BERNUS, diligence messenger carrying the passengers, freight, and
perhaps, the letters of Saint-Nazaire to Guerande, during the time of
Charles X. and Louis Philippe. [Beatrix.]
BERQUET, workman of Besancon who erected an elevated kiosk in the
garden of the Wattevilles, whence their daughter Rosalie could see
every act and movement of Albert Savarus, a near neighbor. [Albert
Savarus.]
BERTHIER (Alexandre), marshal of the Empire, born at Versailles in
1753, dying in 1815. He wrote, as Minister of War at the close of
1799, to Hulot, then in command of the Seventy-second demi-brigade,
refusing to accept his resignation and giving him further orders. [The
Chouans.] On the evening of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he
accompanied the Emperor and was present at the latter's interview with
the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, special envoys
to France to implore pardon for the Simeuses, the Hauteserres, and
Michu who had been condemned as abductors of Senator Malin de
Gondreville. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
BERTHIER, Parisian notary, successor of Cardot, whose assistant head-
clerk he had been and whose daughter Felicite (or Felicie) he married.
In 1843 he was Mme. Marneffe's notary. At the same time he had in hand
the affairs of Camusot de Marville; and Sylvain Pons often dined with
him. Master Berthier drew up the marriage settlement of Wilhelm Schwab
with Emilie Graff, and the copartnership articles between Fritz
Brunner and Wilhelm Schwab. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]
BERTHIER (Madame), nee Felicie Cardot, wife of the preceding. She had
been wronged by the chief-clerk in her father's office. This young man
died suddenly, leaving her enceinte. She then espoused the second
clerk, Berthier, in 1837, after having been on the point of accepting
Lousteau. Berthier was cognizant of all the head-clerk's doings. In
this affair both acted for a common interest. The marriage was
measurably happy. Madame Berthier was so grateful to her husband that
she made herself his slave. About the end of 1844 she welcomed very
coldly Sylvain Pons, then in disgrace in the family circle. [The Muse
of the Department. Cousin Pons.]
BERTON, tax-collector at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1839. [The Member for
Arcis.]
BERTON (Mademoiselle), daughter of the tax-collector of Arcis-sur-
Aube. A young, insignificant girl who acted the satellite to Cecile
Beauvisage and Ernestine Mollot. [The Member for Arcis.]
BERTON (Doctor), physician of Paris. In 1836 he lived on rue d'Enfer
(now rue Denfert-Rochereau). An assistant in the benevolent work of
Mme. de la Chanterie, he visited the needy sick whom she pointed out.
Among others he attended Vanda de Mergi, daughter of the Baron de
Bourlac--M. Bernard. Doctor Berton was gruff and frigid. [The Seamy
Side of History.]
BETHUNE (Prince de), the only man of fashion who knew "what a hat was"
--to quote a saying of Vital the hatter, in 1845. [The Unconscious
Humorists.]
BEUNIER & CO., the firm Bixiou inquired after in 1845, near Mme.
Nourrisson's. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
BIANCHI. Italian. During the first Empire a captain in the sixth
regiment of the French line, which was made up almost entirely of men
of his nationality. Celebrated in his company for having bet that he
would eat the heart of a Spanish sentinel, and winning that bet.
Captain Bianchi was first to plant the French colors on the wall of
Tarragone, Spain, in the attack of 1808. But a friar killed him. [The
Maranas.]
BIANCHON (Doctor), a physician of Sancerre, father of Horace Bianchon,
brother of Mme. Popinot, the wife of Judge Popinot. [The Commission in
Lunacy.]
BIANCHON (Horace), a physician of Paris, celebrated during the times
of Charles X. and Louis Philippe; an officer of the Legion of Honor,
member of the Institute, professor of the Medical Faculty, physician-
in-charge, at the same time, of a hospital and the Ecole
Polytechnique. Born at Sancerre, Cher, about the end of the eighteenth
century. He was "interne" at the Cochin Hospital in 1819, at which
time he boarded at the Vauquer Pension where he knew Eugene de
Rastignac, then studying law, and Goriot and Vautrin. [Father Goriot.]
Shortly thereafter, at Hotel Dieu, he became the favored pupil of the
surgeon Desplein, whose last days he tended. [The Atheist's Mass.]
