Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 27

KOUSKI, Polish lancer in the French Royal Guards, lived very unhappily in 1815-16, but enjoyed life better the following year. At that time he lived at Issoudun in the home of the wealthy Jean-Jacques Rouget, and served the commandant, Maxence Gilet. The latter became the idol of the grateful Kouski. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

KROPOLI (Zena), Montenegrin of Zahara, seduced in 1809 by the French gunner, Auguste Niseron, by whom she had a daughter, Genevieve. One year later, at Vincennes, France, she died as a result of her confinement. The necessary marriage papers, which would have rendered valid the situation of Zena Kropoli, arrived a few days after her death. [The Peasantry.]

L

LA BASTIE (Monsieur, Madame and Mademoiselle de). (See Mignon.)

LA BASTIE LA BRIERE (Ernest de), member of a good family of Toulouse, born in 1802; very similar in appearance to Louis XIII.; from 1824 to 1829, private secretary to the minister of finances. On the advice of Madame d'Espard, and thus being of service to Eleonore de Chaulieu, he became secretary to Melchior de Ca.n.a.lis and, at the same time, referendary of the Cour des Comptes. He became a chevalier of the Legion of Honor. In 1829 he conducted for Ca.n.a.lis a love romance by correspondence, the heroine of the affair being Marie-Modeste-Mignon de la Bastie (of Havre). He played this part so successfully that she fell in love and marriage was agreed upon. This union, which made him the wealthy Vicomte de la Bastie la Briere, was effected the following February in 1830. Ca.n.a.lis and the minister of 1824 were witnesses for Ernest de la Briere, who fully deserved his good fortune. [The Government Clerks. Modeste Mignon.]

LA BASTIE LA BRIERE (Madame Ernest de), wife of the preceding, born Marie-Modeste Mignon about 1809, younger daughter of Charles Mignon de la Bastie and of Bettina Mignon de la Bastie--born Wallenrod. In 1829, while living with her family at Havre, with the same love, evoked by a pa.s.sion for literature, which Bettina Brentano d'Arnim conceived for Goethe, she fell in love with Melchior de Ca.n.a.lis; she wrote frequently to the poet in secret, and he responded through the medium of Ernest de la Briere; thus there sprang up between the young girl and the secretary a mutual love which resulted in marriage. The witnesses for Marie-Modeste Mignon were the Duc d'Herouville and Doctor Desplein. As one of the most envied women in Parisian circles, in the time of Louis Philippe, she became the close friend of Mesdames de l'Estorade and Popinot. [Modeste Mignon. The Member for Arcis.

Cousin Betty.] La Bastie is sometimes written La Batie.

LA BAUDRAYE[*] (Jean-Athanase-Polydore Milaud de), born in 1780 in Berry, descended from the simple family of Milaud, recently en.o.bled.

M. de la Baudraye's father was a good financier of pleasing disposition; his mother was a Casteran la Tour. He was in poor health, his weak const.i.tution being the heritage left him by an immoral father. His father, on dying, also left him a large number of notes to which were affixed the n.o.ble signatures of the emigrated aristocracy.

His avarice aroused, Polydore de la Baudraye occupied himself, at the time of the Restoration, with collecting these notes; he made frequent trips to Paris; negotiated with Clement Chardin des Lupeaulx at the Hotel de Mayence; obtained, under a promise, afterwards executed, to sell them profitably, some positions and t.i.tles, and became successively auditor of the seals, baron, officer of the Legion of Honor and master of pet.i.tions. The individual receivership of Sancerre, which became his also, was bought by Gravier. M. de la Baudraye did not leave Sancerre; he married towards 1823 Mademoiselle Dinah Piedefer, became a person of large property following his acquisition to the castle and estate of Anzy, settled this property with the t.i.tle upon a natural son of his wife; he so worked upon her feelings as to get from her the power of attorney and signature, sailed for America, and became rich through a large patrimony left him by Silas Piedefer--1836-42. At that time he owned in Paris a stately mansion, on rue de l'Arcade, and upon winning back his wife, who had left him, he placed her in it as mistress. He now became count, commander of the Legion of Honor, and peer of France. Frederic de Nucingen received him as such and served him as sponsor, when, in the summer of 1842, the death of Ferdinand d'Orleans necessitated the presence of M. de la Baudraye at Luxembourg. [The Muse of the Department.]

