TONSARD (Marie), sister of the preceding; a blonde; had the loose and
uncivilized morals of her family. While mistress of Bonnebault, she
proved herself, on one occasion at the Cafe de la Paix of Soulanges,
to be fiercely jealous of Aglae Socquard, whom he wished to marry.
[The Peasantry.]
TONSARD (Reine), without any known relationship to all of the
preceding, was, in spite of being very ugly, the mistress of the son
of the Oliviers, porters to Valerie Marneffe-Crevel; and she remained
for a long time the confidential lady's-maid of that married
courtesan; but, being brought over by Jacques Collin, she eventually
betrayed and ruined the Crevel family. [Cousin Betty.]
TONY, coachman to Louis de l'Estorade, about 1840. [The Member for
Arcis.]
TOPINARD, born about 1805; officer in charge of the property of the
theatre managed by Felix Gaudissart; in charge also of the lamps and
fixtures; and, lastly, he had the task of placing the copies of the
music on the musicians' stands. He went every day to the rue Normandie
to get news of Sylvain Pons, who was suffering from a fatal attack of
hepatitis; in the latter part of April, 1845, he was, with Fraisier,
Villemot and Sonet's agent, one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of
the cousin of the Camusot de Marvilles. On leaving the Pere-Lachaise,
Topinard, who was living in the Cite Bordin, was moved to compassion
for Schmucke, brought him home, and finally received him under his
roof. Topinard then secured the position of cashier with Gaudissart,
but he almost lost his position for trying to defend the interests of
Schmucke, of whom the heirs-at-law of Pons had undertaken to rid
themselves. Even under these circumstances Topinard aided Schmucke in
his distress; he alone followed the German's body to the cemetery, and
took pains to have him buried beside Sylvain Pons. [Cousin Pons.]
TOPINARD (Madame Rosalie), wife of the preceding, born about 1815,
called Lolotte; she was a member of the choir under the direction of
Felix Gaudissart's predecessor, whose mistress she was. A victim of
her lover's failure, she became box-opener of the first tier, and also
quite a dealer in costumes during the following administration
(1834-1845). She had first lived as Topinard's mistress, but he
afterwards married her; she had three children by him. She took part
in the funeral mass of Pons; when Schmucke was taken in by her husband
in the Cite Bordin, she nursed the musician in his last illness.
[Cousin Pons.]
TOPINARD, eldest son of the preceding couple, was a supernumerary in
Gaudissart's company. [Cousin Pons.]
TOPINARD (Olga), sister of the preceding; a blonde of the German type;
when quite young, she won the warmest affection of Schmucke, who was
making his home with the employes of Gaudissart's theatre. [Cousin
Pons.]
TORLONIA (Duc), a name mentioned, in December, 1829, by the Baron
Frederic de Nucingen, as that of one of his friends, and pronounced by
him "Dorlonia." The duke had ordered a magnificent carpet, the price
of which he considered exorbitant, but the baron bought it for Esther
van Gobseck's "leedle balace" on the rue Saint-Georges. The Duc
Torlonia belonged to the famous family of Rome, that was so hospitable
to strangers, and was of French origin. The original name was
Tourlogne. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
TORPILLE (La), sobriquet of Esther van Gobseck.
TOUCHARD, father and son, ran a line of stages, during the
Restoration, to Beaumont-sur-Oise. [A Start in Life.]
TOUCHES (Mademoiselle Felicite des), born at Guerande in 1791; related
to the Grandlieus; not connected with the Touches family of Touraine,
to which the regent's ambassador, more famous as a comic poet,
belonged; became an orphan in 1793; her father, a major in the Gardes
de la Porte, was killed on the steps of the Tuileries August 10, 1792,
and her only brother, a younger member of the guard, was massacred at
the Carmelite convent; lastly, her mother died of a broken heart a few
days after this last catastrophe. Entrusted then to the care of her
maternal aunt, Mademoiselle de Faucombe, a nun of Chelles,[*] she was
taken by her to Faucombe, a considerable estate situated near Nantes,
and soon afterwards she was put in prison along with her aunt on the
charge of being an emissary of Pitt and Cobourg. The 9th Thermidor
found them released; but Mademoiselle de Faucombe died of fright, and
Felicite was sent to M. de Faucombe, an archaeologist of Nantes, being
her maternal great-uncle and her nearest relative. She grew up by
herself, "a tom-boy"; she had at her command an enormous library,
which allowed her to acquire, at a very early age, a great mass of
information. The literary spirit being developed in her, Mademoiselle
des Touches began by assisting her aged uncle; wrote three articles
that he believed were his own work, and, in 1822, made her beginning
in literature with two volumes of dramatic works, after the fashion of
Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, which produced a sort of artistic
revolution. She then assumed as a permanent appellation, the pseudonym
of Camille Maupin, and led a bright and independent life. Her income
of eighty thousand livres, her castle of Les Touches, near Guerande
--Loire-Inferieure--her Parisian mansion on the rue de Mont-Blanc--now
rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin,--her birth, and her connections, had their
power of influence. Her irregularities were covered as with a veil, in
consideration of her genius. Indeed, Mademoiselle des Touches had more
than one lover: a gallant about 1817; then an original mind, a
sceptic, the real creator of Camille Maupin; and next Gennaro Conti,
whom she knew in Rome, and Claude Vignon, a critic of reputation.
