Repertory of the Comedie Humaine/R
Q
QUELUS (Abbe), priest of Tours or of its vicinity, called frequently on the Chessels, neighbors of the Mortsaufs, at the beginning of the century. (The Lily of the Valley)
QUEVERDO, faithful steward of the immense domain of Baron de Macumer, in Sardinia. After the defeat of the Liberals in Spain, in 1823, he was told to look out for his master's safety. Some fishers for coral agreed to pick him up on the coast of Andalusia and set him off at Macumer. (Letters of Two Brides)
QUILLET (Francois), office-boy employed by Raoul Nathan's journal on rue Feydau, Paris, 1835. He aided his employer by lending him the name of Francois Quillet. Raoul, in great despair, while occupying a furnished room on rue du Mail, threw several creditors off his track by the use of this assumed name. (A Daughter of Eve)
R
RABOUILLEUSE (La), name assumed by Flore Brazier, who became in turn Madame Jean-Jacques Rouget and Madame Philippe Bridau. (See this last name.)
RABOURDIN (Xavier), born in 1784; his father was unknown unknown to him. His mother, a beautiful and fastidious woman, who lived in luxury, left him a penniless orphan of sixteen. At this time he left the Lycee Napoleon and became a super-numerary clerk in the Treasury Department. He was soon promoted, becoming second head clerk at twenty-two and head clerk at twenty-five. An unknown, but influential friend, was responsible for this progress, and also gave him an introduction into the home of M. Leprince, a wealthy widower, who had formerly been an auctioneer. Rabourdin met, loved and married this man's only daughter. Beginning with this time, when his influential friend probably died, Rabourdin saw the end of his own rapid progress. Despite his faithful, intelligent efforts, he occupied at forty the same position. In 1824 the death of M. Flamet de la Billardiere left open the place of division chief. This office, to which Rabourdin had long aspired, was given to the incapable Baudoyer, who had been at the head of a bureau, through the influence of money and the Church. Disgusted, Rabourdin sent in his resignation. He had been responsible for a rather remarkable plan for executive and social reform, and this possibly contributed to his overthrow. During his career as a minister Rabourdin lived on rue Duphot. He had by his wife two children, Charles, born in 1815, and a daughter, born two years later. About 1830 Rabourdin paid a visit to the Bureau of Finances, where he saw once more his former pages, nephews of Antoine, who had retired from service by that time. From these he learned that Colleville and Baudoyer were tax-collectors in Paris. (The Government Clerks) Under the Empire he was a guest at the evening receptions given by M. Guillaume, the cloth-dealer of rue Saint-Denis. (At the Sign of the Cat and Racket) Later he and his wife were invited to attend the famous ball tendered by Cesar Birotteau, December 17, 1818. (Cesar Birotteau) In 1840, being still a widower, Rabourdin was one of the directors of a proposed railway. At this time he began to lodge in a house on the Place de la Madeleine, which had been recently bought by the Thuilliers, whom he had known in the Bureau of Finance. (The Middle Classes)
RABOURDIN (Madame), born Celestine Leprince, in 1796; beautiful, tall and of good figure; reared by an artistic mother; a painter and a good musician; spoke many tongues and even had some knowledge of science. She was married when very young through the instrumentality of her father, who was then a widower. Her reception-rooms were not open to Jean-Jacques Bixiou, but she was frequently visited by the poet Canalis, the painter Schinner, Doctor Bianchon, who was especially fond of her company; Lucien de Rubempre, Octave de Camps, the Comte de Granville, the Vicomte de Fontaine, F. du Bruel, Andoche Finot, Derville, Chatelet, then deputy; Ferdinand du Tillet, Paul de Mannerville, and the Vicomte de Portenduere. A rival, Madame Colleville, had dubbed Madame Rabourdin "The Celimene of rue Duphot." Having been over-indulged by her mother, Celestine Leprince thought herself entitled to a man of high rank. Consequently, although M. Rabourdin pleased her, she hesitated at first about marrying him, as she did not consider him of high enough station. This did not prevent her loving him sincerely. Although she was very extravagant, she remained always strictly faithful to him. By listening to the demands of Chardin des Lupeaulx, secretary-general in the Department of Finance, who was in love with her, she might have obtained for her husband the position of division chief. Madame Rabourdin's reception days were Wednesdays and Fridays. She died in 1840. (The Commission in Lunacy, The Government Clerks)
RABOURDIN (Charles), law-student, son of the preceding couple, born in 1815, lived from 1836 to 1838 in a house on rue Corneille, Paris. There he became acquainted with Z. Marcas, helped him in his distress, attended him on his death-bed, and, with Justi, a medical student, as his only companion, followed the body of this great, but unknown man to the beggar's grave in Montparnasse cemetery. After having told some friends the short, but pitiful story of Z. Marcas, Charles Rabourdin, following the advice of the deceased, left the country, and sailed from Havre for the Malayan islands; for he had not been able to gain a foothold in France. (Z, Marcas)
RACQUETS (Des). (See Raquets, des.)
