NINETTE, born in 1832, "rat" at the Opera in Paris, was acquainted
with Leon de Lora and J.-J. Bixiou, who called Gazonal's attention to
her in 1845. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
NOLLAND (Abbe), the promising pupil of Abbe Roze. Concealed during the
Revolution at the house of M. de Negrepelisse, near Barbezieux, he had
in charge the education of Marie-Louise-Anais (afterwards Madame de
Bargeton), and taught her music, Italian and German. He died in 1802.
[Lost Illusions.]
NISERON, curate of Blangy (Bourgogne) before the Revolution;
predecessor of Abbe Brossette in this curacy; uncle of Jean-Francois
Niseron. He was led by a childish but innocent indiscretion on the
part of his great-niece, as well as by the influence of Dom Rigou, to
disinherit the Niserons in the interests of the Mesdemoiselles
Pichard, house-keepers in his family. [The Peasantry.]
NISERON (Jean-Francois), beadle, sacristan, chorister, bell-ringer,
and grave-digger of the parish of Blangy (Bourgogne), during the
Restoration; nephew and only heir of Niseron the cure; born in 1751.
He was delighted at the Revolution, was the ideal type of the
Republican, a sort of Michel Chrestien of the fields; treated with
cold disdain the Pichard family, who took from him the inheritance, to
which he alone had any right; lived a life of poverty and
sequestration; was none the less respected; was of Montcornet's party
represented by Brossette; their opponent, Gregoire Rigou, felt for him
both esteem and fear. Jean-Francois Niseron lost, one after another,
his wife and his two children, and had by his side, in his old days,
only Genevieve, natural daughter of his deceased son, Auguste. [The
Peasantry.]
NISERON (Auguste), son of the preceding; soldier of the Republic and
of the Empire; while an artilleryman in 1809, he seduced, at Zahara, a
young Montenegrin, Zena Kropoli, who died, at Vincennes, early in the
year 1810, leaving him an infant daughter. Thus he could not realize
his purpose of marrying her. He himself was killed, before Montereau,
during the year 1814, by the bursting of a shell. [The Peasantry.]
NISERON (Genevieve), natural daughter of the preceding and the
Montenegrin woman, Zena Kropoli; born in 1810, and named Genevieve
after a paternal aunt; an orphan from the age of four, she was reared
in Bourgogne by her grandfather, Jean-Francois Niseron. She had her
father's beauty and her mother's peculiarities. Her patronesses,
Madame Montcornet and Madame de Michaud, bestowed upon her the surname
Pechina, and, to guard her against Nicholas Tonsard's attentions,
placed her in a convent at Auxerre, where she might acquire skill in
sewing and forget Justin Michaud, whom she loved unconsciously. [The
Peasantry.]
NOEL, book-keeper for Jean-Jules Popinot of Paris, in 1828, at the
time that the judge questioned the Marquis d'Espard, whose wife tried
to deprive him of the right to manage his property. [The Commission in
Lunacy.]
NOSWELL (Mistress), a rich and eccentric Englishwoman, who was in
Paris at the Hotel Lawson about the middle of Louis Philippe's reign;
after much mental debate she bought of Fritot the shawl called Selim,
which he said at first it was "impossible" for him to sell.
[Gaudissart II.]
NOUASTRE (Baron de), a refugee of the purest noble blood. A ruined
man, he returned to Alencon in 1800, with his daughter, who was
twenty-two years of age, and found a home with the Marquis
d'Esgrignon, and died of grief two months later. Shortly afterwards
the marquis married the orphan daughter. [Jealousies of a Country
Town.]
