RENE, the only servant to M. du Bousquier of Alencon, in 1816; a silly
Breton servant, who, although very greedy, was perfectly reliable.
[Jealousies of a Country Town.]
RESTAUD (Comte de), a man whose sad life was first brought to the
notice of Barchou de Penhoen, a school-mate of Dufaure and Lambert;
born about 1780; husband of Anastasie Goriot, by whom he was ruined;
died in December, 1824, while trying to adjust matters favorably for
his eldest son, Ernest, the only one of Madame de Restaud's three
children whom he recognized as his own. To this end he had pretended
that, having been very extravagant, he was greatly in debt to Gobseck.
He assured his son by another letter of the real condition of his
estate. M. de Restaud, was similar in appearance to the Duc de
Richelieu, and had the proud manners of the statesman of the
aristocratic faubourg. [Gobseck. Father Goriot.]
RESTAUD (Comtesse Anastasie de), wife of the preceding; elder daughter
of the vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; a beautiful brunette of
queenly bearing and manners. Like the fair and gentle Madame de
Nucingen, her sister, she showed herself severe and ungrateful towards
the kindliest and weakest of fathers. She had three children, two boys
and a girl; Ernest, the eldest, being the only legitimate one. She
ruined herself for Trailles, her lover's benefit, selling her jewels
to Gobseck and endangering her children's future. As soon as her
husband had breathed his last, in a moment anxiously awaited, she took
from under his pillow and burned the papers which she believed
contrary to her own interests and those of her two natural children.
It thus followed that Gobseck, the fictitious creditor, gained a claim
on all of the remaining property. [Gobseck. Father Goriot.]
RESTAUD (Ernest de), eldest child of the preceding, and their only
legitimate one, as the other two were natural children of Maxime de
Trailles. In 1824, while yet a child, he received from his dying
father instruction to hand to Derville, the attorney, a sealed package
which contained his will; but Madame de Restaud, by means of her
maternal authority, kept Ernest from carrying out his promise. On
attaining his majority, after his fortune had been restored to him by
his father's fictitious creditor, Gobseck, he married Camille de
Grandlieu, who reciprocated his love for her. As a result of this
marriage Ernest de Restaud became connected with the Legitimists,
while his brother Felix, who had almost attained the position of
minister under Louis Philippe, followed the opposite party. [Gobseck.
The Member for Arcis.]
RESTAUD (Madame Ernest de), born Camille de Grandlieu in 1813,
daughter of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu. During the first years of
Louis Philippe's reign, while very young, she fell in love with and
married Ernest de Restaud, who was then a minor. [Gobseck. The Member
for Arcis.]
RESTAUD (Felix-Georges de), one of the younger children of the Comte
and Comtesse de Restaud; probably a natural son of Maxime de Trailles.
In 1839, Felix de Restaud was chief secretary to his cousin Eugene de
Rastignac, minister of public works. [Gobseck. The Member for Arcis.]
RESTAUD (Pauline de), legal daughter of the Comte and Comtesse de
Restaud, but probably the natural daughter of Maxime de Trailles. We
know nothing of her life. [Gobseck.]
REYBERT (De), captain in the Seventh regiment of artillery under the
Empire; born in the Messin country. During the Restoration he lived in
Presles, Seine-et-Oise, with his wife and daughter, on only six
hundred francs pension. As a neighbor of Moreau, manager of the Comte
de Serizy's estate, he detected the steward in some extortions, and
sending his wife to the count, denounced the guilty man. He was chosen
as Moreau's successor. Reybert married his daughter, without
furnishing her a dowry, to the wealthy farmer Leger. [A Start in
Life.]
REYBERT (Madame de), born Corroy, in Messin, wife of the preceding,
and like him of noble family. Her face was pitted by small-pox until
it looked like a skimmer; her figure was tall and spare; her eyes were
bright and clear; she was straight as a stick; she was a strict
Puritan, and subscribed to the Courrier Francais. She paid a visit to
the Comte de Serizy, and unfolded to him Moreau's extortions, thus
obtaining for her husband the stewardship of Presles. [A Start in
Life.]