RAGON born about 1748; a perfumer on rue Saint-Honore, between Saint-Roche and rue des Frondeurs, Paris, towards the close of the eighteenth century; small man, hardly five feet tall, with a face like a nut-cracker, self-important and known for his gallantry. He was succeeded in his business, the "Reine des Roses," by his chief clerk, Cesar Birotteau, after the eighteenth Brumaire. As a former perfumer to Her Majesty Queen Marie-Antoinette, M. Ragon always showed Royalist zeal, and, under the Republic, the Vendeans used him to communicate between the princes and the Royalist committee of Paris. He received at that time the Abbe de Marolles, to whom he pointed out and revealed the person of Louis XVI.'s executioner. In 1818, being a loser in the Nucingen speculation in Wortschin mining stock, Ragon lived with his wife in an apartment on rue du Petit-Bourbon-Saint-Sulpice. (Cesar Birotteau, An Episode under the Terror)
RAGON (Madame), born Popinot; sister of Judge Popinot, wife of the preceding, being very nearly the same age as her husband, was in 1818 "a tall slender woman of wrinkled face, sharp nose, thin lips, and the artificial manner of a marchioness of the old line." (Cesar Birotteau)
RAGOULLEAU[1] (Jean-Antoine), a Parisian lawyer, whose signature the widow Morin tried to extort. She also attempted his assassination, and was condemned, January 11, 1812, on the evidence of a number of witnesses, among others that of Poiret, to twenty years of hard labor. (Father Goriot)
RAGUET, working boy in the establishment of Cesar Birotteau, the perfumer, in 1818. (Cesar Birotteau)
RAPARLIER, a Douai notary; drew up marriage contracts in 1825 for Marguerite Claes and Emmanuel de Solis, for Felicie Claes and Pierquin the notary, and for Gabriel Claes and Mademoiselle Conyncks. (The Quest for the Absolute)
RAPARLIER, a Douai auctioneer, under the Restoration; nephew of the preceding; took an inventory at the Claes house after the death of Madame Balthazar Claes in 1816. (The Quest of the Absolute)
RAPP, French general, born at Colmar in 1772; died in 1821. As aide-de-camp of the First Consul, Bonaparte, he found himself one day in October serving near his chief at the Tuileries, when the proscribed Corsican, Bartolomeo de Piombo, came up rather unexpectedly. Rapp, who was suspicious of this man, as he was of all Corsicians, wished to stay at Bonaparte's side during the interview, but the Consul good-naturedly sent him away. (The Vendetta) On October 13, 1806, the day before the battle of Jena, Rapp had just made an important report to the Emperor at the moment when Napoleon was receiving on the next day's battlefield Mademoiselle Laurence de Cinq-Cygne and M. de Chargeboeuf, who had come from France to ask for the pardon of the two Hauteserres and the two Simeuses, people affected by the political suit and condemned to hard labor. (The Gondreville Mystery)
RAQUETS (Des), lived at Douai, of Flemish descent, and devoted to the traditions and customs of his province; very wealthy uncle of the notary Pierquin, his only heir, who received his inheritance towards the close of the Restoration. (The Quest of the Absolute)
RASTIGNAC (Chevalier de), great-uncle of Eugene de Rastignac; as vice-admiral was commander of the "Vengeur" before 1789, and lost his entire fortune in the service of the king, as the revolutionary government did not wish to satisfy his demands in the adjusting of the Compagnie des Indes affairs. (Father Goriot)
RASTIGNAC (Baron and Baronne de) had, near Ruffec, Charente, an estate, where they lived in the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries, and where were born to them five children: Eugene, Laure-Rose, Agathe, Gabriel and Henri. They were poor, and lived in close retirement, keeping a dignified silence, and like their neighbours, the Marquis and Marquise de Pimentel, exercised, through their connection with court circles, a strong influence over the entire province, being invited at various times to the home of Madame de Bargeton, at Angouleme, where they met Lucien de Rubempre and were able to understand him. (Father Goriot, Lost Illusions)
RASTIGNAC (Eugene de),[2] eldest son of the Baron and Baronne de Rastignac, born at Rastignac near Ruffec in 1797. He came to Paris in 1819 to study law; lived at first on the third floor of the Vauquer lodging-house, rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve, having then some association with Jacques Collin, called Vautrin, who was especially interested in him and wanted him to marry Victorine Taillefer. Rastignac became the lover of Madame de Nucingen, second daughter of Joachim Goriot, an old vermicelli-maker, and in February, 1820, lived on rue d'Artois in pretty apartments, rented and furnished by the father of his mistress. Goriot died in his arms. The servant, Christophe, and Rastignac were the only attendants in the good man's funeral procession. At the Vauquer lodging-house he was intimate with Horace Bianchon, a medical student. (Father