. Had a fine sense of honor;
was for eleven years merely captain of artillery; chief of battalion
in 1813; major in 1814. On account of devotion to Napoleon he refused
to serve the Bourbons after the first abdication; and he gave such
proofs of his fidelity in 1815, that he would have been exiled had it
not been for the Comte de Gondreville, who obtained for him retirement
on half-pay with the rank of colonel. About 1806 he married one of the
daughters of a wealthy Hamburg banker, who gave him three children and
died in 1814. Between 1818 and 1825 Giguet lost the two younger
children, a son named Simon alone surviving. A Bonapartist and
Liberal, the colonel was, during the Restoration, president of the
committee at Arcis, where he came in touch with Grevin, Beauvisage and
Varlet, notables of the same stamp. He abandoned active politics after
his ideas triumphed, and, during the reign of Louis Philippe, he
became a noted horticulturist, the creator of the famous Giguet rose.
Nevertheless the colonel continued to be the god of his sister's very
influential salon where he appeared at the time of the legislative
elections of 1839. In the first part of May of that year the little
old man, wonderfully preserved, presided over an electoral convention
at Frappart's, the candidates in the field being his own son, Simon
Giguet, Phileas Beauvisage, and Sallenauve-Dorlange. [The Member for
Arcis.]
GIGUET (Colonel), brother of the preceding and of Mme. Marion; was
brigadier of gendarmes at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1803; promoted to a
lieutenancy in 1806. As brigadier Giguet was one of the most
experienced men in the service. The commandant of Troyes mentioned him
especially to the two Parisian detectives, Peyrade and Corentin,
entrusted with watching the actions of the Simeuses and the
Hauteserres which resulted in the ruin of these young Royalists on
account of the pretended seizure of Gondreville. However, an adroit
manoeuvre on the part of Francois Michu at first prevented Brigadier
Giguet from seizing these conspirators whom he had tracked to earth.
After his promotion to lieutenant he succeeded in arresting them. He
finally became colonel of the gendarmes of Troyes, whither Mme.
Marion, then Mlle. Giguet, went with him. He died before his brother
and sister, and made her his heir. [The Gondreville Mystery. The
Member for Arcis.]
GIGUET (Simon), born during the first Empire, the oldest and only
surviving child of Colonel Giguet of the artillery. In 1814 he lost
his mother, the daughter of a rich Hamburg banker, and in 1826 his
maternal grandfather who left him an income of two thousand francs,
the German having favored others of the large family. He did not hope
for any further inheritance save that of his father's sister, Mme.
Marion, which had been augmented by the legacy of Colonel Giguet of
the gendarmes. Thus it was that, after studying law with the
subprefect Antonin Goulard, Simon Giguet, deprived of a fortune which
at first seemed assured to him, became a simple attorney in the little
town of Arcis, where attorneys are of little service. His aunt's and
his father's position fired him with ambition for a political career.
Giguet ogled at the same time for the hand and dowry of Cecile
Beauvisage. Of mediocre ability; upheld the Left Centre, but failed of
election in May, 1839, when he presented himself as candidate for
Arcis-sur-Aube. [The Member for Arcis.]
GILET (Maxence), born in 1789. He passed at Issoudun for the natural
son of Lousteau, the sub-delegate. Others thought him the son of Dr.
Rouget, a friend and rival of Lousteau. In short "fortunately for the
child both claimed him"; though he belonged to neither. His true
father was found to be a "charming officer of dragoons in the garrison
at Bourges." His mother, the wife of a poor drunken cobbler of
Issoudun, had the marvelous beauty of a Transteverin. Her husband was
aware of his wife's actions and profited by them: through interested
motives, Lousteau and Rouget were allowed to believe whatever they
wished about the child's paternity, for which reason both contributed
to the education of Maxence, usually known as Max. In 1806, at the age
of seventeen, Max enlisted in a regiment going to Spain. In 1809 he
was left for dead in Portugal in an English battery; taken by the
English and conveyed to the Spanish prison-hulks at Cabrera. There he
remained from 1810 to 1814. When he returned to Issoudun his father
and his mother had both died in the hospital. On the return of
Bonaparte, Max served as captain in the Imperial Guard. During the
second Restoration he returned to Issoudun and became leader of the
"Knights of Idlesse" which were addicted to nocturnal escapades more
or less agreeable to the inhabitants of the town. "Max played at
Issoudun a part almost identical with that of Smith in 'The Fair Maid
of Perth'; he was the champion of Bonapartism and opposition. They
relied upon him, as the citizens of Perth had relied upon Smith on
great occasions." A possible Caesar Borgia on more extensive ground,
Gilet lived very comfortably, although without a personal income. And
that is why Max with certain inherited qualities and defects rashly
went to live with his supposed natural father, Jean-Jacques Rouget, a
rich and witless old bachelor who was under the thumb of a superb
servant-mistress, Flore Brazier, known as La Rabouilleuse. After 1816
Gilet lorded it over the household; the handsome chap had won the
heart of Mlle. Brazier. Surrounded by a sort of staff, Maxence
contested the important inheritance of Rouget, maintaining his ground
with marvelous skill against the two lawful heirs, Agathe and Joseph
Bridau; and he would have appropriated it but for the intervention of
a third heir, Philippe Bridau. Max was killed in a duel by Philippe
Bridau in the early part of December, 1822. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
GILLE, once printer to the Emperor; owner of script letters which
Jerome-Nicolas Sechard made use of in 1819, claiming for them that
they were the ancestors of the English type of Didot. [Lost
Illusions.]
