VALOIS (Chevalier de), born about 1758; died, as did his friend and
fellow-countryman, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, with the legitimate
monarchy, August, 1830. This poor man passed his youth in Paris, where
he was surprised by the Revolution. He was finally a Chouan, and when
the western Whites arose in arms against the Republic, he was one of
the members of the Alencon royal committee. At the time of the
Restoration he was living in this city very modestly, but received by
the leading aristocracy of the province as a true Valois. The
chevalier carried snuff in an old gold snuffbox, ornamented with the
picture of the Princess Goritza, a Hungarian, celebrated for her
beauty, under Louis XV. He spoke only with emotion of this woman, for
whom he had battled with Lauzun. The Chevalier de Valois tried vainly
to marry the wealthy heiress of Alencon, Rose-Victoire Cormon, a
spinster, who had the misfortune to become the wife, platonically
speaking, of M. du Bousquier, the former contractor. In his lodging at
Alencon with Madame Lardot, a laundress, the chevalier had as mistress
one of the working women, Cesarine, whose child was usually attributed
to him. Cesarine was, as a result, the sole legatee of her lover. The
chevalier also took some liberties with another employe of Madame
Lardot, Suzanne, a very beautiful Norman girl, who was afterwards
known at Paris as a courtesan, under the name of Val-Noble, and who
still later married Theodore Gaillard. M. de Valois, although strongly
attached to this girl, did not allow her to defraud him. He was
intimate with Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de Verneuil, de
Fontaine, de la Billardiere, de Maufrigneuse and de Chaulieu. Valois
made a living by gambling, but pretended to gain his modest livelihood
from a Maitre Bordin, in the name of a certain M. de Pombreton. [The
Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.]
VANDENESSE (Marquis de), a gentleman of Tours; had by his wife four
children: Charles, who married Emilie de Fontaine, widow of
Kergarouet; Felix, who married Marie-Angelique de Granville; and two
daughters, the elder of whom was married to her cousin, the Marquis de
Listomere. The Vandenesse motto was: "Ne se vend." [The Lily of the
Valley.]
VANDENESSE (Marquise de), born Listomere, wife of the preceding; tall,
slender, emaciated, selfish and fond of cards; "insolent, like all the
Listomeres, with whom insolence always counts as a part of the dowry."
She was the mother of four children, whom she reared harshly, keeping
them at a distance, especially her son Felix. She had something of a
weakness for her son Charles, the elder. [The Lily of the Valley.]
VANDENESSE (Marquis Charles de), son of the preceding, born towards
the close of the eighteenth century; shone as a diplomatist under the
Bourbons; during this period was the lover of Madame Julie
d'Aiglemont, wife of General d'Aiglemont; by her he had some natural
children. With Desroches as his attorney, Vandenesse entered into a
suit with his younger brother, Comte Felix, in regard to some
financial matters. He married the wealthy widow of Kergarouet, born
Emilie de Fontaine. [A Woman of Thirty. A Start in Life. A Daughter of
Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Marquise Charles de), born Emilie de Fontaine about 1802;
the youngest of the Comte de Fontaine's daughters; having been
overindulged as a child, her insolent bearing, a distinctive trait of
character, was made manifest at the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau, to
which she accompanied her parents. [Cesar Birotteau.] She refused Paul
de Manerville, and a number of other excellent offers, before marrying
her mother's uncle, Admiral Comte de Kergarouet. This marriage, which
she regretted later, was resolved upon during a game of cards with the
Bishop of Persepolis, as a result of the anger which she felt on
learning that M. Longueville, on whom she had centred her affections,
was only a merchant. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Madame de Kergarouet
scorned her nephew by marriage, Savinien de Portenduere, who courted
her. [Ursule Mirouet.] Having become a widow, she married the Marquis
de Vandenesse. A little later she endeavored to overthrow her
sister-in-law, the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with
Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Comte Felix de), brother-in-law of the preceding, born