NOURRISSON (Madame), was formerly, under the Empire, attached to the
service of the Prince d'Ysembourg in Paris. The sight of the
disorderly life of a "great lady" of the times decided Madame
Nourrisson's profession. She set up shop as a dealer in old clothes,
and was also known as mistress of various houses of shame. Intimate
relations with Jacqueline Collin, continued for more than twenty
years, made this two-fold business profitable. The two matrons
willingly exchanged, at times, names and business signs, resources and
profits. It was in the old clothes shop, on the rue Neuve-Saint-Marc,
that Frederic de Nucingen bargained for Esther van Gobseck. Towards
the end of Charles X.'s reign, one of Madame Nourrisson's
establishments, on rue Saint-Barbe, was managed by La Gonore; in the
time of Louis Philippe another--a secret affair--existed at the
so-called "Pate des Italiens"; Valerie Marneffe and Wenceslas Steinbock
were once caught there together. Madame Nourrisson, first of the name,
evidently continued to conduct her business on the rue Saint-Marc,
since, in 1845, she narrated the minutiae of it to Madame Mahuchet
before an audience composed of the well-known trio, Bixiou, Lora and
Gazonal, and related to them her own history, disclosing to them the
secrets of her own long past beginnings in life. [Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life. Cousin Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.]
NOUVION (Comte de), a noble refugee, who had returned in utter
poverty; chevalier of the Order of Saint-Louis; lived in Paris in
1828, subsisting on the delicately disguised charity of his friend,
the Marquis d'Espard, who made him superintendent of the publication,
at No. 22 rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, of the "Picturesque
History of China," and offered him a share in the possible profits of
the work. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
NOVERRE, a celebrated dancer, born in Paris 1727; died in 1807; was
the rather unreliable customer of Chevrel the draper, father-in-law
and predecessor of Guillaume at the Cat and Racket. [At the Sign of
the Cat and Racket.]
NUCINGEN (Baron Frederic de), born, probably at Strasbourg, about
1767. At that place he was formerly clerk to M. d'Aldrigger, an
Alsatian banker. Of better judgment than his employer, he did not
believe in the success of the Emperor in 1815 and speculated very
skilfully on the battle of Waterloo. Nucingen now carried on business
alone, and on his own account, in Paris and elsewhere; he thus
prepared by degrees the famous house of the rue Saint-Lazare, and laid
the foundation of a fortune, which, under Louis Philippe, reached
almost eighteen million francs. At this period he married one of the
two daughters of a rich vermicelli-maker, Mademoiselle Delphine
Goriot, by whom he had a daughter, Augusta, eventually the wife of
Eugene de Rastignac. From the first years of the Restoration may be
dated the real brilliancy of his career, the result of a combination
with the Kellers, Ferdinand du Tillet, and Eugene de Rastignac in the
successful manipulation of schemes in connection with the Wortschin
mines, followed by opportune assignments and adroitly managed cases of
bankruptcy. These various combinations ruined the Ragons, the
Aiglemonts, the Aldriggers, and the Beaudenords. At this time, too,
Nucingen, though clamorously declaring himself an out-and-out
Bourbonist, turned a deaf ear to Cesar Birotteau's appeals for credit,
in spite of knowing of the latter's consistent Royalism. There was a
time in the baron's life when he seemed to change his nature; it was
when, after giving up his hired dancer, he madly entered upon an amour
with Esther van Gobseck, alarmed his physician, Horace Bianchon,
employed Corentin, Georges, Louchard, and Peyrade, and became
especially the prey of Jacques Collin. After Esther's suicide, in May,
1830, Nuncingen abandoned "Cythera," as Chardin des Lupeaulx had done
before, and became again a man of figures, and was overwhelmed with
favors: insignia, the peerage, and the cross of grand officer of the
Legion of Honor. Nucingen, being respected and esteemed, in spite of
his blunt ways and his German accent, was a patron of Beaudenord, and
a frequent guest of Cointet, the minister; he went everywhere, and, at
the mansion of Mademoiselle des Touches, heard Marsay give an account
of some of his old love-affairs; witnessed, before Daniel d'Arthez,
the calumniation of Diane de Cadignan by every one present in Madame
d'Espard's parlor; guided Maxime de Trailles between the hands, or,
rather, the clutches of Claparon-Cerizet; accepted the invitation of
Josepha Mirah to her reception on the rue Ville-l'Eveque. When
Wenceslas Steinbock married Hortense Hulot, Nucingen and Cottin de
Wissembourg were the bride's witnesses. Furthermore, their father,
Hector Hulot d'Ervy, borrowed of him more than a hundred thousand
francs. The Baron de Nucingen acted as sponsor to Polydore de la
Baudraye when he was admitted to the French peerage. As a friend of
Ferdinand du Tillet, he was admitted on most intimate terms to the
boudoir of Carabine, and he was seen there, one evening in 1845, along
with Jenny Cadine, Gazonal, Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Massol, Claude
Vignon, Trailles, F. du Bruel, Vauvinet, Marguerite Turquet, and the
Gaillards of the rue Menars. [The Firm of Nucingen. Father Goriot.