GINA, character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," autobiographical novel by
Albert Savarus; a sort of "ferocious" Sormano. Represented as a young
Sicilian girl, fourteen years old, in the services of the
Gandolphinis, political refugees at Gersau, Switzerland, in 1823. So
devoted as to pretend dumbness on occasion, and to wound more or less
seriously the hero of the romance, Rodolphe, who had secretly entered
the Gandolphini home. [Albert Savarus.]
GINETTA (La), young Corsican girl. Very small and slender, but no less
clever. Mistress of Theodore Calvi, and an accomplice in the double
crime committed by her lover, towards the end of the Restoration, when
she was able on account of her small size to creep down an open
chimney at the widow Pigeau's, and thus to open the house door for
Theodore who robbed and murdered the two inmates, the widow and the
servant. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
GIRARD, banker and discounter at Paris during the Restoration; perhaps
also somewhat of a pawnbroker; an acquaintance of Esther Gobseck's.
Like Palma, Werbrust and Gigonnet, he held a number of notes signed by
Maxime de Trailles; and Gobseck who knew it used them against the
count, then the lover of Mme. de Restaud, when Trailles went to the
usurer in rue des Gres and besought assistance in vain. [Gobseck.]
GIRARD (Mother), who ran a little restaurant at Paris in rue de
Tournon, prior to 1838, had a successor with whom Godefroid promised
to board when he was inspecting the left bank of the Seine, and trying
to aid the Bourlac-Mergis. [The Seamy Side of History.]
GIRARDET, attorney at Besancon, between 1830 and 1840. A talkative
fellow and adherent of Albert Savarus, he followed, probably in the
latter's interest, the beginning of the Watteville suit. When Savarus
left Besancon suddenly, Girardet tried to straighten out his
colleague's affairs, and advanced him five thousand francs. [Albert
Savarus.]
GIRAUD (Leon), was at Paris in 1821 member of the Cenacle of rue des
Quatre-Vents, presided over by Daniel d'Arthez. He represented the
philosophical element. His "doctrines" predicted the end of
Christianity and of the family. In 1821 he was also in charge of a
"grave and dignified" opposition journal. He became the head of a
moral and political school, whose "sincerity atoned for its errors."
[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] About the same time Giraud
frequented the home of the mother of his friend Joseph Bridau, and was
going there at the time when the painter's elder brother, the
Bonapartist Philippe, got into trouble. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
The Revolution of July opened the political career of Leon Giraud who
became master of requests in 1832, and afterwards councillor of state.
In 1845 Giraud was a member of the Chamber, sitting in the Left
Centre. [The Secrets of a Princess. The Unconscious Humorists.]
GIREL, of Troyes. According to Michu, Girel, a Royalist like himself,
during the first Revolution, played the Jacobin in the interest of his
fortune. From 1803 to 1806, at any rate, he was in correspondence with
the Strasbourg house of Breintmayer, which dealt with the Simeuse
twins when they were tracked by Bonaparte's police. [The Gondreville
Mystery.]
GIRODET (Anne-Louis), celebrated painter, born at Montargis, in 1767,
died at Paris in 1824. Under the Empire he was on friendly terms with
his colleague, Theodore de Sommervieux. One day in the latter's studio
he greatly admired a portrait of Augustine Guillaume and an interior,
which he advised him, but in vain not to exhibit at the Salon,
thinking the two works too true to nature to be appreciated by the
public. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]
GIROUD (Abbe), confessor of Rosalie de Watteville at Besancon between
1830 and 1840. [Albert Savarus.]
GIROUDEAU, born about 1774. Uncle of Andoche Finot; began as simple
soldier in the army of Sambre and Meuse; five years master-at-arms in
the First Hussars--army of Italy; charged at Eylau with Colonel
Chabert. He passed into the dragoons of the Imperial Guard, where he
was captain in 1815. The Restoration interrupted his military career.
Finot, manager of various Parisian papers and reviews, put him in
charge of the cash and accounts of a little journal devoted to
dramatic news, which he ran from 1821 to 1822. Giroudeau was also
editor, and his duty it was to wage the warfare; beyond that he lived
a gay life. Although on the wrong side of forty and afflicted with
catarrh he had for mistress Florentine Cabirolle of the Gaite. He went
with the high-livers--among others with his former mess-mate Philippe
Bridau, at whose wedding with Flore Brazier he was present in 1824. In
November, 1825, Frederic Marest gave a grand breakfast to Desroches'
clerks at the Rocher de Cancale, to which Giroudeau was invited. All
spent the evening with Florentine Cabirolle who entertained them
royally but involuntarily got Oscar Husson into trouble. Ex-Captain
Giroudeau bore firearms during the "three glorious days," re-entered
the service after the accession of citizen royalty and soon became
colonel then general, 1834-35. At this time he was enabled to satisfy
a legitimate resentment against his former friend, Bridau, and block
his advancement. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Start in
Life. A Bachelor's Establishment.]
GIVRY, one of several names of the second son of the Duc de
Chaulieu, who became by his marriage with Madeleine de Mortsauf a
Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. [Letters of Two Brides. The Lily of the
Valley. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
GOBAIN (Madame Marie), formerly cook to a bishop; lived during the
Restoration in Paris on rue Saint-Maur, Popinot quarter, under very
peculiar circumstances. She was in the service of Octave de Bauvan.
Was the maid and housekeeper of Comtesse Honorine when the latter left
home and became a maker of artificial flowers. Mme. Gobain had been
secretly engaged by M. de Bauvan, who through her was enabled to keep
watch over his wife. Gobain displayed the greatest loyalty. At one
time the comtesse took the servant's name. [Honorine.]
GOBENHEIM, brother-in-law of Francois and Adolphe Keller, whose name
he added to his own. About 1819 in Paris he was at first made receiver
in the Cesar Birotteau bankruptcy, but was later replaced by Camusot.