late in the eighteenth century, bore the title of vicomte until the
death of his father; suffered much in childhood and youth, first in
his home life, then as a pupil in a boarding-school at Tours and in
the Oratorien college at Pontlevoy. He was unhappy also at the Lepitre
school in Paris, and during his holidays spent on the Ile Saint-Louis
with one of the Listomeres, a kinswoman. Felix de Vandenesse at last
found happiness at Frapesle, a castle near Clochegourde. It was then
that his platonic liaison with Madame de Mortsauf began--a union which
occupied an important place in his life. He was, moreover, the lover
of Lady Arabelle Dudley, who called him familiarly Amedee, pronounced
"my dee." Madame de Mortsauf, having died, he was subjected to the
secret hatred of her daughter Madeleine, later Madame de
Lenoncourt-Givry-Chaulieu. About this time began his career in public
life. During the "Hundred Days" Louis XVIII. entrusted to him a
mission in Vendee. The King received him into favor, and finally
employed him as private secretary. He was also appointed master of
petitions in the State Council. Vandenesse frequently visited the
Lenoncourts. He excited admiration, mingled with envy, in the mind of
Lucien de Rubempre, who had recently arrived in Paris. Acting for the
King, he helped Cesar Birotteau. He was acquainted with the Prince de
Talleyrand, and asked of him information about Macumer, for Louise de
Chaulieu. [The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished
Provincial at Paris. Cesar Birotteau. Letters of Two Brides.] After
his father's death, Felix de Vandenesse assumed the title of count,
and probably won a suit in regard to a land-sale against his brother,
the marquis, who had been badly served by a rascally clerk of Maitre
Desroches, Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] At this time, Comte Felix
de Vandenesse began a very close relationship with Natalie de
Manerville. She herself broke this off as a result of the detailed
description that he gave her of the love which he had formerly felt
for Madame de Mortsauf. [The Marriage Settlement.] The year following,
he married Angelique-Marie de Granville, elder daughter of the
celebrated magistrate of that name, and began to keep house on rue du
Rocher, where he had a house, furnished with the best of taste. At
first he was not able to gain his wife's affection, as his known
profligacy and his patronizing manners filled her with fear. She did
not go with him to the evening entertainment given by Madame d'Espard,
where he found himself with his elder brother, and where many
gossiping tongues directed their speech against Diane de Cadignan,
despite the presence of her lover, Arthez. Felix de Vandenesse went
with his wife to a rout at the home of Mademoiselle des Touches, where
Marsay told the story of his first love. The Comte and Comtesse de
Vandenesse, who, under Louis Philippe, still frequented the houses of
the Cadignans and the Montcornets, came very near having serious
trouble. Madame de Vandenesse, had foolishly fallen in love with Raoul
Nathan, but was kept from harm by her husband's skilful management.
[The Secrets of a Princess. Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville
Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]
VANDENESSE (Comtesse Felix de), wife of the preceding; born
Angelique-Marie de Granville in 1808; a brunette like her father. In
bearing the cruel treatment of her prejudiced mother, in the Marais
house, where she spent her youth, the Comtesse Felix was consoled by
the tender affection of a younger sister, Marie-Eugenie, later Madame
F. du Tillet. The lessons in harmony given them by Wilhelm Schmucke
afforded them some diversion. Married about 1828, and dowered
handsomely, to the detriment of Marie-Eugenie, she underwent, when
about twenty-five years old, a critical experience. Although mother of
at least one child, becoming suddenly of a romantic turn of mind, she
narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a worldly conspiracy formed
against her by Lady Dudley and by Mesdames Charles de Vandenesse and
de Manerville. Marie, moved by the strength of her passion for the
writer, Raoul Nathan, and wishing to save him from financial trouble,
appealed to the good offices of Madame de Nucingen and to the devotion
of Schmucke. The proof furnished to her by her husband of the debasing
relations and the extreme Bohemian life of Raoul, kept Madame Felix de
Vandenesse from falling. [A Second Home. A Daughter of Eve.]
