RONCERET (Du), president of the Alencon tribunal under the
Restoration; was then a tall man, very thin, with forehead sloping
back to his thin chestnut hair; eyes of different colors, and
compressed lips. Not having been courted by the nobility, he turned
his attention to the middle classes, and then in the suit against
Victurnien d'Esgrignon, charged with forgery, he immediately took part
in the prosecution. That a preliminary trial might be avoided he kept
away from Alencon, but a judgment which acquitted Victurnien was
rendered during his absence. M. du Ronceret, in Machiavelli fashion,
manoeuvred to gain for his son Fabien the hand of a wealthy heiress of
the city, Mademoiselle Blandureau, who had also been sought by Judge
Blondet for his son Joseph. In this contest the judge won over his
chief. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] M. du Ronceret died in 1837,
while holding the presidency of chamber at the Royal Court of Caen.
The Du Roncerets, ennobled under Louis XV., had arms bearing the word
"Servir" as a motto and a squire's helmet. [Beatrix.]
RONCERET (Madame du), wife of the preceding, tall and ill-formed; of
serious disposition; dressed herself in the most absurd costumes of
gorgeous colors; spent much time at her toilet, and never went to a
ball without first decorating her head with a turban, such as the
English were then wearing. Madame du Ronceret received each week, and
each quarter gave a great three-course dinner, which was spoken of in
Alencon, for the president then endeavored, with his miserly
abundance, to compete with M. du Bousquier's elegance. In the
Victurnien d'Esgrignon affair, Madame du Ronceret, at the instigation
of her husband, urged the deputy, Sauvages, to work against the young
nobleman. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
RONCERET (Fabien-Felicien du), or Duronceret, son of the preceding
couple; born about 1802, educated at Alencon; was here the companion
in dissipation of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, whose evil nature he
stimulated at M. du Bousquier's instigation. [Jealousies of a Country
Town.] At first a judge in Alencon, Du Ronceret resigned after the
death of his father and went to Paris in 1838, with the intention of
pushing himself into notice by first causing an uproar. He became
acquainted in Bohemian circles where he was called "The Heir," on
account of some prodigalities. Having made the acquaintance of
Couture, the journalist, he was presented by him to Madame Schontz, a
popular courtesan of the day, and became his successor in an elegantly
furnished establishment in a first floor on rue Blanche. He there
began as vice-president of a horticultural society. After an opening
session, during which he delivered an address which he had paid
Lousteau five hundred francs to compose, and where he made himself
noticed by a flower given him by Judge Blondet, he was decorated.
Later he married Madame Schontz, who wished to enter middle-class
society. Ronceret expected, with her influence, to become president of
the court and officer of the Legion of Honor [Beatrix.] While
purchasing a shawl for his wife at M. Fritot's, in company with
Bixiou, Fabien du Ronceret was present about 1844 at the comedy which
took place when the Selim shawl was sold to Mistress Noswell.
[Gaudissart II.]
RONCERET (Madame Fabien du), born Josephine Schiltz in 1805, wife of
the preceding, daughter of a colonel under the Empire; fatherless and
motherless, at nine years of age she was sent to Saint-Denis by
Napoleon in 1814, and remained in that educational institution, as
assistant-mistress, until 1827. At this time Josephine Schiltz, who
was a god-child of the Empress, began the adventurous life of a
courtesan, after the example of some of her companions who were, like
her, at the end of their patience. She now changed her name from
Schiltz to Schontz, and she was also known under the assumed name of
Little Aurelie. Animated, intelligent and pretty, after having
sacrificed herself to true love, after having known "some poor but
dishonorable writers," after having tried intimacy with several rich
simpletons, she was met in a day of distress, at Valentino Mussard's,
by Arthur de Rochefide, who loved her madly. Having been abandoned by
his wife for two years, he lived with her in free union. This evil
state of affairs existed until the time when Josephine Schiltz was
married by Fabien du Ronceret. In order to have revenge on the Marquis
de Rochefide for abandoning her, she gave him a peculiar disease,
which she had made Fabien du Ronceret contract, and which also was
conveyed to Calyste du Guenic. During her life as a courtesan, her
rivals were Suzanne de Val-Noble, Fanny Beaupre, Mariette, Antonia,
and Florine. She was intimate with Finot, Nathan, Claude Vignon, to
whom she probably owed her critical mind, Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Victor
de Vernisset, La Palferine, Gobeneim, Vermanton the cynical
philosphoer, etc. She even hoped to marry one of these. In 1836 she
lived on rue Flechier, and was the mistress of Lousteau, to whom she
wished to marry Felicie Cardot, the notary's daughter. Later she
belonged to Stidmann. In 1838 she was present at Josepha's
house-warming on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. In 1840, at the first
performance at the Ambigu, she met Madame de la Baudraye, then
Lousteau's mistress. Josephine Schiltz finally became the wife of
President du Ronceret. [Beatrix. The Muse of the Department. Cousin
Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.]