Goriot) In 1821, at the Opera, young Rastignac made fun for the occupants of two boxes over the provincialisms of Madame de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre, "young Chardon." This led Madame d'Espard to leave the theatre with her relative, thus publicly and in a cowardly way abandoning the distinguished provincial. Some months later Rastignac sought the favor of this same Lucien de Rubempre, who was by that time an influential citizen. He agreed to act with Marsay as the poet's witness in the duel which he fought with Michel Chrestien, in regard to Daniel d'Arthez. ([[A Distinguished Provincial at Paris]]) At the last masquerade ball of 1824 Rastignac found Rubempre, who had disappeared from Paris some time before. Vautrin, recalling his memories of the Vauquer lodging-house, urged him authoritatively to treat Lucien as a friend. Shortly after, Rastignac became a frequenter of the sumptuous mansion furnished by Nucingen for Esther van Gobseck on rue Saint-Georges. Rastignac was present at Lucien de Rubempre's funeral in May, 1830. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) About the same time the Comte de Fontaine asked his daughter Emilie what she thought of Rastignac—among several others—as a possible husband for her. But knowing the relations of this youthful aspirant with Madame de Nucingen, she saved herself by replying maliciously. (The Ball at Sceaux) In 1828 Rastignac sought to become Madame d'Espard's lover, but was restrained by his friend, Doctor Bianchon. (The Interdiction) During the same year Rastignac was treated slightingly by Madame de Listomere, because he asked her to return a letter, which through mistake had been sent to her, but which he had meant for Madame de Nucingen. (A Study of Woman) After the Revolution of July he was a guest at Mademoiselle des Touches's evening party, where Marsay told the story of his first love. (Another Study of Woman) At this time he was intimate with Raphael de Valentin, and expected to marry an Alsatian. (The Magic Skin) In 1832, Rastignac, having been appointed a baron, was under-secretary of state in the department of which Marsay was the minister. (The Secrets of a Princess) In 1833-34, he volunteered as nurse at the bedside of the dying minister, in the hope of being remembered in his will. One evening about this same time he took Raoul Nathan and Emile Blondet, whom he had met in society, to supper with him at Very's. He then advised Nathan to profit by the advances made him by the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse. (A Daughter of Eve) In 1833, at the Princesse de Cadignan's home, in the presence of the Marquise d'Espard, the old Ducs de Lenoncourt and de Navarreins, the Comte and the Comtesse de Vandenesse, D'Arthez, two ambassadors, and two well-known orators of the Chamber of Peers, Rastignac heard his minister reveal the secrets of the abduction of Senator Malin, an affair which took place in 1806. (The Gondreville Mystery) In 1836, having become enriched by the third Nucingen failure, in which he was more or less a willing accomplice, he became possessed of an income of forty thousand francs. (The Firm of Nucingen) In 1838 he attended the opening reception given at Josepha's mansion on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. He was also witness at Hortense Hulot's marriage to Wenceslas Steinbock. He married Augusta de Nucingen, daughter of Delphine de Nucingen, his former mistress, whom he had quitted five years previously. In 1839, Rastignac, minister once more, and this time of public works, was made count almost in spite of himself. In 1845 he was, moreover, made a peer. He had then an income of 300,000 francs. He was in the habit of saying: "There is no absolute virtue, all things are dependent on circumstances." (Cousin Betty, The Member for Arcis, The Unconscious Humorists)
RASTIGNAC (Laure-Rose and Agathe de),[3] sisters of Eugene de Rastignac; second and third children of the Baron and Baronne de Rastignac; Laure, the elder, born in 1801; Agathe, the second, born in 1802; both were reared unostentatiously in the Rastignac chateau. In 1819 they sent what they had saved by economy to their brother Eugene, then a student. Several years after, when he was wealthy and powerful, he married one of them to Martial de la Roche-Hugon, the other to a minister. In 1821, Laure, with her father and mother, was present at a reception of M. de Bargeton's, where she admired Lucien de Rubempre. (Father Goriot, Lost Illusions) Madame de la Roche-Hugon in 1839 took her several daughters to a children's dance at Madame de l'Estorade's in Paris. (The Member for Arcis)
RASTIGNAC (Monseigneur Gabriel de), brother of Eugene de Rastignac; one of the youngest two children of the Baron and Baronne de Rastignac; was private secretary to the Bishop of Limoges towards the end of the Restoration, during the trial of Tascheron. In 1832 he became, when only a young man of thirty, a bishop. He was consecrated by the Archbishop Dutheil. (Father Goriot, The Country Parson, A Daughter of Eve)
