RAGON born about 1748; a perfumer on rue Saint-Honore, between
Saint-Roche and rue des Frondeurs, Paris, towards the close of the
eighteenth century; small man, hardly five feet tall, with a face like
a nut-cracker, self-important and known for his gallantry. He was
succeeded in his business, the "Reine des Roses," by his chief clerk,
Cesar Birotteau, after the eighteenth Brumaire. As a former perfumer
to Her Majesty Queen Marie-Antoinette, M. Ragon always showed Royalist
zeal, and, under the Republic, the Vendeans used him to communicate
between the princes and the Royalist committee of Paris. He received
at that time the Abbe de Marolles, to whom he pointed out and revealed
the person of Louis XVI.'s executioner. In 1818, being a loser in the
Nucingen speculation in Wortschin mining stock, Ragon lived with his
wife in an apartment on rue du Petit-Bourbon-Saint-Sulpice. [Cesar
Birotteau. An Episode under the Terror.]
RAGON (Madame), born Popinot; sister of Judge Popinot, wife of the
preceding, being very nearly the same age as her husband, was in 1818
"a tall slender woman of wrinkled face, sharp nose, thin lips, and the
artificial manner of a marchioness of the old line." [Cesar
Birotteau.]
RAGOULLEAU[*] (Jean-Antoine), a Parisian lawyer, whose signature the
widow Morin tried to extort. She also attempted his assassination, and
was condemned, January 11, 1812, on the evidence of a number of
witnesses, among others that of Poiret, to twenty years of hard labor.
[Father Goriot.]
[*] The real spelling of the name, as shown by some authentic papers,
is Ragouleau.
RAGUET, working boy in the establishment of Cesar Birotteau, the
perfumer, in 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]
RAPARLIER, a Douai notary; drew up marriage contracts in 1825 for
Marguerite Claes and Emmanuel de Solis, for Felicie Claes and Pierquin
the notary, and for Gabriel Claes and Mademoiselle Conyncks. [The
Quest for the Absolute.]
RAPARLIER, a Douai auctioneer, under the Restoration; nephew of the
preceding; took an inventory at the Claes house after the death of
Madame Balthazar Claes in 1816. [The Quest of the Absolute.]
RAPP, French general, born at Colmar in 1772; died in 1821. As
aide-de-camp of the First Consul, Bonaparte, he found himself one day
in October serving near his chief at the Tuileries, when the
proscribed Corsican, Bartolomeo de Piombo, came up rather unexpectedly.
Rapp, who was suspicious of this man, as he was of all Corsicians,
wished to stay at Bonaparte's side during the interview, but the Consul
good-naturedly sent him away. [The Vendetta.] On October 13, 1806, the
day before the battle of Jena, Rapp had just made an important report
to the Emperor at the moment when Napoleon was receiving on the next
day's battlefield Mademoiselle Laurence de Cinq-Cygne and M. de
Chargeboeuf, who had come from France to ask for the pardon of the two
Hauteserres and the two Simeuses, people affected by the political
suit and condemned to hard labor. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
RAQUETS (Des), lived at Douai, of Flemish descent, and devoted to the
traditions and customs of his province; very wealthy uncle of the
notary Pierquin, his only heir, who received his inheritance towards
the close of the Restoration. [The Quest of the Absolute.]
RASTIGNAC (Chevalier de), great-uncle of Eugene de Rastignac; as
vice-admiral was commander of the "Vengeur" before 1789, and lost
his entire fortune in the service of the king, as the revolutionary
government did not wish to satisfy his demands in the adjusting of the
Compagnie des Indes affairs. [Father Goriot.]
RASTIGNAC (Baron and Baronne de) had, near Ruffec, Charente, an
estate, where they lived in the latter part of the eighteenth and the
beginning of the nineteenth centuries, and where were born to them
five children: Eugene, Laure-Rose, Agathe, Gabriel and Henri. They
were poor, and lived in close retirement, keeping a dignified silence,
and like their neighbours, the Marquis and Marquise de Pimentel,
exercised, through their connection with court circles, a strong
influence over the entire province, being invited at various times to
the home of Madame de Bargeton, at Angouleme, where they met Lucien de
Rubempre and were able to understand him. [Father Goriot. Lost
Illusions.]