[Cesar Birotteau.] Under Louis Philippe, Gobenheim, as broker for the
Paris prosecuting office, invested the very considerable savings of
Mme. Fabien du Ronceret. [Beatrix.]
GOBENHEIM, nephew of Gobenheim-Keller of Paris; young banker of Havre
in 1829; visited the Mignons, but not as a suitor for the heiress'
hand. [Modeste Mignon.]
GOBET (Madame), in 1829 at Havre made shoes for Mme. and Mlle. Mignon.
Was scolded by the latter for lack of style. [Modeste Mignon.]
GOBSECK (Jean-Esther Van), usurer, born in 1740 at Antwerp of a Jewess
and a Dutchman. Began as a cabin-boy. Was only ten years of age when
his mother sent him off to the Dutch possessions in India. There and
in America he met distinguished people, also several corsairs;
traveled all over the world and tried many trades. The passion for
money took entire hold of him. Finally he came to Paris which became
the centre of his operations, and established himself on rue des Gres.
There Gobseck, like a spider in his web, crushed the pride of Maxime
de Trailles and brought tears to the eyes of Mme. de Restaud and
Jean-Joachim Goriot--1819. About this same time Ferdinand du Tillet
sought out the money-lender to make some deals with him, and spoke of
him as "Gobseck the Great, master of Palma, Gigonnet, Werbrust, Keller
and Nucingen." Gobseck went every evening to the Themis cafe to play
dominoes with his friend Bidault-Gigonnet. In December, 1824, he was
found there by Elisabeth Baudoyer, whom he promised to aid; indeed,
supported by Mitral, he was able to influence Lupeaulx to put in
Isidore Baudoyer as chief of division succeeding La Billardiere. In
1830, Gobseck, then an octogenarian, died in his wretched hole on rue
des Gres though he was enormously wealthy. Derville received his last
wishes. He had obtained a wife for the lawyer and entrusted him with
several confidences. Fifteen years after the Dutchman's death, he was
spoken of on the boulevard as the "Last of the Romans"--among the
old-fashioned money-lenders like Gigonnet, Chaboisseau, and Samanon,
against whom Lora and Bixiou set the modern Vauvinet. [Gobseck. Father
Goriot. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks. The Unconscious
Humorists.]
GOBSECK (Sarah Van), called "La Belle Hollandaise." A peculiarity of
this family--as well as the Maranas--that the female side always kept
the family name. Thus Sarah Van Gobseck was the grand-niece of
Jean-Esther Van Gobseck. This prostitute, mother of Esther, who was also
a courtesan, was a typical daughter of Paris. She caused the bankruptcy
of Roguin, Birotteau's attorney, and was herself ruined by Maxime de
Trailles whom she adored and maintained when he was a page to
Napoleon. She died in a house on Palais-Royal, the victim of a love-mad
captain, December, 1818. The affair created a stir. Juan and Francis
Diard had something to say about it. Esther's name lived after her.
The Paris of the boulevards from 1824 to 1839 often mentioned her
prodigal and stormy career. [Gobseck. Cesar Birotteau. The Maranas.
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. The Member for Arcis.]
GOBSECK (Esther Van), born in 1805 of Jewish origin; daughter of the
preceding and great-grand-niece of Jean. For a long time in Paris she
followed her mother's calling, and having begun it early in life she
knew its varied phases. Was nick-named "La Torpille." Was for some
time one of the "rats" of the Royal Academy of Music, and numbered
among her protectors, Lupeaulx. In 1823 her reduced circumstances
almost forced her to leave Paris for Issoudun, where, for a
machiavellian purpose, Philippe Bridau would have made her the
mistress of Jean-Jacques Rouget. The affair did not materialize. She
went to Mme. Meynardie's house where she remained till about the end
of 1823. One evening, while passing the Porte-Saint-Martin theatre,
she chanced to meet Lucien de Rubempre, and they loved each other at
first sight. Their passion led into many vicissitudes. The poet and
the ex-prostitute were rash enough to attend an Opera ball together in
the winter of 1824. Unmasked and insulted Esther fled to rue de
Langlade, where she lived in dire poverty. The dangerous, powerful and
mysterious protector of Rubempre, Jacques Collin, followed her there,
lectured her and shaped her future life, making her a Catholic,
educating her carefully and finally installing her with Lucien on rue
Taitbout, under the surveillance of Jacqueline Collin, Paccard and
Prudence Servien. She could go out only at night. Nevertheless, the
Baron de Nucingen discovered her and fell madly in love with her.
Jacques Collin profited by the episode; Esther received the banker's
attentions, to the enrichment of Lucien. In 1830 she owned a house on
rue Saint-Georges which had belonged previously to several celebrated
courtesans; there she received Mme. du Val-Noble, Tullia and
Florentine--two dancers, Fanny Beaupre and Florine--two actresses. Her
new position resulted in police intervention on the part of Louchard,
Contenson, Peyrade and Corentin. On May 13, 1830, unable longer to
endure Nucingen, La Torpille swallowed a Javanese poison. She died
without knowing that she had fallen heir to seven millions left by her
great-grand-uncle. [Gobseck. The Firm of Nucingen. A Bachelor's
Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
GODAIN, born in 1796, in Burgundy, near Soulanges, Blangy and
Ville-aux-Fayes; nephew of one of the masons who built Mme. Soudry's
house. A shiftless farm laborer, exempt from military duty on account
of smallness of stature; was at first the lover, then the husband, of
Catherine Tonsard, whom he married about 1823. [The Peasantry.]