RASTIGNAC (Henri de), the fifth child, probably of the Baron de Rastignac and his wife. Nothing is known of his life. (Father Goriot)
RATEL, gendarme in the Orne district; in 1809, along with his fellow-officer, Mallet, was charged with the capture of "Lady" Bryond des Miniares, who was implicated in the affair known as the "Chauffeurs de Mortagne." He found the fugitive, but, instead of arresting her, allowed himself to be unduly influenced by her, and then protected her and let her escape. This action on his part was known to Mallet. Ratel, when imprisoned, confessed all, and committed suicide before the time assigned for trial. (The Seamy Side of History)
RAVENOUILLET, porter in Bixiou's house, at No. 112 rue Richelieu, in 1845; son of a Carcassonne grocer; a steward throughout his life and owed his first position to his fellow-countryman, Massol. Ravenouillet, although uneducated was not unintelligent. According to Bixiou, he was the "Providence at thirty per cent" of the seventy-one lodgers in the house, through whom he netted in the neighborhood of six thousand francs a month. (The Unconscious Humorists)
RAVENOUILLET (Madame), wife of the preceding. (The Unconscious Humorists)
RAVENOUILLET (Lucienne), daughter of the preceding couple, was in 1845 a pupil in the Paris Conservatory of Music. (The Unconscious Humorists)
REGNAULD (Baron) (1754-1829), celebrated artist, member of the Institute. Joseph Bridau, when fourteen, was a frequent visitor at his studio, in 1812-1813. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
REGNAULT, former chief clerk to Maitre Roguin, a Paris notary; came to Vendome in 1816 and purchased there a notaryship. He was called by Madame de Merret to her death-bed, and was made her executor. In this position, some years later, he urged Doctor Bianchon to respect one of the last wishes of the deceased by discontinuing his promenades in the Grande Breteche garden, as she had wished this property to remain entirely unused for half a century. Maitre Regnault married a wealthy cousin of Vendome. Regnault was tall and slender, with sloping forehead, small pointed head and wan complexion. He frequently used the expression, "One moment." (La Grande Breteche)
REGNIER (Claude-Antoine), Duc de Massa, born in 1746, died 1814; an advocate, and afterwards deputy to the Constituency; was high justice—justice of the peace—during the celebrated trial of the Simeuses and Hauteserres, accused of the abduction of Senator Malin. He noticed the talent displayed by Granville for the defendants, and a little later, having met him at Archchancelor Cambaceres's house, he took the young barrister into his own carriage, setting him down on the Quai des Augustins, at the young man's door, after giving him some practical advice and assuring him of his protection. (The Gondreville Mystery, A Second Home)
REMONENCQ, an Auvergnat, dealer in old iron, established on rue de Normandie, in the house in which Pons and Schmucke lived, and where the Cibots were porters. Remonencq, who had come to Paris with the intention of being a porter, ran errands between 1825 and 1831 for the dealers in curiosities on Boulevard Beaumarchais and the coppersmiths on rue de Lappe, then opened in this same quarter a small shop for odds and ends. He lived there in sordid economy. He had been in Sylvain Pons's house, and had fully recognized the great value of the aged collector's treasures. His greed urged him to crime, and he instigated Madame Cibot in her theft at the Pons house. After receiving his share of the property, he poisoned the husband of the portress, in order to marry the widow, with whom he established a curiosity shop in an excellent building on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. About 1846 he unwittingly poisoned himself with a glass of vitriol, which he had placed near his wife. (Cousin Pons)
REMONENCQ (Mademoiselle), sister of the preceding, "a kind of idiot with a vacant stare, dressed like a Japanese idol." She was her brother's house-keeper. (Cousin Pons)
REMONENCQ (Madame), born in 1796, at one time a beautiful oyster-woman of the "Cadran Bleu" in Paris; married for love the porter-tailor, Cibot, in 1828, and lived with him in the porter's lodge of a house on rue de Normandie, belonging to Claude-Joseph Pillerault. In this house the musicians, Pons and Schmucke, lived. She busied herself for some time with the management of the house and the cooking for these two celibates. At first she was faithful, but finally, moved by Remonencq, and encouraged by Fontaine, the necromancer, she robbed the ill-fated Pons. Her husband having been poisoned, without her knowledge, by Remonencq, she married the second-hand dealer, now a dealer in curiosities, and proprietor of the beautiful shop on the Boulevard de la Madeleine. She survived her second husband. (Cousin Pons)