RASTIGNAC (Eugene de),[*] eldest son of the Baron and Baronne de
Rastignac, born at Rastignac near Ruffec in 1797. He came to Paris in
1819 to study law; lived at first on the third floor of the Vauquer
lodging-house, rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, having then some
association with Jacques Collin, called Vautrin, who was especially
interested in him and wanted him to marry Victorine Taillefer.
Rastignac became the lover of Madame de Nucingen, second daughter of
Joachim Goriot, an old vermicelli-maker, and in February, 1820, lived
on rue d'Artois in pretty apartments, rented and furnished by the
father of his mistress. Goriot died in his arms. The servant,
Christophe, and Rastignac were the only attendants in the good man's
funeral procession. At the Vauquer lodging-house he was intimate with
Horace Bianchon, a medical student. [Father Goriot.] In 1821, at the
Opera, young Rastignac made fun for the occupants of two boxes over
the provincialisms of Madame de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre,
"young Chardon." This led Madame d'Espard to leave the theatre with
her relative, thus publicly and in a cowardly way abandoning the
distinguished provincial. Some months later Rastignac sought the favor
of this same Lucien de Rubempre, who was by that time an influential
citizen. He agreed to act with Marsay as the poet's witness in the
duel which he fought with Michel Chrestien, in regard to Daniel
d'Arthez. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] At the last
masquerade ball of 1824 Rastignac found Rubempre, who had disappeared
from Paris some time before. Vautrin, recalling his memories of the
Vauquer lodging-house, urged him authoritatively to treat Lucien as a
friend. Shortly after, Rastignac became a frequenter of the sumptuous
mansion furnished by Nucingen for Esther van Gobseck on rue
Saint-Georges. Rastignac was present at Lucien de Rubempre's funeral
in May, 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] About the same time
the Comte de Fontaine asked his daughter Emilie what she thought of
Rastignac--among several others--as a possible husband for her. But
knowing the relations of this youthful aspirant with Madame de
Nucingen, she saved herself by replying maliciously. [The Ball at
Sceaux.] In 1828 Rastignac sought to become Madame d'Espard's lover,
but was restrained by his friend, Doctor Bianchon. [The Interdiction.]
During the same year Rastignac was treated slightingly by Madame de
Listomere, because he asked her to return a letter, which through
mistake had been sent to her, but which he had meant for Madame de
Nucingen. [A Study of Woman.] After the Revolution of July he was a
guest at Mademoiselle des Touches's evening party, where Marsay told
the story of his first love. [Another Study of Woman.] At this time
he was intimate with Raphael de Valentin, and expected to marry an
Alsatian. [The Magic Skin.] In 1832, Rastignac, having been appointed
a baron, was under-secretary of state in the department of which Marsay
was the minister. [The Secrets of a Princess.] In 1833-34, he
volunteered as nurse at the bedside of the dying minister, in the hope
of being remembered in his will. One evening about this same time he
took Raoul Nathan and Emile Blondet, whom he had met in society, to
supper with him at Very's. He then advised Nathan to profit by the
advances made him by the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse. [A Daughter of
Eve.] In 1833, at the Princesse de Cadignan's home, in the presence of
the Marquise d'Espard, the old Ducs de Lenoncourt and de Navarreins,
the Comte and the Comtesse de Vandenesse, D'Arthez, two ambassadors,
and two well-known orators of the Chamber of Peers, Rastignac heard
his minister reveal the secrets of the abduction of Senator Malin, an
affair which took place in 1806. [The Gondreville Mystery.] In 1836,
having become enriched by the third Nucingen failure, in which he was
more or less a willing accomplice, he became possessed of an income of
forty thousand francs. [The Firm of Nucingen.] In 1838 he attended the
opening reception given at Josepha's mansion on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque.
He was also witness at Hortense Hulot's marriage to Wenceslas Steinbock.