[Beatrix. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
Felicite was a patron of Joseph Bridau, the romantic painter, who was
despised by the bourgeois [A Bachelor's Establishment.]; she felt a
liking for Lucien de Rubempre, whom, indeed, she came near marrying;
though this circumstance did not prevent her from aiding the poet's
mistress, Coralie, the actress; for, at the time of their amours,
Felicite des Touches was in high favor at the Gymnase. She was the
anonymous collaborator of a comedy into which Leontine Volnys--the
little Fay of that time--was introduced; she had intended to write
another vaudeville play, in which Coralie was to have made the
principal role. When the young actress took to her bed and died, which
occurred under the Poirson-Cerfberr[+] management, Felicite paid the
expenses of her burial, and was present at the funeral services, which
were conducted at Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. She gave dinner-parties
on Wednesdays; Levasseur, Conti, Mesdames Pasta, Conti, Fodor, De
Bargeton, and d'Espard, attended her receptions. [A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris.] Although a Legitimist, like the Marquise
d'Espard, Felicite, after the Revolution of July, kept her salon open,
where were frequently assembled her neighbor Leontine de Serizy, Lord
Dudley and Lady Barimore, the Nucingens, Joseph Bridau, Mesdames de
Cadignan and de Montcornet, the Comtesse de Vandenesse, Daniel
d'Arthez, and Madame Rochegude, otherwise known as Rochefide. Canalis,
Rastignac, Laginski, Montriveau, Bianchon, Marsay, and Blondet rivaled
each other in telling piquant stories and passing caustic remarks
under her roof. [Another Study of Woman.] Furthermore, Mademoiselle
des Touches shortly afterwards gave advice to Marie de Vandenesse and
condemned free love. [A Daughter of Eve.] In 1836, while traveling
through Italy, which she was showing to Claude Vignon and Leon de
Lora, the landscape painter, she was present at an entertainment given
by Maurice de l'Hostal, the French consul at Genoa; on this occasion
he gave an account of the ups and downs of the Bauvan family.
[Honorine.] In 1837, after having appointed as her residuary legatee
Calyste du Guenic, whom she adored, but to whom she refused to give
herself over, Felicite des Touches retired to a convent in Nantes of
the order of Saint-Francois. Among the works left by this second
George Sand, we may mention "Le Nouveau Promethee," a bold attempt,
standing alone among her works, and a short autobiographical romance,
in which she described her betrayed passion for Conti, an admirable
work, which was regarded as the counterpart of Benjamin Constant's
"Adolphe." [Beatrix. The Muse of the Department.]
[*] It was perhaps at Chelles that Mademoiselle de Faucombe became
acquainted with Mesdemoiselles de Beauseant and de Langeais.
[+] Delestre-Poirson, the vaudeville man, together with A. Cerfberr
established the Gymnase-Dramatique, December 20, 1820; with the
Cerfberr Brothers, Delestre-Poirson continued the management of it
until 1844.