GODAIN (Madame Catherine), the eldest of the legitimate daughters of
Tonsard, landlord of the Grand-I-Vert, situated between Conches and
Ville-aux-Fayes in Burgundy. Of coarse beauty and by nature depraved;
a hanger-on at the Tivoli-Socquard, and a devoted sister to Nicolas
Tonsard for whom she tried to obtain Genevieve Niseron. Courted by
Charles, valet at Aigues. Feared by Amaury Lupin. Married Godain one
of her lovers, giving a dowry of a thousand francs cunningly obtained
from Mme. Montcornet. [The Peasantry.]
GODARD (Joseph), born in 1798, probably at Paris; related slightly to
the Baudoyers through Mitral. Stunted and puny; fifer in the National
Guard; "crank" collector of curios; a virtuous bachelor living with
his sister, a florist on rue Richelieu. Between 1824 and 1825 a
possible assistant in the Department of Finance in the bureau managed
by Isidore Baudoyer, whose son-in-law he dreamed of becoming. An easy
mark for Bixiou's practical jokes. With Dutocq he was an unwavering
adherent of the Baudoyers and their relatives the Saillards. [The
Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.]
GODARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the foregoing, and lived on rue
Richelieu, Pais, where in 1824 she ran a florist's shop. Mlle. Godard
employed Zelie Lorain who became later the wife of Minard. She
received him and Dutocq. [The Government Clerks.]
GODARD (Manon), serving-woman of Mme. de la Chanterie; arrested in
1809, between Alencon and Mortagne, implicated in the Chauffeurs trial
which ended in the capital punishment of Mme. des Tours-Minieres,
daughter of Mme. de la Chanterie. Manon Godard was sentenced by
default to twenty-two years imprisonment, and gave herself up in order
not to abandon her mistress. A long time after the baroness was set
free, time of Louis Philippe, Manon was still living with her, on rue
Chanoinesse, in the house which sheltered Alain, Montauran and
Godefroid. [The Seamy Side of History.]
GODDET, retired surgeon-major of the Third regiment of the line; the
leading physician of Issoudun in 1823. His son was one of the "Knights
of Idlesse." Goddet junior pretended to pay court to Mme. Fichet, in
order to reach her daughter who had the best dowry in Issoudun. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
GODEFROID, known by his given name; born about 1806, probably at
Paris; son of a wealthy merchant; educated at the Liautard
Institution; naturally feeble, morally and physically; tried his hand
at and made a failure of: law, governmental work, letters, pleasure,
journalism, politics and marriage. At the close of 1836 he found
himself poor and forsaken; thereupon he tried to pay his debts and
live economically. He left Chaussee-d'Antin and took up his abode on
rue Chanoinesse, where he became one of Mme. de la Chanteries'
boarders, known as the "Brotherhood of the Consolation." The
recommendation of the Monegods, bankers, led to his admission. Abbe de
Veze, Montauran, Tresnes, Alain, and above all the baroness initiated
him, coached him, and entrusted to him various charitable missions.
Among others, about the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe, he took
charge of and relieved the frightful poverty of the Bourlacs and the
Mergis, the head of which as an imperial judge in 1809 had sentenced
Mme. de la Chanterie and her daughter. After he succeeded with this
generous undertaking, Godefroid was admitted to the Brotherhood. [The
Seamy Side of History.]
GODENARS (Abbe de), born about 1795; one of the vicars-general of the
archbishop of Besancon between 1830 and 1840. From 1835 on he tried to
get a bishopric. One evening he was present at the aristocratic salon
of the Wattevilles, at the time of the sudden flight of Albert
Savarus, caused by their young daughter. [Albert Savarus.]
GODESCHAL (Francois-Claude-Marie), born about 1804. In 1818, at Paris,
he was third clerk in the law office of Derville, rue Vivienne, when
the unfortunate Chabert appeared upon the scene. [Colonel Chabert.] In
1820, then an orphan and poor, he and his sister, the dancer Mariette,
to whom he was devoted, lived on an eighth floor on rue
Vielle-du-Temple. He had already given evidence of a practical
temperament, independent and self-seeking, but upright and capable of
generous outbursts. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] In 1822, having
risen to second clerk, he left Maitre Derville to become head-clerk in
Desroches' office, who was greatly pleased with him. Godeschal even
undertook to reform Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] Six years later,
while still Desroches' head-clerk, he drew up a petition wherein Mme.
d'Espard prayed a guardian for her husband. [The Commission in
Lunacy.] Under Louis Philippe he became one of the advocates of Paris
and paid half his fees--1840--proposing to pay the other half with the
dowry of Celeste Colleville, whose hand was refused him, despite the
recommendation of Cardot the notary. Was engaged for Peyrade, in the
purchase of a house near the Madeleine. [The Middle Classes.] About
1845 Godeschal was still practicing, and numbered among his clients
the Camusots de Marville. [Cousin Pons.]
GODESCHAL (Marie), born about 1804. She maintained, almost all her
life, the nearest and most tender relations with her brother Godeschal
the notary. Without relatives or means, she kept house with him in
1820, on the eighth floor of a house on rue Vielle-du-Temple, Paris.
Ambition and love for her brother caused her to become a dancer. She
had studied her profession from her tenth year. The famous Vestris
instructed her and predicted great things for her. Under the name of
Mariette, she was engaged at the Porte-Saint-Martin and the Royal
Academy of Music. Her success displeased the famous Begrand. In
January, 1821, her angelic beauty, maintained despite her profession,
opened to her the doors of the Opera. Then she had lovers. The
aristocratic and elegant Maufrigneuse protected her for several years.
Mariette also favored Philippe Bridau and was the innocent cause of a
theft committed by him in order to enable him to contend with
Maufrigneuse. Four months later she went to London, where she won the
rich members of the House of Lords, and returned as premiere to the
Academy of Music. She was intimate with Florentine Cabirolle, who
often received in the Marais. There it was that Mariette kept Oscar
Husson out of serious trouble. Mariette attended many festivities. And
at the close of the reign of Louis Philippe, she was still a leading
figure in the Opera. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Start in Life.
Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Cousin Pons.]
GODIN, under Louis Philippe, a Parisian bourgeois engaged in a lively
dispute with a friend of La Palferine's. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
GODIN (La), peasant woman of Conches, Burgundy, about 1823, whose cow
Vermichel threatened to seize for the Comte de Montcornet. [The
Peasantry.]
GODIVET, recorder of registry of Arcis-sur-Aube in 1839. Through the
scheming of Pigoult he was chosen as one of two agents for an
electoral meeting called by Simon Giguet, one of the candidates, and
presided over by Phileas Beauvisage. [The Member for Arcis.]
GODOLLO (Comtesse Torna de), probably a Hungarian; police spy
reporting to Corentin. Was ordered to prevent the marriage of Theodose
de la Peyrade and Celeste Colleville. To accomplish this she went to
live in the Thuilliers' house, Paris, in 1840, cultivated them and
finally ruled them. She sometimes assumed the name of Mme. Komorn. Her
wit and beauty exercised a passing effect upon Peyrade. [The Middle
Classes.]
GOGUELAT, infantryman of the first Empire, entered the Guard in 1812;
was decorated by Napoleon on the battlefield of Valontina; returned
during the Restoration to the village of Isere, of which Benassis was
mayor, and became postman. [The Country Doctor.]
GOHIER, goldsmith to the King of France in 1824; supplied Elisabeth
Baudoyer with the monstrance with which she decorated the church of
Saint Paul, in order to bring about Isidore Baudoyer's promotion in
office. [The Government Clerks.]
GOMEZ, captain of the "Saint Ferdinand," a Spanish brig which in 1833
conveyed the newly-enriched Marquis d'Aiglemont from America to
France. Gomez was boarded by a Columbian corsair whose captain, the
Parisian, ordered him cast overboard. [A Woman of Thirty.]
GONDRAND (Abbe), confessor, under the Restoration, at Paris, of the
Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais, whose excellent dinners and petty
sins he dealt with at his ease in her salon where Montriveau often
found him. [The Thirteen.]
GONDREVILLE (Malin, his real name; more frequently known as the Comte
de), born in 1763, probably at Arcis-sur-Aube. Short and stout;
grandson of a mason employed by Marquis de Simeuse in the building of
the Gondreville chateau; only son of the owner of a house at Arcis
where dwelt his friend Grevin in 1839. On the recommendation of
Danton, he entered the office of the attorney at the chatelet, Paris,
in 1787. Head clerk for Maitre Bordin in the same city, the same year.
Returned to the country two years later to become a lawyer at Troyes.
Became an obscure and cowardly member of the Convention. Acquired the
friendship of Talleyrand and Fouche, in June, 1800, under singular and
opportune circumstances. Successively and rapidly became tribune,
councillor of state, count of the Empire--created Comte de Gondreville
--and finally senator. As councillor of state, Gondreville devoted his
attention to the preparation of the code. He cut a dash at Paris. He
had purchased one of the finest mansions in Faubourg Saint-Germain and
married the only daughter of Sibuelle, a wealthy contractor of "shady"
character whom Gondreville made co-receiver of Aube, with Marion. The
marriage was celebrated during the Directory or the Consulate. Three
children were the result of this union: Charles de Gondreville,
Marechale de Carigliano, Mme. Francois Keller. In his own interest,
Malin attached himself to Bonaparte. Later, in the presence of the
Emperor and of Dubois, the prefect of police, Gondreville selfishly
simulated a false generosity and asked that the Hauteserres and
Simeuses be striken from the list of the proscribed. Afterwards they
were falsely accused of kidnapping him. As senator in 1809, Malin gave
a grand ball at Paris, when he vainly awaited the Emperor's
appearance, and when Mme. de Lansac reconciled the Soulanges family.
Louis XVIII. made him a peer of France. His wide experience and
ownership of many secrets aided Gondreville, whose counsels hindered
Decazes and helped Villele. Charles X. disliked him because he
remained too intimate with Talleyrand. Under Louis Philippe this bond
was relaxed. The July monarchy heaped honors upon him by making him
peer once more. One evening in 1833 he met at the home of the
Princesse de Cadignan, Henri de Marsay, the prime minister, who had an
inexhaustible fund of political stories, new to all the company save
Gondreville. He was much engrossed with the elections of 1839, and
gave his influence to his grandson, Charles Keller, for Arcis. He
concerned himself little with the candidates, who were finally
elected; Dorlange-Sallenauve, Phileas Beauvisage, Trailles and Giguet.
[The Gondreville Mystery. A Start in Life. Domestic Peace. The Member
for Arcis.]
GONDREVILLE (Comtesse Malin de), born Sibuelle; wife of foregoing;
person whose complete insignificance was manifest at the great ball
given in Paris by the count in 1809. [Domestic Peace.]
GONDREVILLE (Charles de), son of the preceding, and sub-lieutenant of
dragoons in 1818. Young and wealthy, he died in the Spanish campaign
of 1823. His death caused great sorrow to his mistress, Mme.
Colleville. [The Middle Classes.]
GONDRIN, born in 1774, in the department of Isere. Conscripted in 1792
and put in the artillery. Was in the Italian and Egyptian campaigns
under Bonaparte, as a private, and returned east after the Peace of
Amiens. Enrolled, during the Empire, in the pontoon corps of the
Guard, he marched through Germany and Russia; was in the battle at
Beresina aiding to build the bridge by which the remnant of the army
escaped; with forty-one comrades, received the praise of General Eble
who singled him out particularly. Returned to Wilna, as the only
survivor of the corps after the death of Eble and in the beginning of
the Restoration. Unable to read or write, deaf and decrepit, Gondrin
forlornly left Paris which had treated him inhospitably, and returned
to the village in Dauphine, where the mayor, Dr. Benassis, gave him
work as a ditcher and continued to aid him in 1829. [The Country
Doctor.]