Pierrette. Cesar Birotteau. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial
at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Another Study of Woman. The
Secrets of a Princess. A Man of Business. Cousin Betty. The Muse of
the Department. The Unconscious Humorists.]
NUCINGEN (Baronne Delphine de), wife of the preceding, born in 1792,
of fair complexion; the spoiled daughter of the opulent
vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; on the side of her mother, who
died young, the granddaughter of a farmer. In the latter period of the
Empire she contracted, greatly to her taste, a marriage for money.
Madame de Nucingen formerly had as her lover Henri de Marsay, who
finally abandoned her most cruelly. Reduced, at the time of Louis XVIII.,
to the society of the Chaussee-d'Antin, she was ambitious to be admitted
to the Faubourg Saint-Germain, a circle of which her elder sister,
Madame de Restaud, was a member. Eugene de Rastignac opened to her the
parlor of Madame de Beauseant, his cousin, rue de Greville, in 1819,
and, at about the same time, became her lover. Their liaison lasted
more than fifteen years. An apartment on the rue d'Artois, fitted up
by Jean-Joachim Goriot, sheltered their early love. Having entrusted
to Rastignac a certain sum for play at the Palais-Royal, the baroness
was able with the proceeds to free herself of a humiliating debt to
Marsay. Meanwhile she lost her father. The Nucingen carriage, without
an occupant, however, followed the hearse. [Father Goriot.] Madame de
Nucingen entertained a great deal on the rue Saint-Lazare. It was
there that Auguste de Maulincour saw Clemence Desmarets, and Adolphe
des Grassins met Charles Grandet. [The Thirteen. Eugenie Grandet.]
Cesar Birotteau, on coming to beg credit of Nucingen, as also did
Rodolphe Castanier, immediately after his forgery, found themselves
face to face with the baroness. [Cesar Birotteau. Melmoth Reconciled.]
At this period, Madame de Nucingen took the box at the Opera which
Antoinette de Langeais had occupied, believing undoubtedly, said
Madame d'Espard, that she would inherit her charms, wit and success.
[Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. The Commission
in Lunacy.] According to Diane de Cadignan, Delphine had a horrible
journey when she went to Naples by sea, of which she brought back a
most painful reminder. The baroness showed a haughty and scornful
indulgence when her husband became enamored of Esther van Gobseck.
[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] Forgetting her origin she dreamed of
seeing her daughter Augusta become Duchesse d'Herouville; but the
Herouvilles, knowing the muddy source of Nucingen's millions, declined
this alliance. [Modeste Mignon. The Firm of Nucingen.] Shortly after
the year 1830, the baroness was invited to the house of Felicite des
Touches, where she saw Marsay once more, and heard him give an account
of an old love-affair. [Another Study of woman.] Delphine aided Marie
de Vandenesse and Nathan to the extent of forty thousand francs during
the checkered course of their intrigues. She remembered indeed having
gone through similar experiences. [A Daughter of Eve.] About the
middle of the monarchy of July, Madame de Nucingen, as mother-in-law
of Eugene de Rastignac, visited Madame d'Espard and met Maxime de
Trailles and Ferdinand du Tillet in the Faubourg Saint-Germain. [The
Member for Arcis.]
