Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 29

LEGANES (Marquis de), Spanish grandee, married, father of two daughters, Clara and Mariquita, and of three sons, Juanito, Philippe and Manuel. He manifested a spirit of patriotism in the war carried on against the French during the Empire and died then under the most tragic circ.u.mstances, in which Mariquita was an unwilling abettor. The Marquis de Leganes died by the hand of his eldest son, who had been condemned to be his executioner. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Marquise de), wife of the preceding and condemned to die with the other members of the family by the hand of her eldest son. She spared him the necessity of doing this terrible deed of war by committing suicide. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Clara de), daughter of the preceding couple; also shared the condemnation of the Marquis de Leganes and died by the hand of Juanito. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Mariquita de), sister of the preceding, had rescued Major Victor Marchand of the French infantry from danger in 1808. In testimony of his grat.i.tude he was able to obtain pardon for one member of the Leganes family, but with the horribly cruel provision that the one spared should become executioner of the rest of the family. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Juanito de), brother of the last-named, born in 1778. Small and of poor physique, of gentlemanly manners, yet proud and scornful, he was gifted with that delicacy of feeling which in olden times caused Spanish gallantry to be so well known. Upon the earnest request of his proud-spirited family he consented to execute his father, his two sisters and his two brothers. Juanito only was saved from death, that his family might not become extinct. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Philippe de), younger brother of the preceding, born in 1788, a n.o.ble Spaniard condemned to death; executed by his elder brother in 1808, during the war waged against the French. [El Verdugo.]

LEGANES (Manuel de), born in 1800, youngest of the five Leganes children, suffered, in 1808, during the war waged by the French in Spain, the fate of his father, the marquis, and of his elder brother and sisters. The youngest scion of this n.o.ble family died by the hand of Juanito de Leganes. [El Verdugo.]

LEGER, extensive farmer of Beaumont-sur-Oise, married daughter of Reybert, Moreau's successor as exciseman of the Presles estate, belonging to the Comte de Serizy; had by his wife a daughter who became, in 1838, Madame Joseph Bridau. [A Start in Life.]

LEGRELU, a bald-headed man, tall and good-looking; in 1840 became a vintner in Paris on rue des Canettes, corner of rue Guisarde.

Toupillier, Madame Cardinal's uncle, the "pauper of Saint-Sulpice,"

was his customer. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

LELEWEL, a nineteenth century revolutionist, head of the Polish Republican party in Paris in 1835. One of his friends was Doctor Moise Halpersohn. [The Imaginary Mistress. The Seamy Side of History.]

LEMARCHAND. (See Tours, Minieres des.)

LEMIRE, professor of drawing in the Imperial Lyceum, Paris, in 1812; foresaw the talent of Joseph Bridau, one of his pupils, for painting, and threw the future artist's mother into consternation by telling her of this fact. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

LEMPEREUR, in 1819, Chaussee-d'Antin, Paris, clerk to Charles Claparon, at that time "straw-man" of Tillet, Roguin & Company. [Cesar Birotteau.]

LEMPRUN, born in 1745, son-in-law of Galard, market-gardener of Auteuil. Employed, in turn, in the houses of Thelusson and of Keller in Paris, he was probably the first messenger in the service of the Bank of France, having entered that establishment when it was founded.

He met Mademoiselle Brigitte Thuillier during this period of his life, and in 1814 gave Celeste, his only daughter, in marriage to Brigitte's brother, Louis-Jerome Thuillier. M. Lemprun died the year following.

[The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

LEMPRUN (Madame), wife of the preceding, daughter of Galard, the market-gardener of Auteuil, mother of one child--Madame Celeste Thuillier. She lived in the village of Auteuil from 1815 until the time of her death in 1829. She reared Celeste Ph.e.l.lion, daughter of L.-J. Thuillier and of Madame de Colleville. Madame Lemprun left a small fortune inherited from her father, M. Galard, which was administered by Brigitte Thuillier. This Lemprun estate consisted of twenty thousand francs, saved by the strictest economy, and of a house which was sold for twenty-eight thousand francs. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

LEMULQUINIER, a native of Flanders, owed his name to the linen-yarn dealers of that province, who are called _mulquiniers_. He lived in Douai, was the valet of Balthazar Claes, and encouraged and aided his master in his foolish investigations, despite the extreme coldness of his own nature and the opposition of Josette, Martha, and the women of the Claes family. Lemulquinier even went so far as to give all his personal property to M. Claes. [The Quest of the Absolute.]