[*] The motto on the Baudraye coat-of-arms was: "Deo patet sic fides et hominibus."

LA BAUDRAYE (Madame Polydore Milaud de), wife of the preceding, born Dinah Piedefer in 1807 or 1808 in Berry; daughter of the Calvinist, Moise Piedefer; niece of Silas Piedefer, from whom she inherited a fortune. She was brilliantly educated at Bourges, in the Chamarolles boarding-school, with Anna de Fontaine, born Grosstete--1819. Five years later, through personal ambition, she gave up Protestantism, that she might gain the protection of the Cardinal-Archbishop of Bourges, and a short time after her conversion she was married, about 1823. For thirteen consecutive years, at least, Madame de la Baudraye reigned in the city of Sancerre and in her country-house, Chateau d'Anzy, at Saint-Satur near by. Her court was composed of a strange mixture of people: the Abbe Duret and Messieurs Clagny, Gravier, Gatien Boirouge. At first, only Clagny and Duret know of the literary attempts of Jan Diaz, pseudonym of Madame de la Baudraye, who had just bought the artistic furniture of the Rougets of Issoudun, and who invited and received two "Parisiens de Sancerre," Horace Bianchon and Etienne Lousteau, in September 1836. A liaison followed with Etienne Lousteau, with whom Madame de la Baudraye lived on rue des Martyrs in Paris from 1837 to 1839. As a result of this union she had two sons, recognized later by M. de la Baudraye. Madame de la Baudraye now putting into use the talent, neglected during her love affair, became a writer. She wrote "A Prince of Bohemia," founded on an anecodote related to her by Raoul Nathan, and probably published this novel. The fear of endless scandal, the entreaties of husband and mother, and the unworthiness of Lousteau, finally led Dinah de la Baudraye to rejoin her husband, who owned an elegant mansion on rue de l'Arcade. This return, which took place in May, 1842, surprised Madame d'Espard, a woman who was not easily astonished. Paris of the reign of Louis Philippe often quoted Dinah de la Baudraye and paid considerable attention to her. During this same year, 1842, she a.s.sisted in the first presentation of Leon Gozlan's drama, "The Right Hand and the Left Hand," given at the Odeon. [The Muse of the Department. A Prince of Bohemia. Cousin Betty.]

LA BERGE (De), confessor of Madame de Mortsauf at Clochegourde, strict and virtuous. He died in 1817, mourned on account of his "apostolic strength," by his patron, who appointed as his successor the over-indulgent Francois Birotteau. [The Lily of the Valley.]

LA BERTELLIERE, father of Madame la Gaudiniere, grandfather of Madame Felix Grandet, was lieutenant in the French Guards; he died in 1806, leaving a large fortune. He considered investments a "waste of money."

Nearly twenty years later his portrait was still hanging in the hall of Felix Grandet's house at Saumur. [Eugenie Grandet.]

LA BILLARDIERE (Anthanase-Jean-Francoise-Michel, Baron Flamet de), son of a counselor in the Parliament of Bretagne, took part in the Vendean wars as a captain under the name of Nantais, and as negotiator played a singular part at Quiberon. The Restoration rewarded the services of this unintelligent member of the petty n.o.bility, whose Catholicism was more lukewarm than his love of monarchy. He became mayor of the second district of Paris, and division-chief in the Bureau of Finances, thanks to his kinship with a deputy on the Right. He was one of the guests at the famous ball given by his deputy, Cesar Birotteau, whom he had known for twenty years. On his death-bed, at the close of December, 1824, he had designated, although without avail, as his successor, Xavier Rabourdin, one of the division-chiefs and real director of the bureau of which La Billiardiere was the nominal head.