Afterwards, her adventure, the dangers which she had run, and her
rupture with the poet, were all recounted by M. de Clagny, in the
presence of Madame de la Baudraye, Lousteau's mistress. [The Muse of
the Department.]
VANDENESSE (Alfred de), son of the Marquis Charles de Vandenesse, a
coxcomb who, under the reign of Louis Philippe, at the Faubourg
Saint-Germain, compromised the reputation of the Comtesse de
Saint-Hereen, despite the presence of her mother, Madame d'Aiglemont,
the former mistress of the marquis. [A Woman of Thirty.]
VANDIERES (General, Comte de), old, feeble and childish, when, with
his wife and a large number of soldiers, November 29, 1812, he started
on a raft to cross the Beresina. When the boat struck the other bank
the shock threw the count into the river. His head was severed from
his body by a cake of ice, and went down the river like a cannon-ball.
[Farewell.]
VANDIERES (Comtesse Stephanie de), wife of the preceding, niece of the
alienist Doctor Fanjat; mistress of Major de Sucy, who afterwards was
a general. In 1812, during the campaign in Russia, she shared with her
husband all the dangers, and managed to cross the Beresina with her
lover's aid, although she was unable to rejoin him. She wandered for a
long time in northern or eastern Europe. Having become insane, she
could say nothing but the word "Farewell"! She was found later at
Strasbourg by the grenadier, Fleuriot. Having been taken to the
Bons-Hommes near the Isle-Adam, she was attended by Fanjat. She there
had as a companion an idiot by the name of Genevieve. In September, 1819,
Stephanie again saw Philippe de Sucy, but did not recognize him. She
died not far from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, January, 1820, soon after the
reproduction of the scene on the Beresina, arranged by her lover. Her
sudden return of reason killed her. [Farewell.]
VANIERE, gardener to Raphael de Valentin; obtained from the well, into
which his frightened employer had thrown it, the wonderful piece of
shagreen, which no weight, no reagent, and no pounding could either
stretch or injure, and which none of the best known scientists could
explain. [The Magic Skin.]
VANNEAULX (Monsieur and Madame des), small renters at Limoges, living
with their two children on rue des Cloches towards the end of Charles
X.'s reign. They inherited in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand
francs from Pingret, of whom Madame des Vanneaulx was the only niece.
This was after their uncle's murderer, J.-F. Tascheron, having been
urged by the Cure Bonnet, restored a large portion of the money stolen
in Faubourg Saint-Etienne. M. and Madame des Vanneaulx, who had
accused the murderer of "indelicacy," changed their opinion entirely
when he made this restitution. [The Country Parson.]
VANNI (Elisa), a Corsican woman who, according to one Giacomo, rescued
a child, Luigi Porta, from the fearful vendetta of Bartolomeo di
Piombo. [The Vendetta.]
VANNIER, patriot, conscript of Fougeres, Bretagne, during the autumn
of 1799 received an order to convey marching orders to the National
Guard of his city--a body of men who were destined to aid the
Seventy-second demi-brigade in its engagements with the Chouans. [The
Chouans.]
VARESE (Emilio Memmi, Prince of), of the Cane-Memmis, born in 1797, a
member of the greater nobility, descendant of the ancient Roman family
of Memmius, received the name of Prince of Varese on the death of
Facino Cane, his relative. During the time of Austrian rule in Venice,
Memmi lived there in poverty and obscurity. In the early part of the
Restoration he was on friendly terms with Marco Vendramini, his
fellow-countryman. His poverty would not permit of his keeping more
than one servant, the gondolier, Carmagnola. For Massimilla Doni, wife
of the Duke Cataneo, he felt a passion, which was returned, and which
for a long time remained platonic, despite its ardor. He was
unfaithful to her at one time, not being able to resist the unforeseen
attractions of Clarina Tinti, a lodger in the Memmi palace, and
unrivaled prima donna at the Fenice. Finally, conquering his timidity,
and breaking with the "ideal," he rendered Massimilla Cataneo a
mother, and married her when she became a widow. Varese lived in Paris
under the reign of Louis Philippe, and, having been enriched by his
marriage, one evening at the Champs-Elysees, aided certain destitute
artists, the Gambaras, who were obliged to sing in the open air. He
asked for the story of their misfortunes, and Marianina told it to him
without bitterness. [Massimilla Doni. Gambara.]
