RIGANSON, called Biffon, also Chanoine, constituted with La Biffe, his
mistress, one of the most important couples in his class of society.
When a convict he met Jacques Collin, called Vautrin, and in May,
1830, saw him once more at the Conciergerie, at the time of the
judical investigation succeeding Esther Gobseck's death. Riganson was
short of stature, fat, and with livid skin, and an eye black and
sunken. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
RIGOU (Gregoire), born in 1756; at one time a Benedictine friar. Under
the Republic he married Arsene Pichard, only heir of the rich Cure
Niseron. He became a money-lender; filled the office of mayor of
Blangy, Bourgogne, up to 1821, when he was succeeded by Montcornet. On
the arrival of the general in the country Rigou endeavored to be
friendly with him, but having been quickly slighted, he became one of
the Montcornets' most dangerous enemies, along with Gaubertin, mayor
of Ville-aux-Fayes, and Soudry, mayor of Soulanges. This triumvirate
succeeded in arousing the peasants against the owner of Aigues, and
the local citizens having become more or less opposed to him, the
general sold his property, and it fell to the three associates. Rigou
was selfish, avaricious but pleasure-loving; he looked like a condor.
His name was often the subject of a pun, and he was called Grigou (G.
Rigou--a miserly man). "Deep as a monk, silent as a Benedictine,
crafty as a priest, this man would have been a Tiberius in Rome, a
Richelieu under Louis XIII. or a Fouche under the Convention." [The
Peasantry.]
RIGOU (Madame), born Arsene Pichard, wife of the preceding, niece of a
maid named Pichard, who was house-keeper for Cure Niseron under the
Revolution, and whom she succeeded as house-keeper. She inherited,
together with her aunt, some money from a wealthy priest. She was
known while young by the name of La Belle Arsene. She had great
influence over the cure, although she could neither read nor write.
After her marriage with Rigou, she became the old Benedictine's slave.
She lost her Rubens-like freshness, her magical figure, her beautiful
teeth and the lustre of her eyes when she gave birth to her daughter,
who eventually became the wife of Soudry (fils). Madame Rigou quietly
bore the continued infidelity of her husband, who always had pretty
maids in his household. [The Peasantry.]
RIVAUDOULT D'ARSCHOOT, of the Dulmen branch of a noted family of
Galicia or Russie-Rouge; heirs, through their grandfather, to this
family, and also, in default of the direct heirs, successors to the
titles. [The Thirteen.]
RIVET (Achille), maker of lace and embroidery on rue des
Mauvaises-Paroles, in the old Langeais house, built by the illustrious
family at the time when the greatest lords were clustered around the
Louvre. In 1815 he succeeded the Pons Brothers, embroiderers to the
Court, and was judge in the tribunal of commerce. He employed Lisbeth
Fischer, and, despite their quarrel, rendered this spinster some
service. Achille Rivet worshiped Louis Philippe, who was to him the
"noble representative of the class out of which he constructed his
dynasty." He loved the Poles less, at the time they were preventing
European equilibrium. He was willing to aid Cousin Betty in the revenge
against Wenceslas, which she once contemplated, as a result of her
jealousy. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]
ROBERT, a Paris restaurant-keeper, near Frascati. Early in 1822 he
furnished a banquet lasting nine hours, at the time of the founding of
the Royalist journal, the "Reveil." Theodore Gaillard and Hector
Merlin, founders of the paper, Nathan and Lucien de Rubempre,
Martainville, Auger, Destains and many authors who "were responsible
for monarchy and religion," were present. "We have enjoyed an
excellent monarchical and religious feast!" said one of the best known
romanticists as he stood on the threshold. This sentence became famous
and appeared the next morning in the "Miroir." Its repetition was
wrongly attributed to Rubempre, although it had been reported by a
book-seller who had been invited to the repast. [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris.]
ROCHEFIDE (Marquis Arthur de), one of the later nobility; married
through his father's instrumentality, in 1828, Beatrix de Casteran, a
descendant of the more ancient nobility. His father thought that by
doing this his son would obtain an appointment to the peerage, an
honor which he himself had vainly sought. The Comtesse de Montcornet
was interested in this marriage. Arthur de Rochefide served in the
Royal Guards. He was a handsome man, but not especially worthy. He
spent much of his time at his toilet, and it was known that he wore a
corset. He was everybody's friend, as he joined in with the opinions
and extravagances of everybody. His favorite amusement was
horse-racing, and he supported a journal devoted to the subject of
horses. Having been deserted by his wife, he mourned without becoming
the object of ridicule, and passed for a "jolly, good fellow." Made
rich by the death of his father and of his elder sister, who was the
wife of D'Ajuda-Pinto, he inherited, among other things, a splendid
mansion on rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honore. He slept and ate there only
occasionally and was very happy at not having the marital obligations
and expense customary with married men. At heart he was so well
satisfied at having been deserted by his wife, that he said to his
friends, "I was born lucky." For a long time he supported Madame
Schontz, and then they lived together maritally. She reared his
legitimate son as carefully as though he were her own child. After 1840
she married Du Ronceret, and Arthur de Rochefide was rejoined by his
wife. He soon communicated to her a peculiar disease, which Madame
Schontz, angered at having been abandoned, had given to him, as well
as to Baron Calyste du Guenic. [Beatrix.] In 1838, Rochefide was
present at the house-warming given by Josepha in her mansion on rue de
la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]
ROCHEFIDE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, younger daughter of
the Marquis de Casteran; born Beatrix-Maximilienne-Rose de Casteran,
about 1808, in the Casteran Castle, department of Orne. After being
reared there she became the wife of the Marquis of Rochefide in 1828.