The newspapers published obituaries of the deceased. The short notice prepared jointly by Chardin des Lupeaulx, J.-J. Bixiou and F. du Bruel, enumerated the many t.i.tles and decorations of Flamet de la Billardiere, gentleman of the king's bedchamber, etc., etc. [The Chouans. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks.]

LA BILLARDIERE (Benjamin, Chevalier de), son of the preceding, born in 1802. He was a companion of the young Vicomte de Portenduere in 1824, being at the time a rich supernumerary in the office of Isidore Baudoyer under the division of his father, Flamet de la Billardiere.

His insolence and foppishness gave little cause for regret when he left the Bureau of Finances for the Department of Seals in the latter part of the same year, 1824, that marked the expected and unlamented death of Baron Flamet de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.]

LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle Merlin de), under the Restoration, a kind of dowager and canoness at Tours; in company with Mesdames Pauline Salomon de Villenoix and de Listomere, upheld, received and welcomed Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]

LABRANCHOIR (Comte de), owner of an estate in Dauphine under the Restoration, and, as such, a victim of the depredations of the poacher, Butifer. [The Country Doctor.]

LA BRIERE (Ernest de). (See La Bastie la Briere.)

LACEPEDE (Comte de), a celebrated naturalist, born at Agen in 1756, died at Paris in 1825. Grand chancelor of the Legion of Honor for several years towards the beginning of the nineteenth century. This well-known philosopher was invited to Cesar Birotteau's celebrated ball, December 17, 1818. [Cesar Birotteau.]

LA CHANTERIE (Le Chantre de), of a Norman family dating from the crusade of Philippe Auguste, but which had fallen into obscurity by the end of the eighteenth century; he owned a small fief between Caen and Saint-Lo. M. le Chantre de la Chanterie had ama.s.sed in the neighborhood of three hundred thousand crowns by supplying the royal armies during the Hanoverian war. He died during the Revolution, but before the Terror. [The Seamy Side of History.]

LA CHANTERIE (Baron Henri Le Chantre de), born in 1763, son of the preceding, shrewd, handsome and seductive. When master of pet.i.tions in the Grand Council of 1788, he married Mademoiselle Barbe-Philiberte de Champignelles. Ruined during the Restoration through having lost his position and thrown away his inheritance, Henri Le Chantre de la Chanterie became one of the most cruel presidents of the revolutionary courts and was the terror of Normandie. Imprisoned after the ninth Thermidor, he owed his escape to his wife, by means of an exchange of clothing. He did not see her more than three times during eight years, the last meeting being in 1802, when, having become a bigamist, he returned to her home to die of a disgraceful disease, leaving, at the same time, a second wife, likewise ruined. This last fact was not made public until 1804. [The Seamy Side of History.]

LA CHANTERIE (Baronne Henri Le Chantre de), wife of the preceding, born Barbe-Philiberte de Champignelles in 1772, a descendant of one of the first families of Lower Normandie. Married in 1788, she received in her home, fourteen years later, the dying man whose name she bore, a bigamist fleeing from justice. By him she had a daughter, Henriette, who was executed in 1809 for having been connected with the Chauffeurs in Orne. Unjustly accused herself, and imprisoned in the frightful Bicetre of Rouen, the baroness began to instruct in morals the sinful women among whom she found herself thrown. The fall of the Empire was her deliverance. Twenty years later, being part owner of a house in Paris, Madame de la Chanterie undertook the training of G.o.defroid. She was then supporting a generous private philanthropic movement, with the help of Manon G.o.dard and Messieurs de Veze, de Montauran, Mongenod and Alain. Madame de la Chanterie aided the Bourlacs and the Mergis, an impoverished family of magistrates who had persecuted her in 1809.