GONDRIN (Abbe), young Parisian priest about the middle of the reign of
Louis Philippe. Exquisite and eloquent. Knew the Thuilliers. [The
Middle Classes.]
GONDUREAU, assumed name of Bibi-Lupin.
GONORE (La), widow of Moses the Jew, chief of the southern _rouleurs_,
in May, 1830; mistress of Dannepont the thief and assassin; ran a
house of ill-repute on rue Sainte-Barbe for Mme. Nourrisson. [Scenes
from a Courtesan's Life.]
GORDES (Mademoiselle de), at the head of an aristocratic salon of
Alencon, about 1816, while her father, the aged Marquis de Gordes, was
still living with her. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
GORENFLOT, mason of Vendome, who walled up the closet concealing Mme.
de Merret's lover, the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia. [La Grande
Breteche.]
GORENFLOT, probably posed for Quasimodo of Hugo's "Notre-Dame."
Decrepit, misshapen, deaf, diminutive, he lived in Paris about 1839,
and was organ-blower and bell-ringer in the church of Saint-Louis en
l'Ile. He also acted as messenger in the confidential financial
correspondence between Bricheteau and Dorlange-Sallenauve. [The Member
for Arcis.]
GORIOT,* (Jean-Joachim), born about 1750; started as a porter in the
grain market. During the first Revolution, although he had received no
education, but having a trader's instinct, he began the manufacture of
vermicelli and made a fortune out of it. Thrift and fortune favored
him under the Terror. He passed for a bold citizen and fierce patriot.
Prosperity enabled him to marry from choice the only daughter of a
wealthy farmer of Brie, who died young and adored. Upon their two
children, Anastasie and Delphine, he lavished all the tenderness of
which their mother had been the recipient, spoiling them with fine
things. Goriot's griefs date from the day he set each up in
housekeeping in magnificent fashion on Chaussee-d'Antin. Far from
being grateful for his pecuniary sacrifices, his sons-in-law, Restaud
and Nucingen, and his daughters themselves, were ashamed of his
bourgeois exterior. In 1813 he had retired saddened and impoverished
to the Vauquer boarding-house on rue Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve. The
quarrels of his daughters and the greedy demands for money increased
and in 1819 followed him thither. Almost all the guests of the house
and especially Mme. Vauquer herself--whose ambitious designs upon him
had come to naught--united in persecuting Goriot, now well-nigh
poverty-stricken. He found an agreeable respite when he acted as a
go-between for the illicit love affair of Mme. de Nucingen and
Rastignac, his fellow-lodger. The financial distress of Mme. de Restaud,
Trailles' victim, gave Goriot the finishing blow. He was compelled to
give up the final and most precious bit of his silver plate, and beg
the assistance of Gobseck the usurer. He was crushed. A serious attack
of apoplexy carried him off. He died on rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve.
Rastignac watched over him, and Bianchon, then an interne, attended
him. Only two men, Christophe, Mme. Vauquer's servant, and Rastignac,
followed the remains to Saint-Etienne du Mont and to Pere-Lachaise.
The empty carriages of his daughters followed as far as the cemetery.
[Father Goriot.]
* Two Parisian theatres and five authors have depicted Goriot's life
on the stage; March 6, 1835, at the Vaudeville, Ancelot and Paul
Dupont; the same year, the month following, at the Varietes,
Theaulon, Alexis de Comberousse and Jaime Pere. Also the _Boeuf
Gras_ of a carnival in a succeeding year bore the name of Goriot.
GORITZA (Princesse), a charming Hungarian, celebrated for her beauty,
towards the end of Louis XV.'s reign, and to whom the youthful
Chevalier de Valois became so attached that he came near fighting on
her account with M. de Lauzun; nor could he ever speak of her without
emotion. From 1816 to 1830, the Alencon aristocracy were given
glimpses of the princess's portrait, which adorned the chevalier's
gold snuff-box. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
GORJU (Madame), wife of the mayor of Sancerre, in 1836, and mother of
a daughter "whose figure threatened to change with her first child,"
and who sometimes came with her to the receptions of Mme. de la
Baudraye, the "Muse of the Department." One evening, in the fall of
1836, she heard Lousteau reading ironically fragments of "Olympia."
[The Muse of the Department.]
GOTHARD, born in 1788; lived about 1803 in Arcis-sur-Aube, where his
courage and address obtained for him the place of groom to Laurence de
Cinq-Cygne. Devoted servant of the countess; he was one of the
principals acquitted in the trial which ended with the execution of
Michu. [The Gondreville Mystery.] Gothard never left the service of
the Cinq-Cygne family. Thirty-six years later he was their steward.
With his brother-in-law, Poupard, the Arcis tavern-keeper, he
electioneered for his masters. [The Member for Arcis.]