RONQUEROLLES (Marquis de), brother of Madame de Serizy; uncle of the
Comtesse Laginska; one of "The Thirteen," and one of the most
efficient governmental diplomats under Louis Philippe; next to the
Prince de Talleyrand the shrewdest ambassador; was of great service to
Marsay during his service as a minister; was sent to Russia in 1838 on
a secret mission. Having lost his two children during the cholera
scourge of 1832, he was left without a direct heir. He had been a
deputy on the Right Centre under the Restoration, representing a
department in Bourgogne, where he was proprietor of a forest and of a
castle next to the Aigues in the commune of Blangy. When Gaubertin,
the steward, was discharged by the Comte de Montcornet, Soudry spoke
as follows: "Patience! We have Messieurs de Soulanges and de
Ronquerolles." [The Imaginary Mistress. The Peasantry. Ursule
Mirouet.] M. de Ronquerolles was an intimate friend of the Marquis
d'Aiglemont; they even addressed each other familiarly as _thou_
instead of _you_. [A Woman of Thirty.] He alone knew of Marsay's first
love and the name of "Charlotte's" husband. [Another Study of Woman.]
In 1820 the Marquis de Ronquerolles, while at a ball at the
Elysee-Bourbon, in the Duchesse de Berri's house, provoked Auguste de
Maulincour, of whom Ferragus Bourignard had complained, to a duel.
Also, as a result of his membership in the Thirteen, Ronquerolles,
along with Marsay, helped General de Montriveau abduct the Duchesse de
Langeais from the convent of bare-footed Carmelites, where she had
taken refuge. [The Thirteen.] In 1839 he was M. de Rhetore's second in
a duel fought with Dorlange-Sallenauve, the sculptor, in connection
with Marie Gaston. [The Member for Arcis.]
ROSALIE, rosy-cheeked and buxom, waiting-maid to Madame de Merret at
Vendome; then, after the death of her mistress, servant employed by
Madame Lepas, tavern-keeper in that town. She finally told Horace
Bianchon the drama of La Grande Breteche and the misfortunes of the
Merrets. [La Grande Breteche.]
ROSALIE, chambermaid to Madame Moreau at Presles in 1822. [A Start in
Life.]
ROSE, maid in the service of Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu in 1823,
at the time when this young lady, having left the Carmelites of Blois,
came to live with her father on the Boulevard des Invalides in Paris.
[Letters of Two Brides.]
ROSINA, an Italian from Messina, wife of a Piedmont gentleman, who was
captain in the French army under the Empire; mistress of her husband's
colonel. She died with her lover near Beresina in 1812, her jealous
husband having set fire to the hut which she and the colonel were
occupying. [Another Study of Woman.]
ROUBAUD, born about 1803 was declared doctor by the Paris medical
school, a pupil of Desplein; practiced medicine at Montegnac,
Haute-Vienne, under Louis Philippe, small man of fair skin and very
insipid appearance, but with gray eyes which betrayed the depth of a
physiologist and the tenacity of a student. Roubaud was introduced to
Madame Graslin by the Cure Bonnet, who was in despair at Roubaud's
religious indifference. The young physician admired and secretly loved
this celebrated Limousinese, and became converted suddenly to
Catholicism on seeing the saintly death of Madame Graslin. When dying
she made him head-physician in a hospital founded by her at the
Tascherons near Montegnac. [The Country Parson.]
ROUGET (Doctor), an Issoudun physician under Louis XVI. and the
Republic; born in 1737; died in 1805; married the most beautiful girl
of the city, whom, it is said, he made very unhappy. He had by her two
children: a son, Jean-Jacques; and, ten years later, a daughter,
Agathe, who became Madame Bridau. The birth of this daughter brought
about a rupture between the doctor and his intimate friend, the
sub-delegate Lousteau, whom Rouget, doubtless wrongly, accused of being
the girl's father. Each of these men charged the other with being the
father of Maxence Gilet, who was in reality the son of a dragoon
officer, stationed at Bourges. Doctor Rouget, who passed for a very
disagreeable, unaccommodating man, was selfish and spiteful. He
quickly got rid of his daughter, whom he hated. After his wife, his
mother-in-law and his father-in-law had died, he was very rich, and
although his life was apparently regular and free from scandal, he was
in reality very dissipated. In 1799, filled with admiration for the
beauty of the little Rabouilleuse, Flore Brazier, he received her into
his own home, where she stayed, becoming first the mistress, and
afterwards the wife of his son, Jean-Jacques, and eventually Madame
Philippe Bridau, Comtesse de Bramboug. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
ROUGET (Madame), born Descoings, wife of the preceding, daughter of
rich and avaricous wool-dealers at Issoudun, elder sister of the
grocer, Descoings, who married the widow of M. Bixiou and afterwards
died with Andre Chenier, July 25, 1794, on the scaffold. As a young
woman, although in very poor health, she was celebrated for her
beauty. Not being gifted with a very sound intellect, when married it
was thought that she was very badly treated by Doctor Rouget. Her
husband believed that she was unfaithful to him for the sake of the
sub-delegate, Lousteau. Madame Rouget, deprived of her dearly-beloved
daughter, and finding her son lacking altogether in affection for her,
declined rapidly and died early in 1799, unwept by her husband, who
had counted correctly on her early death. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
ROUGET (Jean-Jacques), born at Issoudun in 1768, son of the preceding
couple, brother of Madame Bridau, who was ten years his junior.
Entirely lacking in intellect, he became wildly in love with Flore
Brazier, whom he knew as a child in his father's house. He made this
girl his servant-mistress soon after the doctor's death, and allowed
her lover, Maxence Gilet, near her. He finally married her in 1823,
being urged to do so by his nephew, Philippe Bridau, who soon took
Rouget to Paris, and there arranged for the old man's early death by
starting him into dissipation. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] After the
death of J.-J. Rouget, the Baudrayes of Sancerre bought part of his
furniture, and had it removed from Issoudun to Anzy, where they placed
it in their castle, which had formerly belonged to the Cadignans. [The
Muse of the Department.]