Her Christian works were enlarged upon. In 1843 the baroness became head of a charitable organization which was striving to consecrate, according to law and religion, the relations of those living in free union. To this end she selected one member of the society, Adeline Hulot d'Ervy, and sent her to Pa.s.sage du Soleil, then a section of Pet.i.te-Pologne, to try to bring about the marriage of Vyder--Hector Hulot d'Ervy--and Atala Judici. [The Seamy Side of History. Cousin Betty.] The Revolution having done away with t.i.tles, Madame de la Chanterie called herself momentarily Madame, or Citizeness, Lechantre.

LACROIX, restaurant-keeper on Place du Marche, Issoudun, 1822, in whose house the Bonapartist officers celebrated the crowning of the Emperor. On December 2, of the same year, the duel between Philippe Bridau and Maxence took place after the entertainment. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

LAFERTE (Nicolas). (See Cochegrue, Jean.)

LA GARDE (Madame de). (See Aquilina.)

LA GAUDINIERE (Madame), born La Bertelliere, mother of Madame Felix Grandet; very avaricious; died in 1806; leaving the Felix Grandets an inheritance, "the amount of which no one knew." [Eugenie Grandet.]

LAGINSKI (Comte Adam Mitgislas), a wealthy man who had been proscribed, belonged to one of the oldest and most ill.u.s.trious families of Poland, and counted among his relations the Sapiehas, the Radziwills, the Mniszechs, the Rezwuskis, the Czartoriskis, the Lecszinskis, and the Lubomirskis. He had relations in the German n.o.bility and his mother was a Radziwill. Young, plain, yet with a certain distinguished bearing, with an income of eighty thousand francs, Laginski was a leading light in Paris, during the reign of Louis Philippe. After the Revolution of July, while still unsophisticated, he attended an entertainment at the home of Felicite des Touches in Chaussee-d'Antin on rue du Mont-Blanc, and had the opportunity of listening to the delightful chats between Henri de Marsay and Emile Blondet. Comte Adam Laginski, during the autumn of 1835, married the object of his affections, Mademoiselle Clementine du Rouvre, niece of the Ronquerolles. The friendship of his steward, Paz, saved him from the ruin into which his creole-like carelessness, his frivolity and his recklessness were dragging him. He lived in perfect contentment with his wife, ignorant of the domestic troubles which were kept from his notice. Thanks to the devotion of Paz and of Madame Laginska, he was cured of a malady which had been p.r.o.nounced fatal by Doctor Horace Bianchon. Comte Adam Laginski lived on rue de la Pepiniere, now absorbed in part by rue de la Boetie. He occupied one of the most palatial and artistic houses of the period, so called, of Louis Philippe. He attended the celebration given in 1838 at the first opening of Josepha Mirah's residence on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. In this same year he attended the wedding of Wenceslas Steinbock.

[Another Study of Woman. The Imaginary Mistress. Cousin Betty.]

LAGINSKA (Comtesse Adam), born Clementine du Rouvre in 1816, wife of the preceding, niece, on her mother's side, of the Marquis de Ronquerolles and of Madame de Serizy. She was one of the charming group of young women, which included Mesdames de l'Estorade, de Portenduere, Marie de Vandenesse, du Guenic and de Maufrigneuse.

Captain Paz was secretly in love with the countess, who, becoming aware of her steward's affection, ended by having very nearly the same kind of feeling for him. The unselfish virtue of Paz was all that saved her; not only at this juncture, but in another more dangerous one, when he rescued her from M. de la Palferine, who was escorting her to the Opera ball and who was on the point of taking her to a private room in a restaurant--January, 1842. [The Imaginary Mistress.]

LAGOUNIA (Perez de), woolen-draper at Tarragone in Catalonia, in the time of Napoleon, under obligations to La Marana. He reared as his own daughter, in a very pious manner, Juana, a child of the celebrated Italian courtesan, until her mother visited her, during the time of the French occupation in 1808. [The Maranas.]

LAGOUNIA (Donna de), wife of the preceding, divided with him the care of Juana Marana until the girl's mother came to Tarragone at the time it was sacked by the French. [The Maranas.]