LENONCOURT (De), born in 1708, marshal of France, marquis at first, then duke, was the friend of Victor-Amedee de Verneuil, and adopted Marie de Verneuil, the acknowledged natural daughter of his old comrade, when the latter died. Suspected unjustly of being this young girl's lover, the septuagenarian refused to marry her, and leaving her behind he changed his place of residence to Coblentz. [The Chouans.]

LENONCOURT (Duc de), father of Madame de Mortsauf. The early part of the Restoration was the brilliant period of his career. He obtained a peerage, owned a house in Paris on rue Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain, looked after Birotteau and found him a situation just after his failure. Lenoncourt played for the favor of Louis XVIII., was first gentleman in the king's chamber, and welcomed Victurnien d'Esgrignon, with whom he had some relationship. The Duc de Lenoncourt was, in 1835, visiting the Princesse de Cadignan, when Marsay explained the reasons the political order had for the mysterious kidnapping of Gondreville. Three years later he died a very old man. [The Lily of the Valley. Cesar Birotteau. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Gondreville Mystery. Beatrix.]

LENONCOURT (d.u.c.h.esse de), wife of the preceding, born in 1758, of a cold, severe, insincere, ambitious nature, was almost always unkind to her daughter, Madame de Mortsauf. [The Lily of the Valley.]

LENONCOURT-GIVRY (Duc de), youngest son of M. and Madame de Chaulieu, at first followed a military career. t.i.tles and names in abundance came to him. In 1827 he married Madeleine de Mortsauf, the only heir of her parents. [Letters of Two Brides.] The Duc de Lenoncourt-Givry was a man of some importance in the Paris of Louis Philippe and was invited to the festival at the opening of Josepha Mirah's new house, rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.] The year following attention was still turned towards him indirectly, when Sallenauve was contending in defence of the duke's brother-in-law. [The Member for Arcis.]

LENONCOURT-GIVRY (d.u.c.h.esse de), wife of the preceding, bore the first name of Madeleine. Madame de Lenoncourt-Givry was one of two children of the Comte and Comtesse de Mortsauf. She lived almost alone in her family, having lost at an early age her mother, then her brother Jacques. While pa.s.sing her girlhood in Touraine, she met Felix de Vandenesse, from whom she knew how to keep aloof on becoming an orphan. Her inheritance of names, t.i.tles and wealth brought about her marriage with the youngest son of M. and Madame de Chaulieu in 1827, and established for her a friendship with the Grandlieus, whose daughter, Clotilde, accompanied her to Italy about 1830. During the first day of their journey the arrest of Lucien Chardon de Rubempre took place under their eyes near Bouron, Seine-et-Marne. [The Lily of the Valley. Letters of Two Brides. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

LENORMAND was court registrar at Paris during the Restoration, and did Comte Octave de Bauvan a service by pa.s.sing himself off as owner of a house on rue Saint-Maur, which belonged in reality to the count and where the wife of that high magistrate lived, at that time being separated from her husband. [Honorine.]

LEOPOLD, a character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," a novel by Albert Savarus, was Maitre Leopold Hannequin. The author pictured him as having a strong pa.s.sion--imaginary or true--for the mother of Rodolphe, the hero of this autobiographical novel, published by the "Revue de l'Est" under the reign of Louis Philippe. [Albert Savarus.]

