LA BASTIE LA BRIERE (Ernest de), member of a good family of Toulouse,
born in 1802; very similar in appearance to Louis XIII.; from 1824 to
1829, private secretary to the minister of finances. On the advice of
Madame d'Espard, and thus being of service to Eleonore de Chaulieu, he
became secretary to Melchior de Canalis and, at the same time,
referendary of the Cour des Comptes. He became a chevalier of the
Legion of Honor. In 1829 he conducted for Canalis a love romance by
correspondence, the heroine of the affair being Marie-Modeste-Mignon
de la Bastie (of Havre). He played this part so successfully that she
fell in love and marriage was agreed upon. This union, which made him
the wealthy Vicomte de la Bastie la Briere, was effected the following
February in 1830. Canalis and the minister of 1824 were witnesses for
Ernest de la Briere, who fully deserved his good fortune. [The
Government Clerks. Modeste Mignon.]
LA BASTIE LA BRIERE (Madame Ernest de), wife of the preceding, born
Marie-Modeste Mignon about 1809, younger daughter of Charles Mignon de
la Bastie and of Bettina Mignon de la Bastie--born Wallenrod. In 1829,
while living with her family at Havre, with the same love, evoked by a
passion for literature, which Bettina Brentano d'Arnim conceived for
Goethe, she fell in love with Melchior de Canalis; she wrote
frequently to the poet in secret, and he responded through the medium
of Ernest de la Briere; thus there sprang up between the young girl
and the secretary a mutual love which resulted in marriage. The
witnesses for Marie-Modeste Mignon were the Duc d'Herouville and
Doctor Desplein. As one of the most envied women in Parisian circles,
in the time of Louis Philippe, she became the close friend of Mesdames
de l'Estorade and Popinot. [Modeste Mignon. The Member for Arcis.
Cousin Betty.] La Bastie is sometimes written La Batie.
LA BAUDRAYE[*] (Jean-Athanase-Polydore Milaud de), born in 1780 in
Berry, descended from the simple family of Milaud, recently enobled.
M. de la Baudraye's father was a good financier of pleasing
disposition; his mother was a Casteran la Tour. He was in poor health,
his weak constitution being the heritage left him by an immoral
father. His father, on dying, also left him a large number of notes to
which were affixed the noble signatures of the emigrated aristocracy.
His avarice aroused, Polydore de la Baudraye occupied himself, at the
time of the Restoration, with collecting these notes; he made frequent
trips to Paris; negotiated with Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx at the
Hotel de Mayence; obtained, under a promise, afterwards executed, to
sell them profitably, some positions and titles, and became
successively auditor of the seals, baron, officer of the Legion of
Honor and master of petitions. The individual receivership of
Sancerre, which became his also, was bought by Gravier. M. de la
Baudraye did not leave Sancerre; he married towards 1823 Mademoiselle
Dinah Piedefer, became a person of large property following his
acquisition to the castle and estate of Anzy, settled this property
with the title upon a natural son of his wife; he so worked upon her
feelings as to get from her the power of attorney and signature,
sailed for America, and became rich through a large patrimony left him
by Silas Piedefer--1836-42. At that time he owned in Paris a stately
mansion, on rue de l'Arcade, and upon winning back his wife, who had
left him, he placed her in it as mistress. He now became count,
commander of the Legion of Honor, and peer of France. Frederic de
Nucingen received him as such and served him as sponsor, when, in the
summer of 1842, the death of Ferdinand d'Orleans necessitated the
presence of M. de la Baudraye at Luxembourg. [The Muse of the
Department.]
[*] The motto on the Baudraye coat-of-arms was: "Deo patet sic fides
et hominibus."