TOUPILLIER, born about 1750; of a wretchedly poor family consisting of
three sisters and five brothers, one of whom was father of Madame
Cardinal. From drum-major in the Gardes-Francaise, Toupillier became
beadle in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris; then dispenser of holy
water, having been an artist's model in the meantime. Toupillier, at
the beginning of the Restoration, suspected either of being a
Bonapartist, or of being unfit for his position, was discharged from
the service of the church, and had only the right to stand at the
threshold as a privileged beggar; however, he profited greatly by his
new position, for he knew how to arouse the compassionate feelings of
the faithful in every possible way, chiefly by passing as a
centenarian. Having been entrusted with the diamonds that Charles
Crochard had stolen from Mademoiselle Beaumesnil and which the young
thief wished to get off his hands for the time being, Toupillier
denied having received them and remained possessor of the stolen
jewels. But Corentin, the famous police-agent, followed the pauper of
Saint-Sulpice to the rue du Coeur-Volant, and surprised that new
Cardillac engrossed in the contemplation of the diamonds. He, however,
left them in his custody, on condition of his leaving by will all his
property to Lydie Peyrade, Corentin's ward and Mademoiselle
Beaumesnil's daughter. Corentin further required Toupillier to live in
his house and under his surveillance on the rue Honore-Chevalier. At
that time Toupillier had an income of eighteen hundred francs; he
might be seen, at the church, munching wretched crusts; but, the
church once closed, he went to dine at the Lathuile restaurant,
situated on the Barriere de Clichy, and at night he got drunk on the
excellent Rousillon wines. Notwithstanding an attack made by Madame
Cardinal and Cerizet on the closet containing the diamonds, when the
pauper of Saint-Sulpice died in 1840, Lydie Peyrade, now Madame
Theodose de la Peyrade, inherited all that Toupillier possessed. [The
Middle Classes.]
TOUPINET, a Parisian mechanic, at the time of the Restoration, being
married and father of a family, he stole his wife's savings, the fruit
of arduous labor; he was imprisoned, about 1828, probably for debts.
[The Commission in Lunacy.]
TOUPINET (Madame), wife of the preceding; known under the name
Pomponne; kept a fruit-stand; lived, in 1828, on the rue du
Petit-Banquier, Paris; unhappy in her married life; obtained from the
charitable J.-J. Popinot, under the name of a loan, ten francs for
purchasing stock. [The Commission in Lunacy.]
TOURNAN, a hatter of the rue Saint-Martin, Paris; among his customers
was young Poiret, who, on July 3, 1823, brought him his head-covering,
all greased, as a result of J.-J. Bixiou's practical joking. [The
Government Clerks.]
TOURS-MINIERES (Bernard-Polydor Bryond, Baron des), a gentleman of
Alencon; born about 1772; in 1793, was one of the most active
emissaries of the Comte de Lille (Louis XVIII.), in his conspiracy
against the Republic. Having received the King's thanks, he retired to
his estate in the department of Orne, which had long been burdened
with mortgages; and, in 1807, he married Henriette Le Chantre de la
Chanterie, with the concurrence of the Royalists, whose "pet" he was.
He pretended to take part in the reactionary revolutionary movement of
the West in 1809, implicated his wife in the matter, compromised her,
ruined her, and then disappeared. Returning in secrecy to his country,
under the assumed name of Lemarchand, he aided the authorities in
getting at the bottom of the plot, and then went to Paris, where he
became the celebrated police-agent Contenson. [The Seamy Side of
History.] He knew Peyrade, and received from Lenoir's old pupil the
significant sobriquet of "Philosopher." Being agent for Fouche during
the period of the Empire, he abandoned himself in the most sensual way
to his passions, and lived a life of irregularity and vice. During the
time of the Restoration Louchard had him employed by Nucingen at the
time of the latter's amours with Esther van Gobseck. In the service of
this noted banker, Contenson (with Peyrade and Corentin) tried to
protect him from the snares of Jacques Collin, and followed the
pseudo-Carlos Herrera to his place of refuge on a house-top; but being
hurled from the roof by his intended victim, he was instantly killed
during the winter of 1829-1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
TOURS-MINIERES (Baronne Bryond des), wife of the preceding; born
Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, in 1789; only daughter of
Monsieur and Madame Le Chantre de la Chanterie; was married after her
father's death. Through the machinations of Tours-Minieres she was
brought into contact with Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel,
Chevalier du Vissard, became his mistress, and took the field for him
in the Royalist cause, in the department of Orne, in 1809. Betrayed by
her husband, she was executed in 1810, in accordance with a
death-sentence of the court presided over by Mergi, Bourlac being
attorney-general. [The Seamy Side of History.]