LEPAS (Madame de), for a long time keeper of a tavern at Vendome, of Flemish physique; acquainted with M. and Madame de Merret, and furnished information about them to Doctor Horace Bianchon; Comte Bagos de Feredia, who died so tragically, having been a lodger in her house. She was also interviewed by the author, who, under the name of Valentine, gave on the stage of the Gymnase-Dramatique the story of the incontinence and punishment of Josephine de Merret. This Vendome tavern-keeper pretended also to have lodged some princesses, M.

Decazes, General Bertrand, the King of Spain, and the Duc and d.u.c.h.esse of d'Abrantes. [La Grande Bretche.]

LEPITRE, strong Royalist, had some relations with M. de Vandenesse, when they wished to rescue Marie-Antoinette from the Temple. Later, under the Empire, having become head of an academy, in the old Joyeuse house, Quartier Saint-Antoine, Paris, Lepitre counted among his pupils a son of M. de Vandenesse, Felix. Lepitre was fat, like Louis XVIII., and club-footed. [The Lily of the Valley.]

LEPITRE (Madame), wife of the preceding, reared Felix de Vandenesse.

[The Lily of the Valley.]

LEPRINCE (Monsieur and Madame). M. Leprince was a Parisian auctioneer towards the end of the Empire and at the beginning of the Restoration.

He finally sold his business at a great profit; but being injured by one of Nucingen's failures, he lost in some speculations on the Bourse some of the profits that he had realized. He was the father-in-law of Xavier Rabourdin, whose fortune he risked in these dangerous speculations, that his son-in-law's domestic comfort might be increased. Crushed by misfortune he died under Louis XVIII., leaving some rare paintings which beautified the parlor of his children's home on rue Duphot. Madame Leprince, who died before the bankrupt auctioneer, a distinguished woman and a natural artist, worshiped and, consequently, spoiled her only child, Celestine, who became Madame Xavier Rabourdin. She communicated to her daughter some of her own tastes, and thoughtlessly, perhaps, developed in her a love of luxury, intelligent and refined. [The Government Clerks.]

LEROI (Pierre), called also Marche-a-terre, a Fougeres Chouan, who played an important part during the civil war of 1799 in Bretagne, where he gave evidence of courage and heartlessness. He survived the tragedy of this period, for he was seen on the Place d'Alencon in 1809 when Cibot--Pille-Miche--was tried at the bar as a chauffeur and attempted to escape. In 1827, nearly twenty years later, this same Pierre Leroi was known as a peaceable cattle-trader in the markets of his province. [The Chouans. The Seamy Side of History. Jealousies of a Country Town.]

LEROI (Madame), mother of the preceding, being ill, was cured on coming to Fougeres to pray under the oak of the Patte-d'Oie. This tree was decorated with a beautiful wooden image of the Virgin, placed there in memory of Sainte-Anne d'Auray's appearance in this place.

[The Chouans.]

LESEIGNEUR DE ROUVILLE (Baronne), pensionless widow of a sea-captain who had died at Batavia, under the Republic, during a prolonged engagement with an English vessel; mother of Madame Hippolyte Schinner. Early in the nineteenth century she lived at Paris with her unmarried daughter, Adelaide. On the fourth story of a house belonging to Molineux, on rue de Surene, near the Madeleine, Madame Leseigneur occupied unadorned and gloomy apartments. There she frequently received Hippolyte Schinner, Messieurs du Halga and de Kergarouet. She received from two of these friends many delicate marks of sympathy, despite the gossip of the neighbors who were astonished that Madame de Rouville and her daughter should have different names, and shocked by their very suspicious behavior. The manner in which Mesdames Leseigneur recognized the good offices of Schinner led to his marriage with Mademoiselle de Rouville. [The Purse.]

LESEIGNEUR (Adelaide). (See Schinner, Madame Hippolyte.)

LESOURD, married the eldest daughter of Madame Guenic of Provins, and toward the end of the Restoration presided over the justice court of that city, of which he had first been king's attorney. In 1828 he was able, indeed, to defend Pierrette Lorrain, thus showing his opposition to the local Liberalist leaders, represented by Rogron, Vinet and Gourand. [Pierrette.]