NUEIL (De), proprietor of the domain of the Manervilles, which,
doubtless, descended to the younger son, Gaston. [The Deserted Woman.]
NUEIL (Madame de), wife of the preceding, survived her husband, and
her eldest son, became the dowager Comtesse de Nueil, and afterwards
owned the domain of Manerville, to which she withdrew in retirement.
She was the type of the scheming mother, careful and correct, but
worldly. She matched off Gaston, and was thereby involuntarily the
cause of his death. [The Deserted Woman.]
NUEIL (De), eldest son of the preceding, died of consumption in the
reign of Louis XVIII., leaving the title of Comte de Nueil to his
younger brother, Baron Gaston. [The Deserted Woman.]
NUEIL (Gaston de), son of the Nueils and brother of the preceding,
born about 1799, of good extraction and with fortune suitable to his
rank. He went, in 1822, to Bayeux, where he had family connections, in
order to recuperate from the wearing fatigues of Parisian life; had an
opportunity to force open the closed door of Claire de Beauseant, who
had been living in retirement in that vicinity ever since the marriage
of Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto to Berthe de Rochefide; he fell in love with
her, his love was reciprocated, and for nearly ten years he lived with
her as her husband in Normandie and Switzerland. Albert Savarus, in
his autobiographical novel, "L'Ambitieux par Amour," made a vague
reference to them as living together on the shore of Lake Geneva.
After the Revolution of 1830, Gaston de Nueil, already rich from his
Norman estates that afforded an income of eighteen thousand francs,
married Mademoiselle Stephanie de la Rodiere. Wearying of the marriage
tie, he wished to renew his former relations with Madame de Beauseant.
Exasperated by the haughty repulse at the hands of his former
mistress, Nueil killed himself. [The Deserted Woman. Albert Savarus.]
NUEIL (Madame Gaston de), born Stephanie de la Rodiere, about 1812, a
very insignificant character, married, at the beginning of Louis
Philippe's reign, Gaston de Nueil, to whom she brought an income of
forty thousand francs a year. She was enceinte after the first month
of her marriage. Having become Countess de Nueil, by succession, upon
the death of her brother-in-law, and being deserted by Gaston, she
continued to live in Normandie. Madame Gaston de Nueil survived her
husband. [The Deserted Woman.]
O
O'FLAHARTY (Major), maternal uncle of Raphael de Valentin, to whom he
bequeathed ten millions upon his death in Calcutta, August, 1828. [The
Magic Skin.]
OIGNARD, in 1806 was chief clerk to Maitre Bordin, a Parisian lawyer.
[A Start in Life.]
OLGA, daughter of the Topinards, born in 1840. She was not a
legitimate child, as her parents were not married at the time when
Schmucke saw her with them in 1846. He loved her for the beauty of her
light Teutonic hair. [Cousin Pons.]
OLIVET, an Angouleme lawyer, succeeded by Petit-Claude. [Lost
Illusions.]
OLIVIER was in the service of the policeman, Corentin and Peyrade,
when they found the Hauteserres and the Simeuses with the Cinq-Cygne
family in 1803. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
OLIVIER (Monsieur and Madame), first in the employ of Charles X. as
outrider and laundress; had charge of three children, of whom the
eldest became an under notary's clerk; were finally, under Louis
Philippe, servants of the Marneffes and of Mademoiselle Fischer, to
whom, through craftiness or gratitude, they devoted themselves
exclusively. [Cousin Betty.]
ORFANO (Duc d'), title of Marechal Cottin.