She was fair of skin, but a flighty vain coquette, without heart or
brains--a second Madame d'Espard, except for her lack of intelligence.
About 1832 she left her husband to flee into Italy with the musician,
Gennaro Conti, whom she took from her friend, Mademoiselle des
Touches. Finally she allowed Calyste du Guenic to pay her court. She
had met him also at her friend's house, and at first resisted the
young man. Afterwards, when he was married, she abandoned herself to
him. This liaison filled Madame du Guenic with despair, but was ended
after 1840 by the crafty manoeuvres of the Abbe Brossette. Madame de
Rochefide then rejoined her husband in the elegant mansion on rue
d'Anjou-Saint-Honore, but not until she had retired with him to
Nogent-sur-Marne, to care for her health which had been injured during
the resumption of marital relations. Before this reconciliation she
lived in Paris on rue de Chartres-du-Roule, near Monceau Park. The
Marquise de Rochefide had, by her husband, a son, who was for some
time under the care of Madame Schontz. [Beatrix. The Secrets of a
Princess.] In 1834, in the presence of Madame Felix de Vandenesse,
then in love with the poet Nathan, the Marquise Charles de Vandenesse,
sister-in-law of Madame Felix, Lady Dudley, Mademoiselle des Touches,
the Marquise d'Espard, Madame Moina de Saint Hereen and Madame de
Rochefide expressed their ideas on love and marriage. "Love is
heaven," said Lady Dudley. "It is hell!" cried Mademoiselle des
Touches. "But it is a hell where there is love," replied Madame de
Rochefide. "There is often more pleasure in suffering than in
happiness; remember the martyrs!" [A Daughter of Eve.] The history of
Sarrasine was told her about 1830. The marquise was acquainted with
the Lantys, and at their house saw the strange Zambinella.
[Sarrasine.] One afternon, in the year 1836 or 1837, in her house on
rue des Chartres, Madame de Rochefide heard the story of the "Prince
of Bohemia" told by Nathan. After this narrative she became wild over
La Palferine. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
ROCHEGUDE (Marquis de), an old man in 1821, possessing an income of
six hundred thousand francs, offered a brougham at this time to
Coralie, who was proud of having refused it, being "an artist, and not
a prostitute." [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] This Rochegude
was apparently a Rochefide. The change of names and confusion of
families was corrected eventually by law.
RODOLPHE, natural son of an intelligent and charming Parisian and of a
Barbancon gentleman who died before he was able to arrange
satisfactorily for his sweetheart. Rodolphe was a fictitious character
in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus in the "Revue de l'Est"
in 1834, where, under this assumed name, he recounted his own
adventures. [Albert Savarus.]
ROGER, general, minister and director of personnel in the War
Department in 1841. For thirty years a comrade of Baron Hulot. At this
time he enlightened his friend on the administrative situation, which
was seriously endangered at the time he asked for an appointment for
his sub-chief, Marneffe. This advancement was not merited, but became
possible through the dismissal of Coquet, the chief of bureau. [Cousin
Betty.]
ROGRON, Provins tavern-keeper in the last half of the eighteenth
century and the beginning of the nineteenth. He was at first a carter,
and married the daughter of M. Auffray, a Provins grocer, by his first
wife. When his father-in-law died, Rogron bought his house from the
widow for a song, retired from business and lived there with his wife.
He possessed about two thousand francs in rentals, obtained from
twenty-seven pieces of land and the interest on the twenty thousand
francs raised by the sale of his tavern. Having become in his old age
a selfish, avaricious drunkard and shrewd as a Swiss tavern-keeper, he
reared coarsely and without affection the two children, Sylvie and
Jerome-Denis, whom he had by his wife. He died, in 1822, a widower.
[Pierrette.]
