MARSAY (Mademoiselle de), sister-in-law of the preceding, took care of
her son, Henri, and treated him so well that she was greatly mourned
by him when she died advanced in years. [The Thirteen.]
MARSAY (Henri de), born between 1792 and 1796, son of Lord Dudley and
the celebrated Marquise de Vordac, who was first united in marriage to
the elder De Marsay. This gentleman adopted the boy, thus becoming,
according to law, his father. The young Henri was reared by
Mademoiselle de Marsay and the Abbe de Maronis. He was on intimate
terms, in 1815, with Paul de Manerville, and was already one of the
all powerful Thirteen, with Bourignard, Montriveau and Ronquerolles.
At that time he found on rue Saint-Lazare a girl from Lesbosen,
Paquita Valdes, whom he wished to make his mistress. He met at the
same time his own natural sister, Madame de San-Real, of whom he
became the rival for Paquita's love. At first Marsay had been the
lover of the Duchesse Charlotte, then of Arabelle Dudley, whose
children were his very image. He was also known to be intimate with
Delphine de Nucingen up to 1819, then with Diane de Cadignan. In his
position as member of the Thirteen Henri was in Montriveau's party
when Antoinette de Langeais was stolen from the Carmelites. He bought
Coralie for sixty thousand francs. He passed the whole of his time
during the Restoration in the company of young men and women. He was
the companion and counselor of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, Savinien de
Portenduere and above all of Paul de Manerville, whose course he
vainly tried to direct after an ill-appointed marriage, and to whom he
announced, as soon as possible, his own union. Marsay aided Lucien de
Rubempre and served for him, with Rastignac, as second in a duel with
Michel Chrestien. The Chaulieu and Fontaine women feared or admired
Henri de Marsay--a man who was slighted by M. de Canalis, the much
toasted poet. The Revolution of July, 1830, made Marsay a man of no
little importance. He, however, was content to tell over his old love
affairs gravely in the home of Felicite des Touches. As prime minister
from 1832 to 1833, he was an habitue of the Princesse de Cadignan's
Legitimist salon, where he served as a screen for the last Vendean
insurrection. There, indeed, Marsay brought to light the secrets,
already old, of Malin's kidnapping. Marsay died in 1834, a physical
wreck, having but a short time before, when Nathan was courting Marie
de Vandenesse, taken part in the intrigue, although he was disgusted
with the author. [The Thirteen. The Unconscious Humorists. Another
Study of Woman. The Lily of the Valley. Father Goriot. Jealousies of a
Country Town. Ursule Mirouet. A Marriage Settlement. Lost Illusions. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Ball at
Sceaux. Modeste Mignon. The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville
Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]
MARTAINVILLE (Alphonse-Louis-Dieudonne), publicist and dramatic
writer, born at Cadiz, in 1776, of French parents, died August 27,
1830. He was an extreme Royalist and, as such, in 1821 and 1822, threw
away his advice and support on Lucien de Rubempre, then a convert to
Liberalism. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
MARTENER, well-educated old man who lived in Provins under the
Restoration. He explained to the archaeologist, Desfondrilles, who
consulted him, the reason why Europe, disdaining the waters of
Provins, sought Spa, where the waters were less efficacious, according
to French medical advice. [Pierrette.]
MARTENER, son of the preceding; physician at Provins in 1827, capable
man, simple and gentle. He married Madame Guenee's second daughter.
When consulted one day by Mademoiselle Habert, he spoke against the
marriage of virgins at forty, and thus filled Sylvie Rogron with
despair. He protected and cared for Pierrette Lorrain, the victim of
this same old maid. [Pierrette.]
MARTENER (Madame), wife of the preceding, second daughter of Madame
Guenee, and sister of Madame Auffray. Having taken pity on Pierrette
Lorrain in her sickness, she gave to her, in 1828, the pleasures of
music, playing the compositions of Weber, Beethoven or Herold.
[Pierrette.]
MARTENER, son of the preceding couple, protege of Vinet the elder,
honest and thick-headed. He was, in 1839, examining magistrate at
Arcis-sur-Aube and caucused, during the election season in the spring
of this same year, with the officers, Michu, Goulard, O. Vinet and
Marest. [The Member for Arcis.]
MARTHA was for a long time the faithful chambermaid of Josephine
Claes; she died in old age between 1828 and 1830. [The Quest for the
Absolute.]
MARTHE (Sister), a Gray sister of Auvergne; from 1809 to 1816
instructed Veronique Sauviat--Madame Graslin--in reading, writing,
sacred history, the Old and the New Testaments, the Catechism, the
elements of arithmetic. [The Country Parson.]
MARTHE (Sister), born Beauseant, in 1730, a nun in the Abbey of
Chelles, fled with Sister Agathe (nee Langeais) and the Abbe de
Marolles to a poor lodging in the upper Saint-Martin district. On
January 22, 1793, she went to a pastry-cook near Saint Laurent to get
the wafers necessary for a mass for the repose of Louis XVI.'s soul.
At this ceremony she was present, as was also the man who had executed
the King. The following year, January 21, 1794, this same ceremony was
repeated exactly. She passed these two years of the Terror under
Mucius Scoevola's protection. [An Episode under the Terror.]
MARTHE (Sister), in the convent of the Carmelites at Blois, knew two
young women, Mesdames de l'Estorade and Gaston. [Letters of Two
Brides.]
MARTIN, a woman of a Dauphine village, of which Doctor Benassis was
mayor, kept the hospital children for three francs and a bar of soap
each month. She was, possibly, the first person in the country seen by
Genestas-Bluteau, and also the first to impart knowledge to him. [The
Country Doctor.]
MARTINEAU, name of two brothers employed by M. de Mortsauf in
connection with his farms in Touraine. The elder was at first a
farm-hand, then a steward; the younger, a warden. [The Lily of the
Valley.]
MARTINEAU, son of one of the two Martineau brothers. [The Lily of the
Valley.]
MARTY (Jean-Baptiste), actor of melodrama, employe or manager of the
Gaite, before and after the Paris fire of 1836; born in 1779,
celebrated during the Restoration; in 1819 and 1820 he played in
"Mont-Sauvage," a play warmly applauded by Madame Vauquer. This woman
was accompanied to the theatre on the Boulevard du Crime, by her rue
Nueve-Sainte-Genevieve lodger, Jacques Collin, called also Vautrin, on
the evening before his arrest. [Father Goriot.] Marty died, at an
advanced age, in 1868, a chevalier in the Legion of Honor, after
having been for many years mayor of Charenton.