Nephew of Judge Jean-Jules Popinot and relative of Anselme Popinot, he
had dealings with the perfumer Cesar Birotteau, who acknowledged
indebtedness to him for a prescription of his famous hazelnut oil, and
who invited him to the grand ball which precipitated Birotteau's
bankruptcy. [Cesar Birotteau. The Commission in Lunacy.] Member of the
"Cenacle" in rue des Quatre-Vents, and on intimate terms with all the
young fellows composing this clique, he was consequently enabled, to
an extent, to bring Daniel d'Arthez to the notice of Rastignac, now
Under-Secretary of State. He nursed Lucien de Rubempre who was wounded
in a duel with Michel Chrestien in 1822; also Coralie, Lucien's
mistress, and Mme. Bridau in their last illnesses. [Lost Illusions. A
Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment. The
Secrets of a Princess.] In 1824 the young Doctor Bianchon accompanied
Desplein, who was called in to attend the dying Flamet de la
Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.] In Provins in 1828, with the
same Desplein and Dr. Martener, he gave the most assiduous attention
to Pierrette Lorrain. [Pierrette.] In this same year of 1828 he had a
momentary desire to become one of an expedition to Morea. He was then
physician to Mme. de Listomere, whose misunderstanding with Rastignac
he learned and afterwards related. [A Study of Woman.] Again in
company with Desplein, in 1829, he was called in by Mme. de Nucingen
with the object of studying the case of Baron de Nucingen, her
husband, love-sick for Esther Gobseck. In 1830, still with his
celebrated chief, he was cited by Corentin to express an opinion on
the death of Peyrade and the lunacy of Lydie his daughter. Then, with
Desplein and with Dr. Sinard, to attend Mme. de Serizy, who it was
feared would go crazy over the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre. [Scenes
from a Courtesan's Life.] Associated with Desplein, at this same time,
he cared for the dying Honorine, wife of Comte de Bauvan [Honorine.],
and examined the daughter of Baron de Bourlac--M. Bernard--who was
suffering from a peculiar Polish malady, the plica. [The Seamy Side of
History.] In 1831 Horace Bianchon was the friend and physician of
Raphael de Valentin. [The Magic Skin.] In touch with the Comte de
Granville in 1833, he attended the latter's mistress, Caroline
Crochard. [A Second Home.] He also attended Mme. du Bruel, then
mistress of La Palferine, who had injured herself by falling and
striking her head against the sharp corner of a fireplace. [A Prince
of Bohemia.] In 1835 he attended Mme. Marie Gaston--Louise de Chaulieu
--though a hopeless case. [Letters of Two Brides.] In 1837 at Paris he
accouched Mme. de la Baudraye who had been intimate with Lousteau; he
was assisted by the celebrated accoucheur Duriau. [The Muse of the
Department.] In 1838 he was Comte Laginski's physician. [The Imaginary
Mistress.] In 1840 Horace Bianchon resided on rue de la Montagne-
Sainte-Genevieve, in the house where his uncle, Judge Popinot, died,
and he was asked to become one of the Municipal Council, in place of
that upright magistrate. But he declined, declaring in favor of
Thuillier. [The Middle Classes.] The physician of Baron Hulot, Crevel
and Mme. Marneffe, he observed with seven of his colleagues, the
terrible malady which carried off Valerie and her second husband in
1842. In 1843 he also visited Lisbeth Fisher in her last illness
[Cousin Betty.] Finally, in 1844, Dr. Bianchon was consulted by Dr.
Roubaud regarding Mme. Graslin at Montegnac. [The Country Parson.]
Horace Bianchon was a brilliant and inspiring conversationalist. He
gave to society the adventures known by the following titles: A Study
of Woman; Another Study of Woman; La Grande Breteche.
BIBI-LUPIN, chief of secret police between 1819 and 1830; a former
convict. In 1819 he personally arrested at Mme. Vauquer's boarding-
house Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin, his old galley-mate and personal
enemy. Under the name of Gondureau, Bibi-Lupin had made overtures to
Mlle. Michonneau, one of Mme. Vauquer's guests, and through her he had
obtained the necessary proofs of the real identity of Vautrin who was
then without the pale of the law, but who later, May, 1830, became his
successor as chief of secret police. [Father Goriot. Scenes from a
Courtesan's Life.]
BIDAULT (Monsieur and Madame), brother and sister-in-law of Bidault,
alias Gigonnet; father and mother of M. and Mme. Saillard, furniture-
dealers under the Central Market pillars during the latter part of the
eighteenth and perhaps the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. [The
Government Clerks.]
BIDAULT, known as Gigonnet, born in 1755; originally an Auvergnat;
uncle of Mme. Saillard on the paternal side. A paper-merchant at one
time, retired from business since the year II of the Republic, he
opened an account with a Dutchman called Sieur Werbrust, who was a
friend of Gobseck. In business relations with the latter, he was one
of the most formidable usurers in Paris, during the Empire, the
Restoration and the first part of the July Government. He dwelt in rue
Greneta. [The Government Clerks. Gobseck.] Luigi Porta, a ranking
officer retired under Louis XVIII., sold all his back pay to Gigonnet.
[The Vendetta.] Bidault was one of the syndicate that engineered the
bankruptcy of Birotteau in 1819. At this time he persecuted Mme.
Madou, a market dealer in filberts, who was his debtor. [Cesar
Birotteau.] In 1824 he succeeded in making his grand-nephew, Isidore
Baudoyer, chief of the division under the Minister of Finance; in this
he was aided by Gobseck and Mitral, and worked on the General
Secretary, Chardin des Lupeaulx, through the medium of the latter's
debts and the fact of his being candidate for deputy. [The Government
Clerks.] Bidault was shrewd enough; he saw through--and much to his
profit--the pretended speculation involved in the third receivership
which was operated by Nucingen in 1826. [The Firm of Nucingen.] In
1833 M. du Tillet advised Nathan, then financially stranded, to apply
to Gigonnet, the object being to involve Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]
The nick-name of Gigonnet was applied to Bidault on account of a
feverish, involuntary contraction of a leg muscle. [The Government
Clerks.]
BIDDIN, goldsmith, rue de l'Arbe-Sec, Paris, in 1829; one of Esther
Gobseck's creditors. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BIFFE (La), concubine of the criminal Riganson, alias Le Biffon. This
woman, who was a sort of Jacques Collin in petticoats, evaded the
police, thanks to her disguises. She could ape the marquise, the
baronne and the comtesse to perfection. She had her own carriage and
footmen. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
BIFFON (Le), an alias of Riganson.
BIGORNEAU, sentimental clerk of Fritot's, the shawl merchant in the
Bourse quarter, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. [Gaudissart II.]