GOUJET (Abbe), cure of Cinq-Cygne, Aube, about 1792, discovered for
the son of Beauvisage the farmer, who were still good Catholics, the
Greek name of Phileas, one of the few saints not abolished by the new
regime. [The Member for Arcis.] Former abbe of the Minimes, and a
friend of Hauteserre. Was the tutor of Adrien and Robert Hauteserre;
enjoyed a game of boston with their parents--1803. His political
prudence sometimes led him to censure the audacity of their kinswoman,
Mlle. de Cinq-Cygne. Nevertheless, he held his own with the persecutor
of the house, Corentin the police-agent; and attended Michu when that
victim of a remarkable trial, known as "the abduction of Gondreville,"
went to the scaffold. During the Restoration he became Bishop of
Troyes. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
GOUJET (Mademoiselle), sister of the foregoing; good-natured old maid,
ugly and parsimonious, who lived with her brother. Almost every
evening she played boston at the Hauteserres and was terrified by
Corentin's visits. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
GOULARD, mayor of Cinq-Cygne, Aube, in 1803. Tall, stout and miserly;
married a wealthy tradeswoman of Troyes, whose property, augmented by
all the lands of the rich abbey of Valdes-Preux, adjoined Cinq-Cygne.
Goulard lived in the old abbey, which was very near the chateau of
Cinq-Cygne. Despite his revolutionary proclivities, he closed his eyes
to the actions of the Hauteserres and Simeuses who were Royalist
plotters. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
GOULARD (Antonin), native of Arcis, like Simon Giguet. Born about
1807; son of the former huntsman of the Simeuse family, enriched by
the purchase of public lands. (See preceding biography.) Early left
motherless, he came to Arcis to live with his father, who abandoned
the abbey of Valpreux. Went to the Imperial lyceum, where he had Simon
Giguet for school-mate, whom he afterwards met again on the benches of
the Law school at Paris. Obtained, through Gondreville, the Cross of
the Legion of Honor. The royal government of 1830 opened up for him a
career in the public service. In 1839 he became sub-prefect for
Arcis-sur-Aube, during the electoral period. The delegate, Trailles,
satisfied Antonin's rancor against Giguet: his official
recommendations caused the latter's defeat. Both the would-be prefect
and the sub-prefect vainly sought the hand of Cecile Beauvisage.
Goulard cultivated the society of officialdom: Marest, Vinet,
Martener, Michu. [The Member for Arcis.]
GOUNOD, nephew of Vatel, keeper of the Montcornet estate at Aigues,
Burgundy. About 1823 he probably became assistant to the head-keeper,
Michaud. [The Peasantry.]
GOUPIL (Jean-Sebastien-Marie), born in 1802; a sort of humpless
hunchback; son of a well-to-do farmer. After running through with
his inheritance, in Paris, he became head-clerk of the notary
Cremiere-Dionis, of Nemours--1829. On account of Francois
Minoret-Levrault, he annoyed in many ways, even anonymously, Ursule
Mirouet, after the death of Dr. Minoret. Afterwards he repented his
actions, repaid their instigator, and succeeded the notary,
Cremiere-Dionis. Thanks to his wit, he became honorable,
straightforward and completely transformed. Once established, Goupil
married Mlle. Massin, eldest daughter of Massin-Levrault junior,
clerk to the justice of the peace at Nemours. She was homely, had a
dowry of 80,000 francs, and gave him rickety, dropsical children.
Goupil took part in the "three glorious days" and had obtained a July
decoration. He was very proud of the ribbon. [Ursule Mirouet.]
GOURAUD (General, Baron), born in 1782, probably at Provins. Under the
Empire he commanded the Second regiment of hussars, which gave him his
rank. The Restoration caused his impoverished years at Provins. He
mixed in politics and the opposition there, sought the hand and above
all the dowry of Sylvie Rogron, persecuted the apparent heiress of the
old maid, Mlle. Pierrette Lorrain--1827--and, seconded by Vinet the
attorney, reaped in July, 1830, the fruits of his cunning liberalism.
Thanks to Vinet, the ambitious parvenu, Gouraud married, in spite of
his gray hair and stout frame, a girl of twenty-five, Mlle. Matifat,
of the well-known drug-firm of rue des Lombards, who brought with her
fifty thousand crowns. Titles, offices and emoluments now flowed in
rapidly. He resumed the service, became general, commanded a division
near the capital and obtained a peerage. His conduct during the
ministry of Casimir Perier was thus rewarded. Futhermore he received
the grand ribbon of the Legion of Honor, after having stormed the
barricades of Saint-Merri, and was "delighted to thrash the bourgeois
who had been an eye-sore to him" for fifteen years. [Pierrette.] About
1845 he had stock in Gaudissart's theatre. [Cousin Pons.]
GOURDON, the elder, husband of the only daugher of the old
head-keeper of streams and forests, Gendrin-Wattebled; was in 1823
physician at Soulanges and attended Michaud. Nevertheless he went
among the best people of Soulanges, headed by Mme. Soudry, who
regarded him in the light of an unknown and neglected savant, when he
was but a parrot of Buffon and Cuvier, a simple collector and
taxidermist. [The Peasantry.]
GOURDON, the younger, brother of the preceding; wrote the poem of "La
Bilboqueide" published by Bournier. Married the niece and only heiress
of Abbe Tupin, cure of Soulanges, where he himself had been in 1823
clerk for Sarcus. He was wealthier than the justice. Mme. Soudry and
her set gave admiring welcome to the poet, preferring him to
Lamartine, with whose works they slowly became acquainted. [The
Peasantry.]
GOUSSARD (Laurent) was a member of the revolutionary municipality of
Arcis-sur-Aube. Particular friend of Danton, he made use of the
tribune's influence to save the head of the ex-superior of the
Ursulines at Arcis, Mother Marie des Anges, whose gratitude for his
generous and skillful action caused substantial enrichment to this
purchaser of the grounds of the convent, which was sold as "public
land." Thus it was that forty years afterwards this adroit Liberal
owned several mills on the river Aube, and was still at the head of
the advanced Left in that district. The various candidates for deputy
in the spring of 1839, Keller, Giguet, Beauvisage, Dorlange-Sallenauve,
and the government agent, Trailles, treated Goussard with the
consideration he deserved. [The Member for Arcis.]