ORGEMONT (D'), wealthy and avaricious banker, proprietor at Fougeres,
bought the Abbaye de Juvigny's estate. He remained neutral during the
Chouan insurrection of 1799 and came into contact with Coupiau,
Galope-Chopine, and Mesdames du Gua-Saint-Cyr and de Montauran. [The
Chouans.]
ORGEMONT (D'), brother of the preceding, a Breton priest who took the
oath of allegiance. He died in 1795 and was buried in a secluded spot,
discovered and preserved by M. d'Orgemont, the banker, as a place of
hiding from the fury of the Vendeans. [The Chouans.]
ORIGET, famous Tours physician; known to the Mortsaufs, chatelains of
Clochegourde. [The Lily of the Valley.]
ORSONVAL (Madame d'), frequently visited the Cruchot and Grandet
families at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]
OSSIAN, valet in the service of Mougin, the well-known hair-dresser on
the Place de la Bourse, in 1845. Ossian's duty was to show the patrons
out, and in this capacity he attended Bixiou, Lora and Gazonal. [The
Unconscious Humorists.]
OTTOBONI, an Italian conspirator who hid in Paris. In 1831, on dining
at the Giardinis on rue Froidmanteau, he became acquainted with the
Gambaras. [Gambara.]
P
PACCARD, released convict, in Jacques Collin's clutches, well known as
a thief and drunkard. He was Prudence Servien's lover, and both were
employed by Esther van Gobseck at the same time, Paccard being a
footman; lived with a carriage-maker on rue de Provence, in 1829.
After stealing seven hundred and fifty thousand francs, which had been
left by Esther van Gobseck, he was obliged to give up seven hundred
and thirty thousand of them. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
PACCARD (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, in the power of
Jacqueline Collin. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
PALMA, Parisian banker of the Poissoniere suburbs; had, during the
regime of the Restoration and of July, great fame as a financier. He
was "private counsel for the Keller establishment." Birotteau, the
perfumer, at the time of his financial troubles, vainly asked him for
help. [The Firm of Nucingen. Cesar Birotteau.] With Werbrust as a
partner he dealt in discounts as shrewdly as did Gobseck and Bidault,
and thus was in a position to help Lucien de Rubempre. [Gobseck. Lost
Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] He was also M.
Werbrust's associate in the muslin, calico and oil-cloth establishment
at No. 5 rue du Sentier, when Maximilien was so friendly with the
Fontaines. [The Ball at Sceaux.]
PAMIERS (Vidame de), "oracle of Faubourg Saint-Germain at the time of
the Restoration," a member of the family council dealing with
Antoinette de Langeais, who was accused of compromising herself with
Montriveau. Past-commander of the Order of Malta, prominent in both
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, old and confidential friend
of the Baronne de Maulincour. Pamiers reared the young Baron Auguste
de Maulincour, defending him with all his power against Bourignard's
hatred. [The Thirteen.] As a former intimate friend of the Marquis
d'Esgrignon, the vidame introduced the Vicomte d'Esgrignon--Victurnien
--to Diane de Maufrigneuse. An intimate friendship between the young
man and the future Princess de Cadignan was the result. [Jealousies of
a Country Town.]
PANNIER, merchant and banker after 1794; treasurer of the "brigands";
connected with the uprising of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne in 1809.
Having been condemned to twenty years of hard labor, Pannier was
branded and placed in the galleys. Appointed lieutenant-general under
Louis XVIII., he governed a royal castle. He died without children.
[The Seamy Side of History.]
PARADIS, born in 1830; Maxime de Trailles' servant-boy or "tiger";
quick and bold; made a tour, during the election period in the spring
of 1839, through the Arcis-sur-Aube district, with his master, meeting
Goulard, the sub-prefect, Poupart, the tavern-keeper, and the
Maufrigneuses and Mollots of Cinq-Cygne. [The Member for Arcis.]