VARESE (Princess of), wife of the preceding, born Massimilla Doni,
about 1800, of an ancient and wealthy Florentine family of the
nobility; married, at first, the Duke Cataneo, a repulsive man who
lived in Venice at the time of Louis XVIII. She was an enthusiastic
attendant of the Fenice theatre during the winter when "Moses" and the
"Semiramide" were given by a company, in which were found Clarina
Tinti, Genovese and Carthagenova. Massimilla conceived a violent but
at first a platonic love for Emilio Memmi, Prince of Varese, married
him after Cataneo's death, following him to Paris, during the time of
Louis Philippe, where she met with him the Gambaras and helped them in
their poverty. [Massimilla Doni. Gambara.]
VARLET, an Arcis physician, early in the nineteenth century, at the
time of the political and local quarrels of the Gondrevilles,
Cinq-Cygnes, Simeuses, Michus, and Hauteserres; had a daughter who
afterwards became Madame Grevin. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member
for Arcis.]
VARLET, son of the preceding, brother-in-law of Grevin; like his
father, later a physician. [The Member for Arcis.]
VASSAL, in 1822 at Paris, third clerk of Maitre Desroches, an
advocate, by whom were employed also Marest, Husson and Godeschal. [A
Start in Life.]
VATEL, formerly an army child, then corporal of the Voltigeurs,
became, during the Restoration, one of the three guards of
Montcornet's estate in Aigues, Bourgogne, under head-keeper Michaud;
he detected Mere Tonsard in her trespassing. He was a valuable
servant; gay as a lark, rather loose in his conduct with women,
without any religious principles, and brave unto rashness. [The
Peasantry.]
VATINELLE (Madame), a pretty and rather loose woman of Mantes, courted
at the same time by Maitre Fraisier and the king's attorney, Olivier
Vinet; she was "kind" to the former, thereby causing his ruin; the
attorney soon found a means of compelling Fraisier, who was
representing both sides in a lawsuit, to sell his practice and leave
town. [Cousin Pons.]
VAUCHELLES (De), maintained relations of close friendship, about 1835,
at Besancon, with Amedee de Soulas, his fellow-countryman, and
Chavoncourt, the younger, a former collegemate. Vauchelles was of
equally high birth with Soulas, and was also equally poor. He sought
the hand of Mademoiselle Victoire, Chavoncourt's eldest sister, on
whom a godmother aunt had agreed to settle an estate yielding an
income of seven thousand francs, and a hundred thousand francs in
cash, in the marriage contract. To Rosalie de Watteville's
satisfaction, he opposed Albert Savarus, the rival of the elder
Chavoncourt, in his candidacy for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies.
[Albert Savarus.]
VAUDOYER, a peasant of Ronquerolles, Bourgogne, appointed
forest-keeper of Blangy, but discharged about 1821, in favor of Groison,
by Montcornet, at that time mayor of the commune; supported G. Rigou
and F. Gaubertin as against the new owner of Aigues. [The Peasantry.]
VAUDREMONT (Comtesse de), born in 1787; being a wealthy widow of
twenty-two years in 1809, she was considered the most beautiful
Parisian of the day, and was known as the "Queen of Fashion." In the
month of November of the same year, she attended the great ball given
by the Malin de Gondrevilles, who were disappointed at the Emperor's
failure to appear on that occasion. Being the mistress of the Comte de
Soulanges and Martial de la Roche-Hugon, Madame de Vaudremont had
received from the former a ring taken from his wife's jewel-casket;
she made a present of it to Martial, who happening to be wearing it on
the evening of the Gondreville ball, gave it to Madame de Soulanges,
without once suspecting that he was restoring it to its lawful owner.