TRAILLES (Comte Maxime de), born in 1791, belonged to a family that
was descended from an attendant to Louis XI., and raised to the
nobility by Francois I. This perfect example of the Parisian
_condottieri_ made his beginning in the early part of the nineteenth
century as a page to Napoleon. Being loved, in turn, by Sarah Gobseck
and Anastasie de Restaud, Maxime de Trailles, himself already ruined,
ruined both of these; gaming was his master passion, and his caprices
knew no bounds. [Cesar Birotteau. Father Goriot. Gobseck.] He took
under his attention the Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere, a novice in
Parisian life, whom also he would have served later as his second
against Desire Minoret, but for the latter's death by accident.
[Ursule Mirouet.] His ready wit usually saved him from the throng of
creditors that swarmed about him, but even thus he once paid a debt
due Cerizet, in spite of himself. Maxime de Trailles, at that time,
was keeping, in a modest way, Antonia Chocardelle, who had a
news-stand on the rue Coquenard, near the rue Pigalle, on which
Trailles lived; and, at the same time, a certain Hortense, a protegee
of Lord Dudley, was seconding the genius of that excellent comedian,
Cerizet. [A Man of Business. The Member for Arcis.] The dominant party
of the Restoration accused Maxime de Trailles of being a Bonapartist,
and rebuked him for his shameless corruption of life; but the citizen
monarchy extended him a cordial welcome. Marsay was the chief promoter
of the count's fortunes; he moulded him, and sent him on delicate
political missions, which he managed with marvelous success. [The
Secrets of a Princess.] And so the Comte de Trailles was widely known
in social circles: as the guest of Josepha Mirah, by his presence he
honored the house-warming in her new apartments on the rue de la
Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.] Marsay being dead, he lost the power
of his prestige. Eugene de Rastignac, who had become somewhat of a
Puritan, showed but slight esteem for him. However, Maxime de Trailles
was on easy terms with one of the minister's intimate friends, the
brilliant Colonel Franchessini. Nucingen's son-in-law--Eugene de
Rastignac--perhaps recalled Madame de Restaud's misfortunes, and
doubtless entertained no good feeling for the man who was responsible
for them all. None the less, he employed the services of M. de
Trailles--who was always at ease in the Marquise d'Espard's salon, in
the Faubourg Saint-Honore, though a man over forty years of age,
painted and padded and bowed down with debts--and sent him to look
after the political situation in Arcis before the spring election of
1839. Trailles worked his wires with judgment; he tried to override
the Cinq-Cygnes, partisans of Henri V.; he supported the candidacy of
Phileas Beauvisage, and sought the hand of Cecile-Renee Beauvisage,
the wealthy heiress, but was unsuccessful on all sides. [The Member
for Arcis.] M. de Trailles, furthermore, excelled in the adjustment of
private difficulties. M. d'Ajuda-Pinto, Abbe Brossette, and Madame de
Grandlieu called for his assistance, and, with the further aid of
Rusticoli de la Palferine, effected the reconciliation of the families
of Calyste du Guenic and Arthur de Rochefide. [Beatrix.] He became a
member of the Chamber of Deputies, succeeding Phileas Beauvisage, who
had replaced Charles de Sallenauve, at the Palais-Bourbon; here he was
pointed out to S.-P. Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
TRANS (Mademoiselle), a young unmarried woman of Bordeaux, who, like
Mademoiselle de Belor, was on the lookout for a husband when Paul de
Manerville married Natalie Evangelista. [A Marriage Settlement.]
TRANSON (Monsieur and Madame), wholesale dealers in earthenware goods
on the rue des Lesdiguieres, were on intimate terms, about 1824, with
their neighbors, the Baudoyers and the Saillards. [The Government
Clerks.]
TRAVOT (General), with his command, conducted, in 1815, the siege of
Guerande, a fortress defended by the Baron du Guenic, who finally
evacuated it, but who reached the wood with his Chouans and remained
in possession of the country until the second return of the Bourbons.
[Beatrix.]
TROGNON (Maitre), a Parisian notary, wholly at the disposal of his
neighbor, Maitre Fraisier; during the years 1844-1845 he lived on the
rue Saint-Louis-au-Marais--now rue de Turenne--and reached the
death-bed of Sylvain Pons before his colleague, Maitre Leopold
Hannequin, though the latter actually received the musician's last
wishes. [Cousin Pons.]
