LACEPEDE (Comte de), a celebrated naturalist, born at Agen in 1756,
died at Paris in 1825. Grand chancelor of the Legion of Honor for
several years towards the beginning of the nineteenth century. This
well-known philosopher was invited to Cesar Birotteau's celebrated
ball, December 17, 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]
LA CHANTERIE (Le Chantre de), of a Norman family dating from the
crusade of Philippe Auguste, but which had fallen into obscurity by
the end of the eighteenth century; he owned a small fief between Caen
and Saint-Lo. M. le Chantre de la Chanterie had amassed in the
neighborhood of three hundred thousand crowns by supplying the royal
armies during the Hanoverian war. He died during the Revolution, but
before the Terror. [The Seamy Side of History.]
LA CHANTERIE (Baron Henri Le Chantre de), born in 1763, son of the
preceding, shrewd, handsome and seductive. When master of petitions in
the Grand Council of 1788, he married Mademoiselle Barbe-Philiberte de
Champignelles. Ruined during the Restoration through having lost his
position and thrown away his inheritance, Henri Le Chantre de la
Chanterie became one of the most cruel presidents of the revolutionary
courts and was the terror of Normandie. Imprisoned after the ninth
Thermidor, he owed his escape to his wife, by means of an exchange of
clothing. He did not see her more than three times during eight years,
the last meeting being in 1802, when, having become a bigamist, he
returned to her home to die of a disgraceful disease, leaving, at the
same time, a second wife, likewise ruined. This last fact was not made
public until 1804. [The Seamy Side of History.]
LA CHANTERIE (Baronne Henri Le Chantre de), wife of the preceding,
born Barbe-Philiberte de Champignelles in 1772, a descendant of one of
the first families of Lower Normandie. Married in 1788, she received
in her home, fourteen years later, the dying man whose name she bore,
a bigamist fleeing from justice. By him she had a daughter, Henriette,
who was executed in 1809 for having been connected with the Chauffeurs
in Orne. Unjustly accused herself, and imprisoned in the frightful
Bicetre of Rouen, the baroness began to instruct in morals the sinful
women among whom she found herself thrown. The fall of the Empire was
her deliverance. Twenty years later, being part owner of a house in
Paris, Madame de la Chanterie undertook the training of Godefroid. She
was then supporting a generous private philanthropic movement, with
the help of Manon Godard and Messieurs de Veze, de Montauran, Mongenod
and Alain. Madame de la Chanterie aided the Bourlacs and the Mergis,
an impoverished family of magistrates who had persecuted her in 1809.
Her Christian works were enlarged upon. In 1843 the baroness became
head of a charitable organization which was striving to consecrate,
according to law and religion, the relations of those living in free
union. To this end she selected one member of the society, Adeline
Hulot d'Ervy, and sent her to Passage du Soleil, then a section of
Petite-Pologne, to try to bring about the marriage of Vyder--Hector
Hulot d'Ervy--and Atala Judici. [The Seamy Side of History. Cousin
Betty.] The Revolution having done away with titles, Madame de la
Chanterie called herself momentarily Madame, or Citizeness, Lechantre.
LACROIX, restaurant-keeper on Place du Marche, Issoudun, 1822, in
whose house the Bonapartist officers celebrated the crowning of the
Emperor. On December 2, of the same year, the duel between Philippe
Bridau and Maxence took place after the entertainment. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]