Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 33

MAUFRIGNEUSE (d.u.c.h.esse de), wife of the preceding, born Diane d'Uxelles in 1796, married in 1815. She was in turn the mistress of Marsay, Miguel d'Ajuda-Pinto, Victurnien d'Esgrignon, Maxime de Trailles, Eugene de Rastignac, Armand de Montriveau, Marquis de Ronquerolles, Prince Galathionne, the Duc de Rhetore, a Grandlieu, Lucien de Rubempre, and Daniel d'Arthez. She lived at various times in the following places: Anzy, near Sancerre; Paris, on rue Saint-Honore in the suburbs and on rue Miromesnil; Cinq-Cygne in Champagne; Geneva and the borders of Leman. She inspired a foolish platonic affection in Michel Chrestien, and kept at a distance the Duc d'Herouville, who courted her towards the end of the Restoration by sarcasm and brilliant repartee. Her first and last love affairs were especially well known. For her the Marquis Miguel d'Ajudo-Pinto gave up Berthe de Rochefide, his wife, avenging thus a former mistress, Claire de Beauseant. Her liaison with Victurnien d'Esgrignon became the most stormy of romances. Madame de Maufrigneuse, disguised as a man and possessed of a pa.s.sport, bearing the name of Felix de Vandenesse, succeeded in rescuing from the Court of a.s.sizes the young man who had compromised himself in yielding to the foolish extravagance of his mistress. The d.u.c.h.esse received even her tradesmen in an angelic way, and became their prey. She scattered fortunes to the four winds, and her indiscretions led to the sale of Anzy in a manner advantageous to Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye. Some years later she made a vain attempt to rescue Lucien de Rubempre, against whom a criminal charge was pending. The Restoration and the Kingdom of 1830 gave to her life a different l.u.s.tre. Having fallen heir to the worldly sceptre of Mesdames de Langeais and de Beauseant, both of whom she knew socially, she became intimate with the Marquise d'Espard, a lady with whom in 1822 she disputed the right to rule the "fragile kingdom of fashion."

She visited frequently the Chaulieus, whom she met at a famous hunt near Havre. In July, 1830, reduced to poor circ.u.mstances, abandoned by her husband, who had then become the Prince de Cadignan, and a.s.sisted by her relatives, Mesdames d'Uxelles and de Navarreins, Diane operated as it were a kind of retreat, occupied herself with her son Georges, and strengthening herself by the memory of Chrestien, also by constantly visiting Madame d'Espard, she succeeded, without completely foregoing society, in making captive the celebrated deputy of the Right, a man of wealth and maturity, Daniel Arthez himself. In her own home and in that of Felicite des Touches she heard, between 1832 and 1835, anecdotes of Marsay. The Princess de Cadignan had portraits of her numerous lovers. She had also one of the _Madame_ whom she had attended, and upon meeting him, showed it to Marsay, minister of Louis Philippe. She owned also a picture of Charles X. which was thus inscribed, "Given by the King." After the marriage of her son to a Cinq-Cygne, she visited often at the estate of that name, and was there in 1839, during the regular election. [The Secrets of a Princess. Modeste Mignon. Jealousies of a Country town. The Muse of the Department. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Letters of Two Brides.

Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

MAUFRIGNEUSE (Georges de), son of the preceding, born in 1814, had successively in his service Toby and Marin, took the t.i.tle of duke towards the close of the Restoration, was in the last Vendean uprising. Through his mother's instrumentality, who paved the way for the match in 1833, he married Mademoiselle Berthe de Cinq-Cygne in 1838, and became heir to the estate of the same name the following year during the regular election. [The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville Mystery. Beatrix. The Member for Arcis.]

MAUFRIGNEUSE (Berthe de), wife of the preceding, daughter of Adrien and Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, married in 1838, although she had been very nearly engaged in 1833; she lived with all her family on their property at Aube during the spring of 1839. [Beatrix. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

MAUGREDIE, celebrated Pyrrhonic physician, being called into consultation, he gave his judgment on the very serious case of Raphael de Valentin. [The Magic Skin.]

MAULINCOUR[*] (Baronne de), born Rieux, an eighteenth century woman who "did not lose her head" during the Revolution; intimate friend of the Vidame de Pamiers. At the beginning of the Restoration she spent half of her time in the suburbs of Saint-Germain, where she managed to educate her grandson, Auguste Carbonnon de Maulincour, and the remainder on her estates at Bordeaux, where she demanded the hand of Natalie Evangelista in marriage for her grand-nephew, Paul de Manerville. Of the family of this girl she had an unfavorable, but just opinion. The Baronne de Maulincour died a short time before her grandson of the chagrin which she felt on account of this young man's unhappy experiences. [A Marriage Settlement. The Thirteen.]