TROISVILLE (Guibelin, Vicomte de), whose name is pronounced Treville,
and who, as well as his numerous family, bore simply the name Guibelin
during the period of the Empire; he belonged to a noble line of ardent
Royalists well known in Alencon. [The Seamy Side of History.] Very
probably several of the Troisvilles, as well as the Chevalier de
Valois and the Marquis d'Esgrignon, were among the correspondents of
the Vendean chiefs, for it is well known that the department of Orne
was counted among the centres of the anti-revolutionary uprising
(1799). [The Chouans.] Furthermore, the Bourbons, after their
restoration, overwhelmed the Troisvilles with honors, making several
of them members of the Chamber of Deputies or peers of France. The
Vicomte Guibelin de Troisville served during the emigration in Russia,
where he married a Muscovite girl, daughter of the Princesse
Scherbeloff; and, during the year 1816, he returned to establish
himself permantly among the people of Alencon. Accepting temporarily
the hospitality of Rose-Victoire Cormon (eventually Madame du
Bousquier), he innocently inspired her with false hopes; the viscount,
naturally reserved, failed to inform her of his being son-in-law of
Scherbeloff, and legitimate father of the future Marechale de
Montcornet. Guibelin de Troisville, a loyal social friend of the
Esgrignons, met in their salon the Roche-Guyons and the Casterans,
distant cousins of his, but the intimate relations almost came to an
end, when Mademoiselle Virginie de Troisville became Madame de
Montcornet. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] However, in spite of this
union, which he looked upon as a mesalliance, the viscount was never
cool towards his daughter and her husband, but was their guest at
Aigues, in Bourgogne. [The Peasantry.]
TROMPE-LA-MORT, a sobriquet of Jacques Collin.
TROUBERT (Abbe Hyacinthe), favorite priest of M. de Bourbonne; rose
rapidly during the Restoration and Louis Philippe's reign, canon and
vicar-general, in turn, of Tours, he was afterwards bishop of Troyes.
His early career in Touraine showed him to be a deep, ambitious, and
dangerous man, knowing how to remove from his path those that impeded
his advance, and knowing how to conceal the full power of his
animosity. The secret support of the Congregation and the connivance
of Sophie Gamard allowed him to take advantage of Abbe Francois
Birotteau's unsuspecting good nature, and to rob him of all the
inheritance of Abbe Chapeloud, whom he had hated in his lifetime, and
over whom he triumphed thus again, despite the shrewdness of the
deceased priest. Abbe Troubert even won over to his side the
Listomeres, defenders of Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]
About 1839, at Troyes, Monsiegneur Troubert was on terms of intimacy
with the Cinq-Cygnes, the Hauteserres, the Cadignans, the
Maufrigneuses, and Daniel d'Arthez, who were more or less concerned in
the matter of the Champagne elections. [The Member for Arcis.]
TROUSSENARD (Doctor), a physician of Havre, during the Restoration,
at the time that the Mignon de la Bastie family lived in that
sub-prefecture of the Seine-Inferieure. [Modeste Mignon.]
TRUDON, in 1818, a grocer of Paris, in the same quarter as Cesar
Birotteau, whom he furnished, on December 17th of that year, with
nearly two hundred francs' worth of wax candles. [Cesar Birotteau.]
TULLIA, professional sobriquet of Madame du Bruel.
TULLOYE, the name of the owner of a small estate near Angouleme, where
M. de Bargeton, in the autumn of 1821, severely wounded M. de
Chandour, an unsophisticated hot-head, whom he had challenged to a
duel. The name Tulloye furnished a good opportunity in the affair for
a play on words. [Lost Illusions.]
TURQUET (Marguerite), born about 1816, better known under the
sobriquet of Malaga, having a further appellaton of the "Aspasia of
the Cirque-Olympique," was originally a rider in the famous Bouthor
Traveling Hippodrome, and was later a Parisian star at the Franconi
theatre, in the summer on the Champs-Elysees, in the winter on the
Boulevard du Crime. In 1837, Mademoiselle Turquet was living in the
fifth story of a house on the rue des Fosses-du-Temple--a thoroughfare
that has been built up since 1862--when Thaddee Paz set her up in
sumptuous style elsewhere. But she wearied of the role of supposed
mistress of the Pole. [The Imaginary Mistress.] Nevertheless, this
position had placed Marguerite in a prominent light, and she shone
thenceforth among the artists and courtesans. She had in Maitre
Cardot, a notary on the Place du Chatelet, an earnest protector; and
as her lover she had a quite young musician. [The Muse of the
Department.] A shrewd girl, she held on to Maitre Cardot, and made a
popular hostess, in whose salon Desroches, about 1840, gave an
entertaining account of a strange battle between two roues, Trailles
and Cerizet, debtor and creditor, that resulted in a victory for
Cerizet. [A Man of Business.] In 1838, Malaga Turquet was present at
Josepha Mirah's elegant house-warming in her gorgeous new apartments
on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]
U
URBAIN, servant of Soudry, mayor of Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the
Restoration; was at one time a cavalry soldier, who entered into the
service of the mayor, an ex-brigadier of gendarmes, after failing to
receive an appointment as gendarme. [The Peasantry.]