PARQUOI (Francois), one of the Chouans, for whom Abbe Gudin held a
funeral mass in the heart of the forest, not far from Fougeres, in the
autumn of 1799. Francois Parquoi died, as did Nicolas Laferte, Joseph
Brouet and Sulpice Coupiau, of injuries received at the battle of La
Pelerine and at the siege of Fougeres. [The Chouans.]
PASCAL, porter of the Thuilliers in the Place de la Madeleine house;
acted also as beadle at La Madeleine church. [The Middle Classes.]
PASCAL (Abbe), chaplain at Limoges prison in 1829; gentle old man. He
tried vainly to obtain a confession from Jean-Francois Tascheron, who
had been imprisoned for robbery followed by murder. [The Country
Parson.]
PASTELOT, priest in 1845, in the Saint-Francois church in the Marais,
on the street now called rue Charlot; watched over the dead body of
Sylvain Pons. [Cousin Pons.]
PASTUREAU (Jean Francois), in 1829, owner of an estate in Isere, the
value of which was said to have been impaired by the passing by of
Doctor Benassis' patients. [The Country Doctor.]
PATRAT (Maitre), notary at Fougeres in 1799, an acquaintance of
D'Orgemont, the banker, and introduced to Marie de Verneuil by the old
miser. [The Chouans.]
PATRIOTE, a monkey, which Marie de Verneuil, its owner, had taught to
counterfeit Danton. The craftiness of this animal reminded Marie of
Corentin. [The Chouans.]
PAULINE, for a long time Julie d'Aiglemont's waiting-maid. [A Woman of
Thirty.]
PAULMIER, employed under the Restoration in the Ministry of Finance in
Isidore Baudoyer's bureau of Flamet de la Billardiere's division.
Paulmier was a bachelor, but quarreled continually with his married
colleague, Chazelles. [The Government Clerks.]
PAZ (Thaddee), Polish descendant of a distinguished Florentine family,
the Pazzi, one of whose members had become a refugee in Poland. Living
contemporaneously with his fellow-citizen and friend, the Comte Adam
Mitgislas Laginski, like him Thaddee Paz fought for his country, later
on following him into exile in Paris, during the reign of Louis
Philippe. Bearing up bravely in his poverty, he was willing to become
steward to the count, and he made an able manager of the Laginski
mansion. He gave up this position, when, having become enamored of
Clementine Laginska, he saw that he could no longer control his
passion by means of a pretended mistress, Marguerite Turquet, the
horsewoman. Paz (pronounced Pac), who had willingly assumed the title
of captain, had seen the Steinbocks married. His departure from France
was only feigned, and he once more saw the Comtesse Laginska, during
the winter of 1842. At Rusticoli he took her away from La Palferine,
who was on the point of carrying her away. [The Imaginary Mistress.
Cousin Betty.]
PECHINA (La), nick-name of Genevieve Niseron.
PEDEROTTI (Signor), father of Madame Maurice de l'Hostal. He was a
Genoa banker; gave his only daughter a dowry of a million; married her
to the French consul, and left her, on dying six months later in
January, 1831, a fortune made in grain and amounting to two millions.
Pederotti had been made count by the King of Sardinia, but, as he left
no male heir, the title became extinct. [Honorine.]
PELLETIER, one of Benassis' patients in Isere, who died in 1829, was
buried on the same day as the last "cretin," which had been kept on
account of popular superstition. Pelletier left a wife, who saw
Genestas, and several children, of whom the eldest, Jacques, was born
about 1807. [The Country Doctor.]
PEN-HOEL (Jacqueline de), of a very old Breton family, lived at
Guerande, where she was born about 1780. Sister-in-law of the
Kergarouets of Nantes, the patrons of Major Brigaut, who, despite the
displeasure of the people, did not themselves hesitate to assume the
name of Pen-Hoel. Jacqueline protected the daughters of her younger
sister, the Vicomtesse de Kergarouet. She was especially attracted to
her eldest niece, Charlotte, to whom she intended to give a dowry, as
she desired the girl to marry Calyste du Guenic, who was in love with
Felicite des Touches. [Beatrix.]