LA GRAVE (Mesdemoiselles), kept a boarding-house in 1824 on rue Notre-Dame-des Champs in Paris. In this house M. and Madame Ph.e.l.lion gave lessons. [The Government Clerks.]

LAGUERRE (Mademoiselle), given name, probably, Sophie, born in 1740, died in 1815, one of the most celebrated courtesans of the eighteenth century; opera singer, and fervent follower of Piccini. In 1790, frightened by the march of public affairs, she established herself at the Aigues, in Bourgogne, property procured for her by Bouret, from its former owner. Before Buoret, the grandfather of La Palferine, entertained her, and she brought about his ruin. The recklessness of this woman, surrounded as she was by such notorious knaves as Gaubertin, Fourchon, Tonsard, and Madame Soudry, prepared no little trouble for Montcornet, the succeeding proprietor. Sophie Laguerre's fortune was divided among eleven families of poor farmers, all living in the neighborhood of Amiens, who were ignorant of their relationship with her. [The Peasantry. A Prince of Bohemia.] M. H. Gourdon de Genouillac wrote a biography of the singer, containing many details which are at variance with the facts here cited. Among other things we are told that the given name of Mademoiselle Laguerre was Josephine and not Sophie.

LA HAYE (Mademoiselle de). (See Pet.i.t-Claud, Madame.)

LAMARD, probably a rival of Felix Gaudissart. In a cafe in Blois, May, 1831, he praised the well-known commercial traveler, who treated him, nevertheless, as a "little cricket." [Gaudissart the Great.]

LAMBERT (Louis), born in 1797 at Montoire in Loire-et-Cher. Only son of simple tanners, who did not try to counteract his inclination, shown when a mere child, for study. He was sent in 1807 to Lefebvre, a maternal uncle, who was vicar of Mer, a small city on the Loire near Blois. Under the kindly care of Madame de Stael, he was a student in the college of Vendome from 1811 to 1814. Lambert met there Barchon de Penhoen and Jules Dufaure. He was apparently a poor scholar, but finally developed into a prodigy; he suffered the persecutions of Father Haugoult, by whose brutal hands his "Treatise on the Will,"

composed during cla.s.s hours, was seized and destroyed. The mathematician had already doubled his capacity by becoming a philosopher. His comrades had named him Pythagoras. His course completed, and his father being dead, Louis Lambert lived for two years at Blois, with Lefebvre, until, growing desirous of seeing Madame de Stael, he journeyed to Paris on foot, arriving July 14, 1817. Not finding his ill.u.s.trious benefactress alive, he returned home in 1820. During these three years Lambert lived the life of a workman, became a close friend of Meyraux, and was cherished and admired as a member of the Cenacle on rue des Quatre-Vents, which was presided over by Arthez. Once more he went to Blois, journeyed over Touraine, and became acquainted with Pauline Salomon de Villenoix, whom he loved with a pa.s.sion that was reciprocated. He had suffered from brain trouble previous to their engagement, and as the wedding day approached the disease grew constantly worse, although occasionally there were periods of relief. During one of these good periods, in 1822, Lambert met the Cambremers at Croisic, and on the suggestion of Pauline de Villenoix, he made a study of their history. The malady returned, but was interrupted occasionally by outburts of beautiful thought, the fragments of which were collected by Mademoiselle Salomon. Louis had likewise occasional fits of insanity. He believed himself powerless and wished, one day, to perform on his own body Origene's celebrated operation. Lambert died September 25, 1824, the day before the date selected for his marriage with Pauline. [Louis Lambert. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Seaside Tragedy.]

LAMBERT (Madame), lived in Paris in 1840. She was then at a very pious age, "played the saint," and performed the duties of housekeeper for M. Picot, professor of mathematics, No. 9, rue du Val-de-Grace. In the service of this old philosopher she reaped enormous profits. Madame Lambert hypocritically took advantage of her apparent devotion to him.