He married Augusta de Nucingen, daughter of Delphine de Nucingen, his
former mistress, whom he had quitted five years previously. In 1839,
Rastignac, minister once more, and this time of public works, was made
count almost in spite of himself. In 1845 he was, moreover, made a
peer. He had then an income of 300,000 francs. He was in the habit of
saying: "There is no absolute virtue, all things are dependent on
circumstances." [Cousin Betty. The Member for Arcis. The Unconscious
Humorists.]
[*] In a recent publication of Monsieur S. de Lovenjoul, he speaks of
a recent abridged biography of Eugene de Rastignac.
RASTIGNAC (Laure-Rose and Agathe de),[*] sisters of Eugene de
Rastignac; second and third children of the Baron and Baronne de
Rastignac; Laure, the elder, born in 1801; Agathe, the second, born in
1802; both were reared unostentatiously in the Rastignac chateau. In
1819 they sent what they had saved by economy to their brother Eugene,
then a student. Several years after, when he was wealthy and powerful,
he married one of them to Martial de la Roche-Hugon, the other to a
minister. In 1821, Laure, with her father and mother, was present at a
reception of M. de Bargeton's, where she admired Lucien de Rubempre.
[Father Goriot. Lost Illusions.] Madame de la Roche-Hugon in 1839 took
her several daughters to a children's dance at Madame de l'Estorade's
in Paris. [The Member for Arcis.]
[*] The Mesdemoiselles de Rastignac are here placed together under
their maiden name, as it is not known which one married Martial de
la Roche-Hugon.
RASTIGNAC (Monseigneur Gabriel de), brother of Eugene de Rastignac;
one of the youngest two children of the Baron and Baronne de
Rastignac; was private secretary to the Bishop of Limoges towards the
end of the Restoration, during the trial of Tascheron. In 1832 he
became, when only a young man of thirty, a bishop. He was consecrated
by the Archbishop Dutheil. [Father Goriot. The Country Parson. A
Daughter of Eve.]
RASTIGNAC (Henri de), the fifth child, probably of the Baron de
Rastignac and his wife. Nothing is known of his life. [Father Goriot.]
RATEL, gendarme in the Orne district; in 1809, along with his
fellow-officer, Mallet, was charged with the capture of "Lady" Bryond
des Miniares, who was implicated in the affair known as the "Chauffeurs
de Mortagne." He found the fugitive, but, instead of arresting her,
allowed himself to be unduly influenced by her, and then protected her
and let her escape. This action on his part was known to Mallet.
Ratel, when imprisoned, confessed all, and committed suicide before
the time assigned for trial. [The Seamy Side of History.]
RAVENOUILLET, porter in Bixiou's house, at No. 112 rue Richelieu, in
1845; son of a Carcassonne grocer; a steward throughout his life and
owed his first position to his fellow-countryman, Massol.
Ravenouillet, although uneducated was not unintelligent. According to
Bixiou, he was the "Providence at thirty per cent" of the seventy-one
lodgers in the house, through whom he netted in the neighborhood of
six thousand francs a month. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
RAVENOUILLET (Madame), wife of the preceding. [The Unconscious
Humorists.]
RAVENOUILLET (Lucienne), daughter of the preceding couple, was in 1845
a pupil in the Paris Conservatory of Music. [The Unconscious
Humorists.]
REGNAULD (Baron) (1754-1829), celebrated artist, member of the
Institute. Joseph Bridau, when fourteen, was a frequent visitor at his
studio, in 1812-1813. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
REGNAULT, former chief clerk to Maitre Roguin, a Paris notary; came to
Vendome in 1816 and purchased there a notaryship. He was called by
Madame de Merret to her death-bed, and was made her executor. In this
position, some years later, he urged Doctor Bianchon to respect one of
the last wishes of the deceased by discontinuing his promenades in the
Grande Breteche garden, as she had wished this property to remain
entirely unused for half a century. Maitre Regnault married a wealthy
cousin of Vendome. Regnault was tall and slender, with sloping
forehead, small pointed head and wan complexion. He frequently used
the expression, "One moment." [La Grande Breteche.]