PEROUX (Abbe), brother of Madame Julliard; vicar of Provins during the
Restoration. [Pierrette.]
PERRACHE, small hunchback, shoemaker by trade, and, in 1840, porter in
a house belonging to Corentin on rue Honore-Chevalier, Paris. [The
Middle Classes.]
PERRACHE (Madame), wife of the preceding, often visited Madame
Cardinal, niece of Toupillier, one of Corentin's renters. [The Middle
Classes.]
PERRET, with his partner, Grosstete, preceded Pierre Graslin in a
banking-house at Limoges, in the early part of the nineteenth century.
[The Country Parson.]
PERRET (Madame), wife of the preceding, an old woman in 1829,
disturbed herself, as did every one in Limoges, over the assassination
committed by Jean-Francois Tascheron. [The Country Parson.]
PERROTET, in 1819, laborer on Felix Grandet's farm in the suburbs of
Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]
PETIT-CLAUD, son of a very poor tailor of L'Houmeau, a suburb of
Angouleme, where he pursued his studies in the town lyceum, becoming
acquainted at the same time with Lucien de Rubempre. He studied law at
Poitiers. On going back to the chief city of La Charente, he became
clerk to Maitre Olivet, an attorney whom he succeeded. Now began
Petit-Claud's period of revenge for the insults which his poverty and
homeliness had brought on. He met Cointet, the printer, and went into
his employ, although at the same time he feigned allegiance to the
younger Sechard, also a printer. This conduct paved the way for his
accession to the magistracy. He was in turn deputy and king's
procureur. Petit-Claud did not leave Angouleme, but made a profitable
marriage in 1822 with Mademoiselle Francoise de la Haye, natural
daughter of Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches. [Lost
Illusions.]
PETIT-CLAUD (Madame), wife of the preceding, natural daughter of
Francis du Hautoy and of Madame de Senonches; born Francoise de la
Haye, given into the keeping of old Madame Cointet; married through
the instrumentality of Madame Cointet's son, the printer, known as
Cointet the Great. Madame Petit-Claud, though insignificant and
forward, was provided with a very substantial dowry. [Lost Illusions.]
PEYRADE, born about 1758 in Provence, Comtat, in a large family of
poor people who eked out a scant subsistence on a small estate called
Canquoelle. Peyrade, paternal uncle of Theodose de la Peyrade, was of
noble birth, but kept the fact secret. He went from Avignon to Paris
in 1776, where he entered the police force two years later. Lenoir
thought well of him. Peyrade's success in life was impaired only by
his immoralities; otherwise it would have been much more brilliant and
lasting. He had a genius for spying, also much executive ability.
Fouche employed him and Corentin in connection with the affair of
Gondreville's imaginary abduction. A kind of police ministry was given
to him in Holland. Louis XVIII. counseled with him and gave him
employment, but Charles X. held aloof from this shrewd employe.
Peyrade lived in poverty on rue des Moineaux with an adored daughter,
Lydie, the child of La Beaumesnil of the Comedie-Francaise. Certain
events brought him into the notice of Nucingen, who employed him in
the search for Esther Gobseck, at the same time warning him against
the courtesan's followers. The police department, having been told of
this arrangement by the so-called Abbe Carlos Herrera, would not
permit him to enter into the employ of a private individual. Despite
the protection of his friend, Corentin, and the talent as a policeman,
which he had shown under the assumed names of Canquoelle and
Saint-Germain, especially in connection with F. Gaudissart's seizure,
Peyrade failed in his struggle with Jacques Collin. His excellent
transformation into a nabob defender of Madame Theodore Gaillard made
the former convict so angry that, during the last years of the
Restoration, he took revenge on him by making away with him. Peyrade's
daughter was abducted and he died from the effects of poison. [The
Gondreville Mystery. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]