Madame de Vaudremont's death followed shortly after this incident,
which brought about the reconciliation of the Soulanges couple, urged
by the Duchesse de Lansac; the countess perished in the famous fire
that broke out at the Austrian embassy during the party given on the
occasion of the wedding of the Emperor and the Arch-duchess
Marie-Louise. [Domestic Peace.] The embassy was located on the part
of the rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin (at that time rue du Mont-Blanc)
comprised between the rue de la Victoire and the rue Saint-Lazare.
VAUMERLAND (Baronne de), a friend of Madame de l'Ambermesnil's,
boarded with one of Madame Vauquer's rivals in the Marais, and
intended, as soon as her term expired, to become a patron of the
establishment on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; at least, so Madame
de l'Ambermesnil declared. [Father Goriot.]
VAUQUELIN (Nicolas-Louis), a famous chemist, and a member of the
Institute; born at Saint-Andre d'Hebertot, Calvadts, in 1763, died in
1829; son of a peasant; praised by Fourcroy; in turn, pharmacist in
Paris, mine-inspector, professor at the School of Pharmacy, the School
of Medicine, the Jardin des Plantes, and the College de France. He
gave Cesar Birotteau the formula for a cosmetic for the hands, that
the perfumer called "la double pate des Sultanes," and, being
consulted by him on the subject of "cephalic oil," he denied the
possibility of restoring a suit of hair. Nicolas Vauquelin was invited
to the perfumer's great ball, given on December 17, 1818. In
recognition of the good advice received from the scientist, Cesar
Birotteau offered him a proof, before the time of printing, on China
paper, of Muller's engraving of the Dresden Virgin, which proof had
been found in Germany after two years of searching, and cost fifteen
hundred francs. [Cesar Birotteau.]
VAUQUER (Madame), a widow, born Conflans about 1767. She claimed to
have lost a brilliant position through a series of misfortunes, which,
by the way, she never detailed specifically. For a long time she kept
a bourgeois boarding-house on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve (now rue
Tournefort), near the rue de l'Arbalete. In 1819-1820, Madame Vauquer,
a short, stout, languid woman, but rather well preserved in spite of
being a little faded, had Horace Bianchon as table-boarder, and
furnished with board and lodging the following: on the first floor of
her house, Madame Couture and Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer; on the
second floor, Poiret, the elder, and Jacques Collin; on the third,
Christine-Michelle Michonneau--afterwards Madame Poiret,--Joachim
Goriot; whom she looked upon as a possible husband for herself, and
Eugene de Rastignac. She was deserted by her various boarders shortly
after the arrest of Jacques Collin. [Father Goriot.]
VAUREMONT (Princesse de), one of the most prominent figures of the
eighteenth century; grandmother of Madame Marie Gaston, who adored
her; she died in 1817, the year of Madame de Stael's death, in a
mansion belonging to the Chaulieus and situated near the Boulevard des
Invalides. Madame de Vauremont, at the time of her death, was
occupying a suite of apartments in which she was shortly afterwards
succeeded by Louise de Chaulieu (Madame Marie Gaston). Talleyrand, an
intimate friend of the princess was executor of her will. [Letters of
Two Brides.]
VAUTHIER, commonly called Vieux-Chene, former servant of the famous
Longuy; hostler at the Ecu de France, Mortagne, in 1809; was
implicated in the affair of the Chauffeurs, and condemned to twenty
years of penal servitude, but was afterwards pardoned by the Emperor.
During the Restoration he was murdered in the streets of Paris by an
obscure and devoted countryman of the Chevalier du Vissard. [The Seamy
Side of History.]