REMY (Jean), peasant of Arcis-sur-Aube, against whom a neighbor lost a lawsuit concerning a boundary line. This neighbor, who was given to drink, used strong language in speaking against Jean Remy in a session of the electors who had organized in the interest of Dorlange-Sallenauve, a candidate, in the month of April, 1839. If we may believe this neighbor, Jean Remy was a wife-beater, and had a daughter who had obtained, through the influence of a deputy, and apparently without any claim, an excellent tobacco-stand on rue Mouffetard. (The Member for Arcis)
RENARD, former captain in the Imperial army, withdrew to Issoudun during the Restoration; one of the officers in the Faubourg de Rome, who were hostile to the "pekins" and partisans of Maxence (Max) Gilet. Renard and Commandant Potel were seconds for Maxence in his duel with Philippe Bridau—a duel which resulted in the former's death. (A Bachelor's Establishment)
RENARD, regimental quartermaster in the cavalry, 1812. Although educated as a notary he became an under officer. He had the face of a girl and was considered a "wheedler." He saved the life of his friend, Genestas, several times, but enticed away from him a Polish Jewess, whom he loved, married in Sarmatian fashion, and left enceinte. When fatally wounded in the battle against the Russians, just before the battle of Lutzen, in his last hours, to Genestas, he acknowledged having betrayed the Jewess, and begged this gentleman to marry her and claim the child, which would soon be born. This was done by the innocent officer. Renard was the son of a Parisian wholesale grocer, a "toothless shark," who would not listen to anything concerning the quartermaster's offspring. (The Country Doctor)
RENARD (Madame). (See Genestas, Madame.)
RENARD (Adrien). (See Genestas, Adrien.)
RENE, the only servant to M. du Bousquier of Alencon, in 1816; a silly Breton servant, who, although very greedy, was perfectly reliable. (Jealousies of a Country Town)
RESTAUD (Comte de), a man whose sad life was first brought to the notice of Barchou de Penhoen, a school-mate of Dufaure and Lambert; born about 1780; husband of Anastasie Goriot, by whom he was ruined; died in December, 1824, while trying to adjust matters favorably for his eldest son, Ernest, the only one of Madame de Restaud's three children whom he recognized as his own. To this end he had pretended that, having been very extravagant, he was greatly in debt to Gobseck. He assured his son by another letter of the real condition of his estate. M. de Restaud, was similar in appearance to the Duc de Richelieu, and had the proud manners of the statesman of the aristocratic faubourg. (Gobseck, Father Goriot)
RESTAUD (Comtesse Anastasie de), wife of the preceding; elder daughter of the vermicelli-maker, Jean-Joachim Goriot; a beautiful brunette of queenly bearing and manners. Like the fair and gentle Madame de Nucingen, her sister, she showed herself severe and ungrateful towards the kindliest and weakest of fathers. She had three children, two boys and a girl; Ernest, the eldest, being the only legitimate one. She ruined herself for Trailles, her lover's benefit, selling her jewels to Gobseck and endangering her children's future. As soon as her husband had breathed his last, in a moment anxiously awaited, she took from under his pillow and burned the papers which she believed contrary to her own interests and those of her two natural children. It thus followed that Gobseck, the fictitious creditor, gained a claim on all of the remaining property. (Gobseck, Father Goriot)
RESTAUD (Ernest de), eldest child of the preceding, and their only legitimate one, as the other two were natural children of Maxime de Trailles. In 1824, while yet a child, he received from his dying father instruction to hand to Derville, the attorney, a sealed package which contained his will; but Madame de Restaud, by means of her maternal authority, kept Ernest from carrying out his promise. On attaining his majority, after his fortune had been restored to him by his father's fictitious creditor, Gobseck, he married Camille de Grandlieu, who reciprocated his love for her. As a result of this marriage Ernest de Restaud became connected with the Legitimists, while his brother Felix, who had almost attained the position of minister under Louis Philippe, followed the opposite party. (Gobseck, The Member for Arcis)
RESTAUD (Madame Ernest de), born Camille de Grandlieu in 1813, daughter of the Vicomtesse de Grandlieu. During the first years of Louis Philippe's reign, while very young, she fell in love with and married Ernest de Restaud, who was then a minor. (Gobseck, The Member for Arcis)
RESTAUD (Felix-Georges de), one of the younger children of the Comte and Comtesse de Restaud; probably a natural son of Maxime de Trailles. In 1839, Felix de Restaud was chief secretary to his cousin Eugene de Rastignac, minister of public works. (Gobseck, The Member for Arcis)
RESTAUD (Pauline de), legal daughter of the Comte and Comtesse de Restaud, but probably the natural daughter of Maxime de Trailles. We know nothing of her life. (Gobseck)