RHETORE (Duc Alphonse de), eldest son of the Duc and Duchess de
Chaulieu, he became an ambassador in the diplomatic service. For many
years during the Restoration he kept Claudine Chaffaroux, called
Tullia, the star dancing-girl at the Opera, who married Bruel in 1824.
He became acquainted with Lucien de Rubempre, both in his own circle
of acquaintance and in the world of gallantry, and entertained him one
evening in his box at a first performance at the Ambigu in 1821. He
reproached his guest for having wounded Chatelet and Madame de
Bargeton by his newspaper satire, and at the same time, while
addressing him continually as Chardon, he counseled the young man to
become a Royalist, in order that Louis XVIII. might restore to him the
title and name of Rubempres, his maternal ancestors. The Duc de
Rhetore, however, disliked Lucien de Rubempre, and a little later at a
performance in the Italiens, he traduced him to Madame de Serizy, who
was really in love with the poet. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.
Letters of Two Brides.] In 1835, he married the Duchesse d'Argaiolo,
born the Princesse Soderini, a woman of great beauty and fortune.
[Albert Savarus.] In 1839, he had a duel with Dorlange-Sallenauve,
having provoked the latter, by speaking in a loud voice, which he knew
could be easily understood, and slandering Marie Gaston, second
husband of Dorlange's sister, Louise de Chaulieu. Dorlange was
wounded. [The Member for Arcis.]
RHETORE (Duchess de), born Francesca Soderini in 1802; a very
beautiful and wealthy Florentine; married, when very young, by her
father, to the Duc d'Argaiolo, who was also very rich and much older
than herself. In Switzerland or Italy she became acquainted with
Albert Savarus, when, as a result of political events, she and her
husband were proscribed and deprived of their property. The Duchesse
d'Argaiolo and Albert Savarus loved platonically, and Francesca-like
she promised her hand to her Francois whenever she should become a
widow. In 1835, having been widowed for some time, and, as a result of
Rosalie de Watteville's plots, believing herself forgotten and
betrayed by Savarus, from whom she had received no news, she gave her
hand to the Duc de Rhetore, the ex-ambassador. The marriage took place
in the month of May at Florence and was celebrated with much pomp. The
Duchesse d'Argaiolo is pictured under the name of the Princesse
Gandolphini in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published in 1834 by the Revue
de l'Est. Under Louis Philippe, the Duchesse de Rhetore became
acquainted with Mademoiselle de Watteville at a charity entertainment.
On their second meeting, which took place at the Opera ball,
Mademoiselle de Watteville revealed her own ill-doings and vindicated
Savarus. [Albert Savarus.]
RICHARD (Veuve), a Nemours woman from whom Ursule Mirouet, afterwards
Vicomtesse de Portenduere, after the death of Doctor Minoret, her
guardian, purchased a house to occupy. [Ursule Mirouet.]
RIDAL (Fulgence), dramatic author; member of the Cenacle, which held
its sessions at D'Arthez's home on rue des Quatre-Vents, during the
Restoration. He disparaged Leon Giraud's beliefs, went under a
Rabelaisian guise, careless, lazy and skeptical, also inclined to be
melancholy and happy at the same time; nick-named by his friends the
"Regimental Dog." Fulgence Ridal and Joseph Bridau, with other members
of the Cenacle, were present at an evening party given by Madame Veuve
Bridau, in 1819, to celebrate the return of her son Philippe from
Texas. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at
Paris.] In 1845, having been a vaudevillist, he was given the
direction of a theatre in association with Lousteau. He had
influencial government friends. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
RIFFE, copying-clerk in the Financial Bureau, who had charge of the
"personnel." [The Government Clerks.]