VAUTHIER (Madame), originally, in 1809, kitchen-girl in the household
of the Prince de Wissembourg, on the rue Louis-le-Grand; then cook to
Barbet, the publisher, owner of a lodging-house on the Boulevard
Montparnasse; still later, about 1833, she managed this establishment
for him, serving the same time as door-keeper in the house mentioned.
At that time Madame Vauthier employed Nepomucene and Felicite for the
house-work; as lodgers she had Bourlac, Vanda and Auguste Mergi, and
Godefroid. [The Seamy Side of History.]
VAUTRIN,[*] the most famous of Jacques Collin's assumed names.
[*] On March 14, 1840, a Parisian theatre, the Porte-Saint-Martin,
presented a play in which the famous convict was a principal
character. Although Frederic Lemaitre took the leading role, the
play was presented only once. In April, 1868, however, the
Ambigu-Comique revived it, with Frederic Lemaitre again in the
leading role.
VAUVINET, born about 1817, a money-lender of Paris, was of the elegant
modern type, altogether different from Chaboisseau-Gobseck; he made
the Boulevard des Italiens the centre of his operations; was a
creditor of the Baron Hulot, first in the sum of seventy thousand
francs; and then in an additional sum of forty thousand, really lent
by Nucingen. [Cousin Betty.] In 1845, Leon de Lora and J.-J. Bixiou
called S.-P. Gazonal's attention to him. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
VAVASSEUR, clerk in the Treasury Department, during the Empire, in
Clergeot's division. He was succeeded by E.-L.-L.-E.-Cochin. [The
Government Clerks.]
VEDIE (La), born in 1756, a homely spinster, her face being pitted
with small-pox; a relative of La Cognette, a distinguished cook; on
the recommendation of Flore Brazier and Maxence Gilet, she was
employed as cook by J.-J. Rouget, after the death of a curate, whom
she had served long, and who died without leaving her anything. She
was to receive a pension of three hundred livres a year, after ten
years of competent, faithful and loyal service. [A Bachelor's
Establishment.]
VENDRAMINI (Marco), whose name is also pronounced Vendramin;[*]
probably a descendant of the last Doge of Venice; brother of Bianca
Sagredo, born Vendramini; a Venetian patriot; an intimate friend of
Memmi-Cane, Prince of Varese. In the intoxication caused by opium, his
great resource about 1820, Marco Vendramini dreamed that his dear
city, then under Austrian dominion, was free and powerful once more.
He talked with Memmi of the Venice of his dreams, and of the famous
Procurator Florain, now in the modern Greek, now in their native
tongue; sometimes as they walked together, sometimes before La Vulpato
and the Cataneos, during a presentation of "Semiramide," "Il
Barbiere," or "Moses," as interpreted by La Tinti and Genovese.
Vendramini died from excessive use of opium, at quite an early age,
during the reign of Louis XVIII., and was greatly mourned by his
friends. [Facino Cane. Massimilla Doni.]
[*] The palace in Venice formerly owned by the Duchesse de Berri and
the Comte de Chambord, in which Wagner, the musician, died, is
even now called the Vendramin Palace. It is on the Grand-Canal,
quite near the Justiniani Palace (now the Hotel de-l'Europe.)
VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign with Hyacinthe
Chabert and Luigi Porta, was quartermaster of hussars when he left the
service. During the Restoration he was, in turn, cow-keeper on the rue
du Petit-Banquier, keeper of a livery-stable, and cabman. As
cow-keeper, Vergniaud, having a wife and three sons, being in debt to
Grados, and giving too generously to Chabert, ended in insolvency;
even then he aided Luigi Porta, again in trouble, and was his witness
when that Corsican married Mademoiselle di Piombo. Louis Vergniaud,
being a party to the conspiracies against Louis XVIII., was imprisoned
for his share in these crimes. [Colonel Chabert. The Vendetta.]
VERMANTON, a cynic philosopher, and a habitue of Madame Schontz's
salon, between 1835 and 1840, when she was keeping house with Arthur
de Rochefide. [Beatrix.]