REYBERT (De), captain in the Seventh regiment of artillery under the Empire; born in the Messin country. During the Restoration he lived in Presles, Seine-et-Oise, with his wife and daughter, on only six hundred francs pension. As a neighbor of Moreau, manager of the Comte de Serizy's estate, he detected the steward in some extortions, and sending his wife to the count, denounced the guilty man. He was chosen as Moreau's successor. Reybert married his daughter, without furnishing her a dowry, to the wealthy farmer Leger. (A Start in Life)
REYBERT (Madame de), born Corroy, in Messin, wife of the preceding, and like him of noble family. Her face was pitted by small-pox until it looked like a skimmer; her figure was tall and spare; her eyes were bright and clear; she was straight as a stick; she was a strict Puritan, and subscribed to the Courrier Francais. She paid a visit to the Comte de Serizy, and unfolded to him Moreau's extortions, thus obtaining for her husband the stewardship of Presles. (A Start in Life)
RHETORE (Duc Alphonse de), eldest son of the Duc and Duchess de Chaulieu, he became an ambassador in the diplomatic service. For many years during the Restoration he kept Claudine Chaffaroux, called Tullia, the star dancing-girl at the Opera, who married Bruel in 1824. He became acquainted with Lucien de Rubempre, both in his own circle of acquaintance and in the world of gallantry, and entertained him one evening in his box at a first performance at the Ambigu in 1821. He reproached his guest for having wounded Chatelet and Madame de Bargeton by his newspaper satire, and at the same time, while addressing him continually as Chardon, he counseled the young man to become a Royalist, in order that Louis XVIII. might restore to him the title and name of Rubempres, his maternal ancestors. The Duc de Rhetore, however, disliked Lucien de Rubempre, and a little later at a performance in the Italiens, he traduced him to Madame de Serizy, who was really in love with the poet. (A Bachelor's Establishment, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life, Letters of Two Brides) In 1835, he married the Duchesse d'Argaiolo, born the Princesse Soderini, a woman of great beauty and fortune. (Albert Savarus) In 1839, he had a duel with Dorlange-Sallenauve, having provoked the latter, by speaking in a loud voice, which he knew could be easily understood, and slandering Marie Gaston, second husband of Dorlange's sister, Louise de Chaulieu. Dorlange was wounded. (The Member for Arcis)
RHETORE (Duchess de), born Francesca Soderini in 1802; a very beautiful and wealthy Florentine; married, when very young, by her father, to the Duc d'Argaiolo, who was also very rich and much older than herself. In Switzerland or Italy she became acquainted with Albert Savarus, when, as a result of political events, she and her husband were proscribed and deprived of their property. The Duchesse d'Argaiolo and Albert Savarus loved platonically, and Francesca-like she promised her hand to her Francois whenever she should become a widow. In 1835, having been widowed for some time, and, as a result of Rosalie de Watteville's plots, believing herself forgotten and betrayed by Savarus, from whom she had received no news, she gave her hand to the Duc de Rhetore, the ex-ambassador. The marriage took place in the month of May at Florence and was celebrated with much pomp. The Duchesse d'Argaiolo is pictured under the name of the Princesse Gandolphini in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published in 1834 by the Revue de l'Est. Under Louis Philippe, the Duchesse de Rhetore became acquainted with Mademoiselle de Watteville at a charity entertainment. On their second meeting, which took place at the Opera ball, Mademoiselle de Watteville revealed her own ill-doings and vindicated Savarus. (Albert Savarus)
RICHARD (Veuve), a Nemours woman from whom Ursule Mirouet, afterwards Vicomtesse de Portenduere, after the death of Doctor Minoret, her guardian, purchased a house to occupy. (Ursule Mirouet)
RIDAL (Fulgence), dramatic author; member of the Cenacle, which held its sessions at D'Arthez's home on rue des Quatre-Vents, during the Restoration. He disparaged Leon Giraud's beliefs, went under a Rabelaisian guise, careless, lazy and skeptical, also inclined to be melancholy and happy at the same time; nick-named by his friends the "Regimental Dog." Fulgence Ridal and Joseph Bridau, with other members of the Cenacle, were present at an evening party given by Madame Veuve Bridau, in 1819, to celebrate the return of her son Philippe from Texas. (A Bachelor's Establishment, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris) In 1845, having been a vaudevillist, he was given the direction of a theatre in association with Lousteau. He had influencial government friends. (The Unconscious Humorists)
RIFFE, copying-clerk in the Financial Bureau, who had charge of the "personnel." (The Government Clerks)
RIFOOEL. (See Vissard, Chevalier du.)