URRACA, aged Spanish woman, nurse of Baron de Macumer; the only family
servant kept by her master after his ruin and during his exile in
France. Urraca prepared the baron's chocolate in the very best style.
[Letters of Two Brides.]
URRACA Y LORA (Mademoiselle), paternal aunt of Leon de Lora, remained
a spinster. As late as 1845 this quasi-Spaniard was still living in
poverty in a commune of the Pyrenees-Orientales, with the father and
elder brother of the artist. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
URSULE, servant employed by the Abbe Bonnet, cure of Montegnac, in
1829; a woman of canonical age. She received the Abbe de Rastignac,
who had been sent by the Bishop of Limoges to bring the village curate
to Jean-Francois Tascheron. It was desired that this man, although he
was condemned to death, should be brought back within the "pale of the
Church." Ursule learned from the Abbe de Rastignac of the reprieve
that had been given the murderer, and being not only inquisitive, but
also a gossip; she spread it throughout the whole village, during the
time that she was buying the articles necessary for the preparation of
breakfast for the Cure Bonnet and the Abbe de Rastignac. [The Village
Parson.]
URSULE, from Picardie, very large; cook employed by Ragon, perfumer on
rue Saint-Honore, Paris, towards the end of the eighteenth century;
about 1793 she took in hand the amorous education of Cesar Birotteau,
the little Tourraine peasant just employed by the Ragons as errand-boy.
Ill-natured, wanton, wheedling, dishonest, selfish and given to
drink, Ursule did not suit the candid Cesar, whom she abandoned,
moreover, two years later, for a young Picardie rebel, who owned a few
acres of land. He found concealment in Paris, and let her marry him.
[Cesar Birotteau.]
UXELLES (Marquise d'), related to the Princess de Blamont-Chauvry, and
to the Duc and Duchesse de Lenoncourt; god-mother of Cesar Birotteau.
[Cesar Birotteau.]
UXELLES (Duchesse d'), born about 1769, mother of Diane d'Uxelles;
beloved by the Duc de Maufrigneuse, and about 1814 gave him her
daughter in marriage; ten years later she withdrew to her Uxelles
estate, where she lived a life of piety and selfishness. [The Secrets
of a Princess.]
V
VAILLANT (Madame), wife of a cabinet-maker in the Faubourg
Saint-Antoine; mother of three children. In 1819 and 1820, for forty
sous per month, she kept house for a young author,[*] who lived in a
garret in rue Lesdiguieres. She utilized her remaining time in turning
the crank for a mechanic, and received only ten sous a day for this
hard work. This woman and her husband were perfectly upright. At the
wedding of Madame Vaillant's sister, the young writer became
acquainted with Pere Canet--Facino Cane--clarinetist at the
Quinze-Vingts--who told him his strange story. [Facino Cane.] In 1818,
Madame Vaillant, already aged, kept house for Claude-Joseph Pillerault,
the former Republican, on rue des Bourdonnais. The old merchant was
good to his servant and did not let her shine his shoes. [Cesar
Birotteau.]
[*] Honore de Balzac. He employed Madame Vaillant as a servant.
VALDES (Paquita), born in the West Indies about 1793, daughter of a
slave bought in Georgia on account of her great beauty; lived in the
early part of the Restoration and during the Hundred Days in Hotel
San-Real, rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, with her mother and her
foster-father, Christemio. In April, 1815, in the Jardin des Tuileries,
she was met by Henri de Marsay, who loved her. She agreed to receive
him secretly in her own home. She gave up everything for his sake, but
in a transport of love, she cried out from force of habit: "O
Mariquita!" This put her lover in such a fury that he tried to kill
her. Not being able to do this, he returned, accompanied by some other
members of "The Thirteen," only to find Paquita murdered; for, the
Marquise de San-Real, Marsay's own sister, who was very jealous of the
favors granted the man by this girl, has slashed her savagely with a
dagger. Having been kept in retirement since she was twelve years old,
Paquita Valdes knew neither how to read nor to write. She spoke only
English and Spanish. On account of the peculiar color of her eyes she
was known as "the girl with the golden eyes," by some young men, one
of whom was Paul de Manerville, who had noticed her during his
promenades. [The Thirteen.]