LA BAUDRAYE (Madame Polydore Milaud de), wife of the preceding, born
Dinah Piedefer in 1807 or 1808 in Berry; daughter of the Calvinist,
Moise Piedefer; niece of Silas Piedefer, from whom she inherited a
fortune. She was brilliantly educated at Bourges, in the Chamarolles
boarding-school, with Anna de Fontaine, born Grosstete--1819. Five
years later, through personal ambition, she gave up Protestantism,
that she might gain the protection of the Cardinal-Archbishop of
Bourges, and a short time after her conversion she was married, about
1823. For thirteen consecutive years, at least, Madame de la Baudraye
reigned in the city of Sancerre and in her country-house, Chateau
d'Anzy, at Saint-Satur near by. Her court was composed of a strange
mixture of people: the Abbe Duret and Messieurs Clagny, Gravier,
Gatien Boirouge. At first, only Clagny and Duret know of the literary
attempts of Jan Diaz, pseudonym of Madame de la Baudraye, who had just
bought the artistic furniture of the Rougets of Issoudun, and who
invited and received two "Parisiens de Sancerre," Horace Bianchon and
Etienne Lousteau, in September 1836. A liaison followed with Etienne
Lousteau, with whom Madame de la Baudraye lived on rue des Martyrs in
Paris from 1837 to 1839. As a result of this union she had two sons,
recognized later by M. de la Baudraye. Madame de la Baudraye now
putting into use the talent, neglected during her love affair, became
a writer. She wrote "A Prince of Bohemia," founded on an anecodote
related to her by Raoul Nathan, and probably published this novel. The
fear of endless scandal, the entreaties of husband and mother, and the
unworthiness of Lousteau, finally led Dinah de la Baudraye to rejoin
her husband, who owned an elegant mansion on rue de l'Arcade. This
return, which took place in May, 1842, surprised Madame d'Espard, a
woman who was not easily astonished. Paris of the reign of Louis
Philippe often quoted Dinah de la Baudraye and paid considerable
attention to her. During this same year, 1842, she assisted in the
first presentation of Leon Gozlan's drama, "The Right Hand and the
Left Hand," given at the Odeon. [The Muse of the Department. A Prince
of Bohemia. Cousin Betty.]
LA BERGE (De), confessor of Madame de Mortsauf at Clochegourde, strict
and virtuous. He died in 1817, mourned on account of his "apostolic
strength," by his patron, who appointed as his successor the
over-indulgent Francois Birotteau. [The Lily of the Valley.]
LA BERTELLIERE, father of Madame la Gaudiniere, grandfather of Madame
Felix Grandet, was lieutenant in the French Guards; he died in 1806,
leaving a large fortune. He considered investments a "waste of money."
Nearly twenty years later his portrait was still hanging in the hall
of Felix Grandet's house at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]
LA BILLARDIERE (Anthanase-Jean-Francoise-Michel, Baron Flamet de), son
of a counselor in the Parliament of Bretagne, took part in the Vendean
wars as a captain under the name of Nantais, and as negotiator played
a singular part at Quiberon. The Restoration rewarded the services of
this unintelligent member of the petty nobility, whose Catholicism was
more lukewarm than his love of monarchy. He became mayor of the second
district of Paris, and division-chief in the Bureau of Finances,
thanks to his kinship with a deputy on the Right. He was one of the
guests at the famous ball given by his deputy, Cesar Birotteau, whom
he had known for twenty years. On his death-bed, at the close of
December, 1824, he had designated, although without avail, as his
successor, Xavier Rabourdin, one of the division-chiefs and real
director of the bureau of which La Billiardiere was the nominal head.
The newspapers published obituaries of the deceased. The short notice
prepared jointly by Chardin des Lupeaulx, J.-J. Bixiou and F. du
Bruel, enumerated the many titles and decorations of Flamet de la
Billardiere, gentleman of the king's bedchamber, etc., etc. [The
Chouans. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks.]
LA BILLARDIERE (Benjamin, Chevalier de), son of the preceding, born in
1802. He was a companion of the young Vicomte de Portenduere in 1824,
being at the time a rich supernumerary in the office of Isidore
Baudoyer under the division of his father, Flamet de la Billardiere.
His insolence and foppishness gave little cause for regret when he
left the Bureau of Finances for the Department of Seals in the latter
part of the same year, 1824, that marked the expected and unlamented
death of Baron Flamet de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.]
LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle Merlin de), under the Restoration, a kind
of dowager and canoness at Tours; in company with Mesdames Pauline
Salomon de Villenoix and de Listomere, upheld, received and welcomed
Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]
LABRANCHOIR (Comte de), owner of an estate in Dauphine under the
Restoration, and, as such, a victim of the depredations of the
poacher, Butifer. [The Country Doctor.]