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)
ROGUIN (Mathilde-Melanie). (See Tiphaine, Madame.)
ROMETTE (La). (See Paccard, Jeromette.)
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)
ROUGET (Madame Jean-Jacques). (See Bridau, Madame Philippe.)
ROUSSE (La), significant name given Madame Prelard. (See this last name.)
ROUSSEAU, driver of the public hack which carried the taxes collected at Caen. This conveyance was attacked and plundered by robbers in May, 1809, in the fo rest of Chesnay, near Mortagne, Orne. Rousseau, being looked upon as an accomplice of the robbers, was included in the prosecution which took place soon after; but he was acquitted. (The Seamy Side of History)
ROUSTAN, Mameluke, in the service of Napoleon Bonaparte. He was with his master on the eve of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, when Laurence de Cinq-Cygne and M. de Chargeboeuf observed him holding the Emperor's horse as Napoleon dismounted. This was just before these two approached the Emperor to ask pardon for the Hauteserres and the Simeuses, who had been condemned as accomplices in the abduction of Senator Malin. (The Gondreville Mystery)
ROUVILLE (de), (See Leseigneur, Madame.)
ROUVRE (Marquis du), father of the Comtesse Clementine Laginska; threw away a considerable fortune, by means of which he had brought about his marriage with a Ronquerolles maiden. This fortune was partly eaten up by Florine, "one of the most charming actresses of Paris." (The Imaginary Mistress) M. du Rouvre was the brother-in-law of the Comte de Serizy, who, like him, had married a Ronquerolles. Having been a marquis under the old regime, M. du Rouvre was created count and made chamberlain by the Emperor. (A Start in Life) In 1829, M. du Rouvre, then ruined, lived at Nemours. He had near this city a castle which he sold at great loss to Minoret-Levrault. (Ursule Mirouet)
ROUVRE (Chevalier du), younger brother of the Marquis du Rouvre; an eccentric old bachelor, who became wealthy by dealing in houses and real estate, and is supposed to have left his fortune to his niece, the Comtesse Clementine Laginska. (The Imaginary Mistress, Ursule Mirouet)
ROUZEAU, an Angouleme printer, predecessor and master of Jerome-Nicolas Sechard, in the eighteenth century. (Lost Illusions)
RUBEMPRE (Lucien-Chardon de), born in 1800 at Angouleme; son of Chardon, a surgeon in the armies of the Republic who became an apothecary in that town, and of Mademoiselle de Rubempre, his wife, the descendant of a very noble family. He was a journalist, poet, romance writer, author of "Les Marguerites," a book of sonnets, and of the "Archer de Charles IX.," a historical romance. He shone for a time in the salon of Madame de Bargeton, born Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, who became enamored of him, enticed him to Paris, and there deserted him, at the instigation of her cousin, Madame d'Espard. He met the members of the Cenacle on rue des Quatre-Vents, and became well acquainted with D'Arthez. Etienne Lousteau, who revealed to him the shameful truth concerning literary life, introduced him to the well-known publisher, Dauriat, and escorted him to an opening night at the Panorama-Dramatique theatre, where the poet saw the charming Coralie. She loved him at first sight, and he remained true to her until her death in 1822. Started by Lousteau into undertaking Liberal journalism, Lucien de Rubempre passed over suddenly to the Royalist side, founding the "Reveil," an extremely partisan organ, with the hope of obtaining from the King the right to adopt the name of his mother. At this time he frequented the social world and thus brought to poverty his mistress. He was wounded in a duel by Michel Chrestien, whom he had made angry by an article in the "Reveil," which had severely criticised a very excellent book by Daniel d'Arthez. Coralie having died, he departed for Angouleme on foot, with no resources except twenty francs that Berenice, the cousin and servant of her mistress, had received from chance lovers. He came near dying of exhaustion and sorrow, very near the city of his birth. He found there Madame de Bargeton, then the wife of Comte Sixte du Chatelet, prefect of Charente and a state councilor. Despite the warm reception given him, first by a laudatory article in a local newspaper, and next by a serenade from his young fellow-citizens, he left Angouleme hastily, desperate at having been responsible for the ruin of