GRADOS had in his hands the notes of Vergniaud the herder. By means of
funds from Derville the lawyer, Grados was paid in 1818 by Colonel
Chabert. [Colonel Chabert.]
GRAFF (Johann), brother of a tailor established in Paris under Louis
Philippe. Came himself to Paris after having been head-waiter in the
hotel of Gedeon Brunner at Frankfort; and ran the Hotel du Rhin in rue
du Mail where Frederic Brunner and Wilhelm Schwab alighted penniless
in 1835. The landlord obtained small positions for the two young men;
for the former with Keller; for the latter with his brother the
tailor. [Cousin Pons.]
GRAFF (Wolfgang), brother of the foregoing, and rich tailor of Paris,
at whose shop in 1838 Lisbeth Fischer fitted out Wenceslas Steinbock.
On his brother's recommendation, he employed Wilhelm Schwab, and, six
years later, took him into the family by giving him Emilie Graff in
marriage. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]
GRANCEY (Abbe de), born in 1764. Took orders because of a
disapointment in love; became priest in 1786, and cure in 1788. A
distinguished prelate who refused three bishoprics in order not to
leave Besancon. In 1834 he became vicar-general of that diocese. The
abbe had a handsome head. He gave free vent to cutting speeches. Was
acquainted with Albert Savarus whom he liked and aided. A frequenter
of the Watteville salon he found out and rebuked Rosalie, the singular
and determined enemy of the advocate. He also intervened between
Madame and Mademoiselle de Watteville. He died at the end of the
winter of 1836-37. [Albert Savarus.]
GRANCOUR (Abbe de), one of the vicars-general of the bishopric of
Limoges, about the end of the Restoration; and the physical antithesis
of the other vicar, the attenuated and moody Abbe Dutheil whose lofty
and independent liberal doctrines he, with cowardly caution, secretly
shared. Grancour frequented the Graslin salon and doubtless knew of
the Tascheron tragedy. [The Country Parson.]
GRANDEMAIN was in 1822 at Paris clerk for Desroches. [A Start in
Life.]
GRANDET (Felix), of Saumur, born between 1745 and 1749. Well-to-do
master-cooper, passably educated. In the first years of the Republic
he married the daughter of a rich lumber merchant, by whom he had in
1796 one child, Eugenie. With their united capital, he bought at a
bargain the best vineyards about Saumur, in addition to an old abbey
and several farms. Under the Consulate he became successively member
of the district government and mayor of Saumur. But the Empire, which
supposed him to be a Jacobin, retired him from the latter office,
although he was the town's largest tax-payer. Under the Restoration
the despotism of his extraordinary avarice disturbed the peace of his
family. His younger brother, Guillaume, failed and killed himself,
leaving in Felix's hands the settlement of his affairs, and sending to
him his son Charles, who had hastened to Saumur, not knowing his
father's ruin. Eugenie loved her cousin and combated her father's
niggardliness, which looked after his own interests to the neglect of
his brother. The struggle between Eugenie and her father broke Mme.
Grandet's heart. The phases of the terrible duel were violent and
numerous. Felix Grandet's passion resorted to stratagem and stubborn
force. Death alone could settle with this domestic tyrant. In 1827, an
octogenarian and worth seventeen millions, he was carried off by a
stroke of paralysis. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRANDET (Madame Felix), wife of the preceding; born about 1770;
daughter of a rich lumber merchant, M. de la Gaudiniere; married in
the beginning of the Republic, and gave birth to one child, Eugenie,
in 1796. In 1806 she added considerably to the combined wealth of the
family through two large inheritances--from her mother and M. de la
Bertelliere, her maternal grandfather. A devout, shrinking,
insignificant creature, bowed beneath the domestic yoke, Mme. Grandet
never left Saumur, where she died in October, 1822, of lung trouble,
aggravated by grief at her daughter's rebellion and her husband's
severity. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRANDET (Victor-Ange-Guillaume), younger brother of Felix Grandet;
became rich at Paris in wine-dealing. In 1815 before the battle of
Waterloo, Frederic de Nucingen bought of him one hundred and fifty
thousand bottles of champagne at thirty sous, and sold them at six
francs; the allies drank them during the invasion--1817-19. [The Firm
of Nucingen.] The beginning of the Restoration favored Guillaume. He
was the husband of a charming woman, the natural daughter of a great
lord, who died young after giving him a child. Was colonel of the
National Guard, judge of the Court of Commerce, governor of one of the
arrondissements of Paris and deputy. Saumur accused him of aspiring
still higher and wishing to become the father-in-law of a petty
duchess of the imperial court. The bankruptcy of Maitre Roguin was the
partial cause of the ruin of Guillaume, who blew out his brains to
avoid disgrace, in November, 1819. In his last requests, Guillaume
implored his elder brother to care for Charles whom the suicide had
rendered doubly an orphan. [Eugenie Grandet.]
GRANDET, (Charles), only lawful child of the foregoing; nephew of
Felix Grandet; born in 1797. He led at first the gay life of a young
gallant, and maintained relations with a certain Annette, a married
woman of good society. The tragic death of his father in November,
1819, astounded him and led him to Saumur. He thought himself in love
with his cousin Eugenie to whom he swore fidelity. Shortly thereafter
he left for India, where he took the name of Carl Sepherd to escape
the consequences of treasonable actions. He returned to France in 1827
enormously wealthy, debarked at Bordeaux in June of that year,
accompanying the Aubrions whose daughter Mathilde he married, and
allowed Eugenie Grandet to complete the settlement with the creditors
of his father. [Eugenie Grandet.] By his marriage he became Comte
d'Aubrion. [The Firm of Nucingen.]