[*] Some Maulincourts had, during the last century, a place of residence on Chausee de Minimes, in the Marais, of which Elie Magus subsequently became proprietor.

MAULINCOUR (Auguste Carbonnon de), born in 1797, grandson of the preceding, by whom he was reared; moulded by the Vidame de Pamiers, whom he left but rarely; lived on the rue de Bourbon in Paris; had a short existence, under Louis XVIII., which was full of brilliance and misfortune. Having embraced a military career he was decorated, becoming major in a cavalry regiment of the Royal Guard, and afterwards lieutenant-colonel of a company of body-guards. He vainly courted Madame de Langeais, fell in love with Clemence Desmarets, followed her, compromised her, and persecuted her. By his indiscretions he drew upon himself the violent enmity of Gratien Bourignard, father of Madame Desmarets. In this exciting struggle Maulincour, having neglected the warnings that many self-imposed accidents had brought upon him, also a duel with the Marquis de Ronquerolles, was fatally poisoned and soon after followed the old baroness, his grandmother, to Pere-Lachaise. [The Thirteen.]

MAUNY (Baron de), was killed during the Restoration, or after 1830, in the suburbs of Versailles, by Victor (the Parisian), who struck him with a hatchet. The murderer finally took refuge at Aiglemont in the family of his future mistress, Helene. [A Woman of Thirty.]

MAUPIN (Camille). (See Touches, Felicite des.)

MAURICE, valet, employed by the Comte and Comtess de Restaud, during the Restoration. His master believed his servant to be faithful to his interests, but the valet, on the contrary, was true to those of the wife who opposed her husband in everything. [Father Goriot. Gobseck.]

MEDAL (Robert), celebrated and talented actor, who was on the Parisian stage in the last years of Louis Philippe, at the time when Sylvain Pons directed the orchestra in Gaudissart's theatre. [Cousin Pons.]

MELIN, inn-keeper or "cabaretier" in the west of France, furnished lodging in 1809 to the Royalists who were afterwards condemned by Mergi, and himself received five years of confinement. [The Seamy Side of History.]

MELMOTH (John), an Irishman of p.r.o.nounced English characteristics, a Satanical character, who made a strange agreement with Rodolphe Castanier, Nucingen's faithless cashier, whereby they were to make a reciprocal exchange of personalities; in 1821, he died in the odor of holiness, on rue Ferou, Paris. [Melmoth Reconciled.]

MEMMI (Emilio). (See Varese, Prince de.)

MENE-A-BIEN, cognomen of Coupiau.

MERGI (De), magistrate during the Empire and the Restoration, whose activity was rewarded by both governments, inasmuch as he always struck the members of the party out of power. In 1809 the court over which he presided was charged with the cases of the "Chauffeurs of Mortagne." Mergi showed great hatred in his dealings with Madame de la Chanterie. [The Seamy Side of History.]

MERGI (De), son of the preceding, married Vanda de Bourlac. [The Seamy Side of History.]

MERGI (Baronne Vanda de), born Bourlac, of Polish origin on her mother's side, belonged to the family of Tarlowski, married the son of Mergi, the celebrated magistrate, and having survived him, was condemned to poverty and sickness; was aided in Paris by G.o.defroid, a messenger from Madame de la Chanterie, and attended by her father and Doctors Bianchon, Desplein, Haudry and Moise Halpersohn, the last of whom finally saved her. [The Seamy Side of History.]

MERGI (Auguste de), during the last half of Louis Philippe's reign was in turn a collegian, university student and humble clerk in the Palais at Paris; looked after the needs of his mother, Vanda de Mergi, with sincerest devotion. For her sake he stole four thousand francs from Moise Halpersohn, but remained unpunished, thanks to one of the Brothers of Consolation, who boarded with Madame de la Chanterie. [The Seamy Side of History.]

MERKSTUS, banker at Douai, under the Restoration had a bill of exchange for ten thousand francs signed by Balthazar Claes, and, in 1819, presented it to the latter for collection. [The Quest of the Absolute.]

MERLE, captain in the Seventy-second demi-brigade; jolly and careless.

Killed at La Vivetiere in December, 1799, by Pille-Miche (Cibot). [The Chouans.]