his brother-in-law, David Sechard, and contemplating suicide. While walking along he chanced upon Canon Carlos Herrera (Jacques Collin—Vautrin), who took him to Paris and became the guardian of his future career. In 1824, while passing an evening at the theatre Porte-Saint-Martin, Rubempre became acquainted with Esther Van Gobseck, called La Torpille, a courtesan. They were both seized at once with a violent love. A little later, at the last Opera ball of the winter of 1824, they would have compromised their security and pleasure if it had not been for the interference of Jacques Collin, called Vautrin, and if Lucien had not denied certain people the pleasure of satisfying their ill-willed curiosity, by agreeing to take supper at Lointier's.[4] Lucien de Rubempre sought to become the son-in-law of the Grandlieus; he was welcomed by the Rabourdins; he became the protector of Savinien de Portenduere; he became the lover of Mmes. Maufrigneuse and Serizy, and the beloved of Lydie Peyrade. His life of ambition and of pleasure ended in the Conciergerie, where he was imprisoned unjustly, charged with robbing and murdering Esther, or with being an accomplice. He hanged himself while in prison, May 15, 1830. (Lost Illusions, A Distinguished Provincial at Paris, The Government Clerks, Ursule Mirouet, Scenes from a Courtesan's Life) Lucien de Rubempre lived in turn in Paris at the Hotel du Gaillard-Bois, rue de l'Echelle, in a room in the Quartier Latin, in the Hotel de Cluny on the street of the same name, in a lodging-house on rue Charlot, in another on rue de la Lune in company with Coralie, in a little apartment on rue Cassette with Jacques Collin, who followed him at least to one of his two houses on the Quai Malaquais and on rue Taitbout, the former home of Beaudenord and of Caroline de Bellefeuille. He is buried in Pere-Lachaise in a costly tomb which contains also the body of Esther Gobseck, and in which there is a place reserved for Jacques Collin. A series of articles, sharp and pointed, on Rubempre is entitled "Les Passants de Paris."
RUFFARD, called Arrachelaine, a robber and at the same time employed by Bibi-Lupin, chief of secret police in 1830; connected, with Godet, in the assassination of the Crottats, husband and wife, committed by Dannepont, called La Pouraille. (Scenes from a Courtesan's Life)
RUFFIN, born in 1815, the instructor of Francis Graslin after 1840. Ruffin was a professional teacher, and was possessed of a wonderful amount of information. His extreme tenderness "did not exclude from his nature the severity necessary on the part of one who wishes to govern a child." He was of pleasing appearance, known for his patience and piety. He was taken to Madame Graslin from his diocese by the Archbishop Dutheil, and had, for at least nine years, the direction of the young man who had been put in his charge. (The Country Parson)
RUSTICOLI. (See La Palferine.)
S
SABATIER, police-agent; Corentin regretted not having had his assistance in the search with Peyrade, at Gondreville, in 1803. (The Gondreville Mystery)
SABATIER (Madame), born in 1809. She formerly sold slippers in the trade gallery of the Palais de Justice, in Paris; widow of a man who killed himself by excessive drinking, became a trained nurse, and married a man whom she had nursed and had cured of an affection of the urinary ducts ("lurinary," according to Madame Cibot), and by whom she had a fine child. She lived in rue Barre-du-Bec. Madame Bordevin, a relative, wife of a butcher of the rue Charlot, was god-mother of the child. (Cousin Pons)
SAGREDO, a very wealthy Venetian senator, born in 1730, husband of Bianca Vendramini; was strangled, in 1760, by Facino Cane, whom he had found with Bianca, conversing on the subject of love, but in an entirely innocent way. (Facino Cane)
SAGREDA (Bianca), wife of the preceding, born Vendramini, about 1742; in 1760, she undeservingly incurred the suspicion, in the eyes of her husband, of criminal relations
- ↑ The real spelling of the name, as shown by some authentic papers, is Ragouleau.
- ↑ In a recent publication of Monsieur S. de Lovenjoul, he speaks of a recent abridged biography of Eugene de Rastignac.
- ↑ The Mesdemoiselles de Rastignac are here placed together under their maiden name, as it is not known which one married Martial de la Roche-Hugon.
- ↑ The Lointier restaurant, on rue Richelieu, opposite rue de la Bourse, was very popular about 1846 with the "four hundred."