REGNIER (Claude-Antoine), Duc de Massa, born in 1746, died 1814; an
advocate, and afterwards deputy to the Constituency; was high justice
--justice of the peace--during the celebrated trial of the Simeuses
and Hauteserres, accused of the abduction of Senator Malin. He noticed
the talent displayed by Granville for the defendants, and a little
later, having met him at Archchancelor Cambaceres's house, he took the
young barrister into his own carriage, setting him down on the Quai
des Augustins, at the young man's door, after giving him some
practical advice and assuring him of his protection. [The Gondreville
Mystery. A Second Home.]
REMONENCQ, an Auvergnat, dealer in old iron, established on rue de
Normandie, in the house in which Pons and Schmucke lived, and where
the Cibots were porters. Remonencq, who had come to Paris with the
intention of being a porter, ran errands between 1825 and 1831 for the
dealers in curiosities on Boulevard Beaumarchais and the coppersmiths
on rue de Lappe, then opened in this same quarter a small shop for
odds and ends. He lived there in sordid economy. He had been in
Sylvain Pons's house, and had fully recognized the great value of the
aged collector's treasures. His greed urged him to crime, and he
instigated Madame Cibot in her theft at the Pons house. After
receiving his share of the property, he poisoned the husband of the
portress, in order to marry the widow, with whom he established a
curiosity shop in an excellent building on the Boulevard de la
Madeleine. About 1846 he unwittingly poisoned himself with a glass of
vitriol, which he had placed near his wife. [Cousin Pons.]
REMONENCQ (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, "a kind of idiot
with a vacant stare, dressed like a Japanese idol." She was her
brother's house-keeper. [Cousin Pons.]
REMONENCQ (Madame), born in 1796, at one time a beautiful oyster-woman
of the "Cadran Bleu" in Paris; married for love the porter-tailor,
Cibot, in 1828, and lived with him in the porter's lodge of a house on
rue de Normandie, belonging to Claude-Joseph Pillerault. In this house
the musicians, Pons and Schmucke, lived. She busied herself for some
time with the management of the house and the cooking for these two
celibates. At first she was faithful, but finally, moved by Remonencq,
and encouraged by Fontaine, the necromancer, she robbed the ill-fated
Pons. Her husband having been poisoned, without her knowledge, by
Remonencq, she married the second-hand dealer, now a dealer in
curiosities, and proprietor of the beautiful shop on the Boulevard de
la Madeleine. She survived her second husband. [Cousin Pons.]
REMY (Jean), peasant of Arcis-sur-Aube, against whom a neighbor lost a
lawsuit concerning a boundary line. This neighbor, who was given to
drink, used strong language in speaking against Jean Remy in a session
of the electors who had organized in the interest of
Dorlange-Sallenauve, a candidate, in the month of April, 1839. If we
may believe this neighbor, Jean Remy was a wife-beater, and had a
daughter who had obtained, through the influence of a deputy, and
apparently without any claim, an excellent tobacco-stand on rue
Mouffetard. [The Member for Arcis.]
RENARD, former captain in the Imperial army, withdrew to Issoudun
during the Restoration; one of the officers in the Faubourg de Rome,
who were hostile to the "pekins" and partisans of Maxence (Max) Gilet.
Renard and Commandant Potel were seconds for Maxence in his duel with
Philippe Bridau--a duel which resulted in the former's death. [A
Bachelor's Establishment.]
RENARD, regimental quartermaster in the cavalry, 1812. Although
educated as a notary he became an under officer. He had the face of a
girl and was considered a "wheedler." He saved the life of his friend,
Genestas, several times, but enticed away from him a Polish Jewess,
whom he loved, married in Sarmatian fashion, and left enceinte. When
fatally wounded in the battle against the Russians, just before the
battle of Lutzen, in his last hours, to Genestas, he acknowledged
having betrayed the Jewess, and begged this gentleman to marry her and
claim the child, which would soon be born. This was done by the
innocent officer. Renard was the son of a Parisian wholesale grocer, a
"toothless shark," who would not listen to anything concerning the
quartermaster's offspring. [The Country Doctor.]