MERLIN, of Douai, belonged to the convention, of which he was, for two years, one of the five directors; attorney-general in the court of appeal; in September, 1805, rejected the appeal of the Simeuses, of the Hauteserres, and of Michu, men who had been condemned for kidnapping Senator Malin. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

MERLIN (Hector), came to Paris from Limoges, expecting to become a journalist; a Royalist; during the two years in which Lucien de Rubempre made his literary and political beginning, Merlin was especially noted. At that time he was Suzanne du Val-n.o.ble's lover, and a polemical writer for a paper of the Right-Centre; he also brought honor to Andoche Finot's little gazette by his contributions.

As a journalist he was dangerous, and could, if necessary, fill the chair of the editor-in-chief. In March, 1822, with Theodore Gaillard, he established the "Reveil," another kind of "Drapeau Blanc." Merlin had an unattractive face, lighted by two pale-blue eyes, which were fearfully sharp; his voice had in it something of the mewing of a cat, something of the hyena's asthmatic gasping. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

MERLIN DE LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle), of a n.o.ble family of Tours (1826); Francois Birotteau's friend. [The Vicar of Tours.]

MERRET (De), gentleman of Picardie, proprietor of the Grande Breteche, near Vendome, under the Empire; had the room walled up, where he knew the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia, lover of his wife, was in hiding. He died in 1816 at Paris as a result of excesses. [La Grande Breteche.]

MERRET (Madame Josephine de), wife of the preceding, mistress of Bagos de Feredia, whom she saw perish almost under her eyes, after she had refused to give him up to her husband. She died in the same year as Merret, at La Grande Breteche, as a result of the excitement she had undergone. The story of Madame de Merret was the subject of a vaudeville production given at the Gymnase-Dramatique under the t.i.tle of "Valentine." [La Grande Breteche.]

METIVIER, paper merchant on rue Serpente in Paris, under the Restoration; correspondent of David Sechard, friend of Gobseck and of Bidault, accompanying them frequently to the cafe Themis, between rue Dauphine and the Quai des Augustins. Having two daughters, and an income of a hundred thousand francs, he withdrew from business. [Lost Illusions. The Government Clerks. The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

METIVIER, nephew and successor of the preceding, one of whose daughters he married. He was interested in the book business, in connection with Morand and Barbet; took advantage of Bourlac in 1838; lived on rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, in the Thuillier house in 1840; engaged in usurious transactions with Jeanne-Marie-Brigitte, Cerizet, Dutocq, discounters of various kinds and t.i.tles. [The Seamy Side of History. The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

MEYNARDIE (Madame), at Paris, under the Restoration, in all probability, had an establishment or shop in which Ida Gruget was employed; undoubtedly controlled a house of ill-fame, in which Esther van Gobseck was a boarder. [The Thirteen. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

MEYRAUX, medical doctor; a scholarly young Parisian, with whom Louis Lambert a.s.sociated, November, 1819. Until his death in 1832 Meyraux was a member of the rue des Quatre-Vents Cenacle, over which Daniel d'Arthez presided. [Louis Lambert. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

MICHAUD (Justin), an old chief quartermaster to the cuira.s.siers of the Imperial Guard, chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He married one of the Montcornet maids, Olympe Charel, and became, under the Restoration, head warden of the Montcornet estates at Blangy in Bourgogne. Unknown to himself he was secretly beloved by Genevieve Niseron. His military frankness and loyal devotion succ.u.mbed before an intrigue formed against him by Sibilet, steward of Aigues, and by the Rigous, Soudrys, Gaubertins, Fourchons and Tonsards. On account of the complicity of Courtecuisse and Vaudoyer the bullet fired by Francois Tonsard, in 1823, overcame the vigilance of Michaud. [The Peasantry.]

MICHAUD (Madame Justin), born Olympe Charel, a virtuous and pretty farmer's daughter of Le Perche; wife of the preceding; chambermaid of Madame de Montcornet--born Troisville--before her marriage and induction to Aigues in Bourgogne. Her marriage to Justin Michaud was the outcome of mutual love. She had in her employ Cornevin, Juliette and Gounod; sheltered Genevieve Niseron, whose strange disposition she seemed to understand. For her husband, who was thoroughly hated in the Canton of Blangy, she often trembled, and on the same night that Michaud was murdered she died from over-anxiety, soon after giving birth to a child which did not survive her. [The Peasantry.]

MICHEL, writer at Socquard's cafe and coffee-house keeper at Soulanges in 1823. He also looked after his patron's vineyard and garden. [The Peasantry.]

MICHONNEAU (Christine-Mich.e.l.le). (See Poiret, the elder, Madame.)

MICHU, during the progress of and after the French Revolution he played a part directly contrary to his regular political affiliations.