She sought Theodose de la Peyrade, and begged him to write a memorial to the Academy in her favor, for she longed to receive the reward offered by Montyon. At the same time she put into La Peyrade's keeping twenty-five thousand francs, which she had acc.u.mulated by her household thefts. On this occasion, Madame Lambert seems to have been the secret instrument of Corentin, the famous police-agent. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

LANGEAIS (Duc de), a refugee during the Restoration, who planned, at the time of the Terror, by correspondence with the Abbe de Marolles and the Marquis de Beauseant to help escape from Paris, where they were in hiding, two nuns, one of whom, Sister Agathe, was a Langeais.

[An Episode Under the Terror.] In 1812 Langeais married Mademoiselle Antoinette de Navarreins, who was then eighteen years old. He allowed his wife every liberty, and, neither abandoning any of his habits, nor giving up any of his pleasures, he lived, indeed, apart from her. In 1818 Langeais commanded a division in the army and occupied a position at court. He died in 1823. [The Thirteen.]

LANGEAIS (d.u.c.h.esse Antoinette de),[*] wife of the preceding, daughter of the Duc de Navarreins; born in 1794; reared by the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, her aunt; grand-niece of the Vidame de Pamiers; niece of the Duc de Grandlieu by her marriage. Very beautiful and intelligent, Madame de Langeais reigned in Paris at the beginning of the Restoration. In 1819 her best friend was the Vicomtesse Claire de Beauseant, whom she wounded cruelly, for her own amus.e.m.e.nt, calling on her one morning for the express purpose of announcing the marriage of the Marquis d'Ajuda-Pinto. Of this pitiless proceeding she repented later, and asked pardon, moreover, of the foresaken woman. Soon afterwards the d.u.c.h.esse de Langeais had the pleasure of captivating the Marquis de Montriveau, playing for him the role of Celimene and making him suffer greatly. He had his revenge, however, for, scorned in her turn, or believing herself scorned, she suddenly disappeared from Paris, after having scandalized the whole Saint-Germain community by remaining in her carriage for a long time in front of the Montriveau mansion. Some bare-footed Spanish Carmelites received her on their island in the Mediterranean, where she became Sister Therese.

After prolonged searching Montriveau found her, and, in the presence of the mother-superior, had a conversation with her as she stood behind the grating. Finally he managed to carry her off--dead. In this bold venture the marquis was aided by eleven of The Thirteen, among them being Ronquerolles and Marsay. The d.u.c.h.ess, having lost her husband, was free at the time of her death in 1824. [Father Goriot.

The Thirteen.]

[*] At the Vaudeville and Gaite theatres in Paris, Ancelot and Alexis Decomberousse at the former, and Messieurs Ferdinand Dugue and Peaucellier at the latter, brought out plays founded on the life of Antoinette de Langeais, in 1834 and 1868 respectively.

LANGEAIS (Mademoiselle de). (See Agathe, Sister.)

LANGLUME, miller, a jolly impulsive little man, in 1823 deputy-mayor of Blangy in Bourgogne, at the time of the political, territorial and financial contests of which the country was the theatre, with Rigou and Montcornet as actors. He was of great service to Genevieve Niseron's paternal grandfather. [The Peasantry.]

LANGUET, vicar, built Saint-Sulpice, and was an acquaintance of Toupillier, who asked alms in 1840 at the doors of this church in Paris, which since 1860 has been one of the sixth ward parish churches. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

LANSAC (d.u.c.h.esse de), of the younger branch of the Parisian house of Navarreins, 1809, the proud woman who shone under Louis XV. The d.u.c.h.esse de Lansac, in November of the same year, consented, one evening, to meet Isemberg, Montcornet, and Martial de la Roche-Hugon in Malin de Gondreville's house, for the purpose of conciliating her nephew and niece in their domestic quarrel. [Domestic Peace.]

LANTIMECHE, born in 1770. In 1840, at Paris, a penniless journeyman locksmith and inventor, he went to the money-lender, Cerizet, on rue des Poules, to borrow a hundred francs. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]