LESOURD (Madame), wife of the preceding and eldest daughter of Madame Guenee; for a long time called in Provins, "the little Madame Lesourd." [Pierrette.]

LEVEILLE (Jean-Francois), notary in Alencon, inflexible correspondent of the Royalists of Normandie under the Empire. He issued arms to them, received the surname of Confesseur, and, in 1809, was put to death with others as the result of a judgment rendered by Bourlac.

[The Seamy Side of History.]

LEVRAULT, enriched by the iron industry in Paris, died in 1813; former owner of the house in Nemours which came into the possession finally of Doctor Minoret, who lived there in 1815. [Ursule Mirouet.]

LEVRAULT-CREMIERE, related to the preceding, an old miller, who became a Royalist under the Restoration; he was mayor of Nemours from 1829 to 1830, and was replaced after the Revolution of July by the notary, Cremiere-Dionis. [Ursule Mirouet.]

LEVRAULT-LEVRAULT, eldest son, thus named to distinguish him from his numerous relatives of the same name; he was a butcher in Nemours in 1829, when Ursule Mirouet was undergoing persecution. [Ursule Mirouet.]

LIAUTARD (Abbe), in the first years of the nineteenth century was at the head of an inst.i.tution of learning in Paris; had among his pupils G.o.defroid, Madame de la Chanterie's lodger in 1836 and future Brother of Consolation. [The Seamy Side of History.]

LINA (Duc de), an Italian, at Milan early in the century, one of the lovers of La Marana, the mother of Madame Diard. [The Miranas.]

LINET (Jean-Baptiste-Robert, called Robert), member of the Legislature and of the Convention, born at Bernay in 1743, died at Paris in 1825; minister of finance under the Republic, weakened Antoine and the Poiret brothers by giving them severe work, although twenty-five years later they were still laboring in the Treasury. [The Government Clerks.]

LISIEUX (Francois), called the Grand-Fils (grandson), a rebel of the department of Mayenne; chauffeur under the First Empire and connected with the Royalist insurrection in the West, which caused Madame de la Chanterie's imprisonment. [The Seamy Side of History.]

LISTOMERE (Marquis de) son of the "old Marquise de Listomere"; deputy of the majority under Charles X., with hopes of a peerage; husband of Mademoiselle de Vandenesse the elder, his cousin. One evening in 1828, in his own house on rue Saint-Dominique, he was quietly reading the "Gazette de France" without noticing the flirtation carried on at his side by his wife and Eugene de Rastignac, then twenty-five years old.

[The Lily of the Valley. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Study of Woman.]

LISTOMERE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, elder of M. de Vandenesse's daughters, and sister of Charles and Felix. Like her husband and cousin, during the early years of the Restoration, she was a brilliant type of the period, combining, as she did, G.o.dliness with worldliness, occasionally figuring in politics, and concealing her youth under the guise of austerity. However, in 1828, her mask seemed to fall at the moment when Madame de Mortsauf died; for, then, she wrongly fancied herself the object of Eugene de Rastignac's wooing.

Under Louis Philippe she took part in an intrigue formed for the purpose of throwing her sister-in-law, Marie de Vandenesse, into the power of Raoul Nathan. [The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Study of Woman. A Daughter of Eve.]

LISTOMERE (Marquise de) mother-in-law of the preceding, born Grandlieu. She lived in Paris at an advanced age in Ile Saint-Louis, during the early years of the nineteenth century; received on his holidays her grand-nephew, Felix de Vandenesse, then a student, and frightened him by the solemn or frigid appearance of everything about her. [The Lily of the Valley.]

LISTOMERE (Baronne de), had been the wife of a lieutenant-general. As a widow she lived in the city of Tours under the Restoration, a.s.suming all the grand airs of the past centuries. She helped the Birotteau brothers. In 1823 she received the army paymaster, Gravier, and the terrible Spanish husband who killed the French surgeon, Bega. Madame de Listomere died, and her wish to make Francois Birotteau her partial heir was not executed. [The Vicar of Tours. Cesar Birotteau. The Muse of the Department.]