VALDEZ, a Spanish admiral, constitutional minister of King Ferdinand
VII. in 1820; was obliged to flee at the time of the reaction, and
embarked on an English vessel. His escape was due to the warning given
him by Baron de Macumer, who told him in time. [Letters of Two
Brides.]
VALENTIN (De), head of a historic house of Auvergne, which had fallen
into poverty and obscurity; cousin of the Duc de Navarreins; came to
Paris under the monarchy, and made for himself an excellent place at
the "very heart of power." This he lost during the Revolution. Under
the Empire he bought many pieces of property given by Napoleon to his
generals; but the fall of Napoleon ruined him completely. He reared
his only son, Raphael, with great harshness, although he expected him
to restore the house to its former position. In the autumn of 1826,
six months after he had paid his creditors, he died of a broken heart.
The Valentins had on their arms: an eagle of gold in a field of sable,
crowned with silver, beak and talons with gules, with this device:
"The soul has not perished." [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Madame de), born Barbe-Marie O'Flaharty, wife of the
preceding; heiress of a wealthy house; died young, leaving to her only
son an islet in the Loire. [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Marquis Raphael de),[*] only son of the preceding couple,
born in 1804, and probably in Paris, where he was reared; lost his
mother when he was very young, and, after an unhappy childhood,
received on the death of his father the sum of eleven hundred and
twelve francs. On this he lived for nearly three years, boarding at
the rate of a franc per day at the Hotel de Saint-Quintin, rue des
Cordiers. He began two great works there: a comedy, which was to bring
him fame in a day, and the "Theory of the Will," a long work, like
that of Louis Lambert, meant to be a continuation of the books by
Mesmer, Lavater, Gall and Bichat. Raphael de Valentin as a doctor of
laws was destined by his father for the life of a statesman. Reduced
to extreme poverty, and deprived of his last possession, the islet in
the Loire, inherited from his mother, he was on the point of
committing suicide, in 1830, when a strange dealer in curiosities of
the Quai Voltaire, into whose shop he had entered by chance, gave him
a strange piece of shagreen, the possession of which assured him the
gratification of every desire, although his life would be shortened by
each wish. Shortly after this he was invited to a sumptuous feast at
Frederic Taillefer's. On the next morning Raphael found himself heir
to six million francs. In the autumn of 1831 he died of consumption in
the arms of Pauline Gaudin; they were mutual lovers. He tried in vain
to possess himself of her, in a supreme effort. As a millionaire,
Raphael de Valentin lived in friendship with Rastignac and Blondet,
looked after by his faithful servant, Jonathas, in a house on rue de
Varenne. At one time he was madly in love with a certain Comtesse
Foedora. Neither the waters of Aix, nor those of Mont-Dore, both of
which he tried, were able to give him back his lost health. [The Magic
Skin.]
[*] During the year 1851, at the Ambigu-Comique, was performed a drama
by Alphonse Arnault and Louis Judicis, in which the life of
Raphael Valentin was reproduced.
VALENTINE, given name and title of the heroine of a vaudeville play[*]
in two acts, by Scribe and Melesville, which was performed at the
Gymnase-Dramatique, January 4, 1836. This was more than twenty years
after the death of M. and Madame de Merret, whose lives and tragic
adventures were more or less vividly pictured in the play. [The Muse
of the Department.]
[*] Madame Eugenie Savage played the principal part.
VALLAT (Francois), deputy to the king's attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes,
Bourgogne, under the Restoration, at the time of the peasant uprising
against General de Montcornet. He was a cousin of Madame Sarcus, wife
of Sarcus the Rich. He sought promotion through Gaubertin, the mayor,
who was influential throughout the entire district. [The Peasantry.]
VALLET, haberdasher in Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the Restoration,
at the time of General de Montcornet's struggle against the peasants.
The Vallet house was next to Socquard's Cafe de la Paix. [The
Peasantry.]