ROGRON (Madame), wife of the preceding; daughter, by his first wife,
of M. Auffray, a Provins grocer; paternal aunt of Madame Lorrain, the
mother of Pierrette; born in 1743; very homely; married at the age of
sixteen; left her husband a widower. [Pierrette.]
ROGRON (Sylvie), elder child of the preceding; born between 1780 and
1785 at Provins; sent to the country to be nursed. When thirteen years
old she was placed in a store on rue Saint-Denis, Paris. When twenty
years old she was second clerk in a silk-store, the Ver Chinois, and
towards the end of 1815, bought with her own savings and those of her
brother the property of the Soeur de Famille, one of the best retail
haberdasher's establishments and then kept by Madame Guenee. Sylvie
and Jerome-Denis, partners in this establishment, retired to Provins
in 1823. They lived there in their father's house, he having been dead
several months, and received their cousin, the young Pierrette
Lorrain, a fatherless and motherless child of a delicate nature, whom
they treated harshly, and who died as a result of the brutal treatment
of Sylvie, an envious spinster. This woman had been sought in
marriage, on account of her dowry, by Colonel Gouraud, and she
believed herself deserted by him for Pierrette. [Pierrette.]
ROGRON (Jerome-Denis), two years younger than his sister Sylvie, and
like her sent to Paris by his father. When very young he entered the
establishment of one of the leading haberdashers on rue Saint-Denis,
the firm of Guepin at the Trois Quenouilles. He became first clerk
there at eighteen. Finally associated with Sylvie in the haberdasher's
establishment, the Soeur de Famille, he withdrew with her in 1823 to
Provins. Jerome-Denis Rogron was ignorant and did not amount to much,
but depended on his sister in everything, for Sylvie had "good sense
and was sharp at a bargain." He allowed his sister to maltreat
Pierrette Lorrain, and, when called before the Provins court as
responsible for the young girl's death, was acquitted. In his little
city, Rogron, through the influence of the attorney, Vinet, opposed
the government of Charles X. After 1830 he was appointed
receiver-general. The former Liberal, who was one of the masses, said
that Louis Philippe would not be a real king until he could create
noblemen. In 1828, although homely and unintelligent, he married the
beautiful Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, who inspired in him an old man's
foolish passion. [Pierrette.]
ROGRON (Madame Denis), born Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, about 1803, one
of the most beautiful young girls of Troyes, poor but noble and
ambitious. Her relative, Vinet the attorney, had made "a little
Catherine de Medicis" of her, and married her to Denis Rogron. Some
years after this marriage she desired to become a widow as soon as
possible, so that she might marry General Marquis de Montriveau, a
peer of France, who was very attentive to her. Montriveau controlled
the department in which Rogron had a receivership. [Pierrette.]
ROGUIN, born in 1761; for twenty-five years a Paris notary, tall and
heavy; black hair and high forehead; of somewhat distinguished
appearance; affected with ozoena. This affection caused his ruin, for,
having married the only daughter of the banker, Chevrel, he disgusted
his wife very soon, and she was untrue to him. On the other hand, he
had paid mistresses, and kept and was fleeced by Sarah van Gobseck
--"La Belle Hollandaise"--mother of Esther. He had met her about 1815.
In 1818 and 1819 Roguin, seriously compromised by careless financial
ventures as well as by dissipation, disappeared from Paris; and thus
brought about the ruin of Guillaume Grandet, Cesar Birotteau, and
Mesdames Descoings and Bridau. [Cesar Birotteau. Eugenie Grandet. A
Bachelor's Establishment.] Roguin had by his wife a daughter, whom he
married to the president of the Provins tribunal. She was called in
that city "the beautiful Madame Tiphaine." [Pierrette.] In 1816 he
made, for Ginevra di Piombo, a respectful request of her father that
he would allow his daughter to marry Luigi Porta, an enemy of the
family. [The Vendetta.]
ROGUIN (Madame), born Chevrel between the years 1770 and 1780; only
daughter of Chevrel, the banker; wife of the preceding; cousin of
Madame Guillaume of The Cat and Racket, and fifteen years her junior;
aided her relative's daughter, Augustine, in her love affair with the
painter, Sommervieux; pretty and coquettish; for a long time the
mistress of Tillet, the banker; was present with her husband at the
famous ball given by Cesar Birotteau, December 17, 1818. She had a
country-house at Nogent-sur-Marne, in which she lived with her lover
after Roguin's departure. [Cesar Birotteau. At the Sign of the Cat and
Racket. Pierrette.] In 1815 Caroline Crochard, then an embroiderer,
worked for Madame Roguin, who made her wait for her wages. [A Second
Home.] In 1834 and 1835 Madame Roguin, then more than fifty years of
age, still posed as young and dominated Du Tillet, who was married to
the charming Marie-Eugenie de Granville. [A Daughter of Eve.]