His lowly birth, his harsh appearance, and his marriage with the daughter of a Troyes tanner of advanced opinion, all helped to make his p.r.o.nounced Republicanism seem in keeping, although beneath it he hid his Royalist faith and an active devotion to the Simeuses, the Hauteserres and the Cinq-Cygnes. Michu controlled the Gondreville estate between 1789 and 1804, after it was s.n.a.t.c.hed from its rightful owners, and under the Terror he presided over the Jacobin club at Arcis. As a result of the a.s.sa.s.sination of the Duc d'Enghien March 21, 1804, he lost his position at Gondreville. Michu then lived not far from there, near Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, to whom he made known his secret conduct, and, as a result, became overseer of all the estate attached to the castle. Having publicly shown his opposition to Malin, he was thought guilty of being leader in a plot to kidnap the new Seigneur de Gondreville, and was consequently condemned to death, a sentence which was executed, despite his innocence, October, 1806.

[The Gondreville Mystery.]

MICHU (Marthe), wife of the preceding, daughter of a Troyes tanner, "the village apostle of the Revolution," who, as a follower of Baboeuf, a believer in racial and social equality, was put to death. A blonde with blue eyes, and of perfect build, in accordance with her father's desire, despite her modest innocence, posed before a public a.s.sembly as the G.o.ddess of Liberty. Marthe Michu adored her husband, by whom she had a son, Francois, but being ignorant for a long time of his secret, she lived in a manner separated from him, under her mother's wing. When she did learn of her husband's Royalist actions, and that he was devoted to the Cinq-Cygnes, she a.s.sisted him, but falling into a skilfuly contrived plot, she innocently brought about her husband's execution. A forged letter having attracted her to Malin's hiding-place, Madame Michu furnished all the necessary evidence to make the charge of kidnapping seem plausible. She also was cast into prison and was awaiting trial when death claimed her, November, 1806. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

MICHU (Francois), son of the preceding couple, born in 1793. In 1803, while in the service of the house of Cinq-Cygne, he ferreted out the police-system that Giguet represented. The tragic death of his parents (a picture of one of them hung on the wall at Cinq-Cygne) caused his adoption in some way or other by the Marquise Laurence, whose efforts afterwards paved the way for his career as a lawyer from 1817 to 1819, an occupation which he left, only to become a magistrate. In 1824 he was a.s.sociate judge of the Alencon court. Then he was appointed attorney of the king and received the cross of the Legion of Honor, after the suit against Victurnien d'Esgrignon by M. du Bosquier and the Liberals. Three years later he performed similar duties at the Arcis court, over which he presided in 1839. Already wealthy, and receiving an income of twelve thousand francs granted him in 1814 by Madame de Cinq-Cygne, Francois Michu married a native of Champagne, Mademoiselle Girel, a Troyes heiress. In Arcis he attended only the social affairs given by the Cinq-Cygnes, then become allies of the Cadignans, and in fact never visited any others. [The Gondreville Mystery. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Member for Arcis.]

MICHU (Madame Francois), wife of the preceding, born Girel. Like her husband, she rather looked with scorn upon Arcis society, in 1839, and departed little from the circle made up of government officers'

families and the Cinq-Cygnes. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]

MIGEON, in 1836, porter in the rue des Martyrs house in which Etienne Lousteau lived for three years; he was commissioned for nine hundred francs by Mme. de la Baudraye, who then lived with the writer, to carry her jewelry to the p.a.w.n-broker. [The Muse of the Department.]

MIGEON (Pamela), daughter of the preceding, born in 1823; in 1837, the intelligent little waiting-maid of Madame de la Baudraye, when the baronne lived with Lousteau. [The Muse of the Department.]

MIGNON DE LA BASTIE (Charles), born in 1773 in the district of Var, "last member of the family to which Paris is indebted for the street and the house built by Cardinal Mignon"; went to war under the Republic; was closely a.s.sociated with Anne Dumay. At the beginning of the Empire, as the result of mutual affection, his marriage with Bettina Wallenrod only daughter of a Frankfort banker took place.

Shortly before the return of the Bourbons, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and became commander of the Legion of Honor. Under the Restoration Charles Mignon de la Bastie lived at Havre with his wife, and acquired forthwith, by means of banking, a large fortune, which he shortly lost. After absenting himself from the country, he returned, during the last year of Charles X.'s reign, from the Orient, having become a multi-millionaire. Of his four children, he lost three, two having died in early childhood, while Bettina Caroline, the third, died in 1827, after being misled and finally deserted by M.

d'Estourny. Marie-Modeste was the only child remaining, and she was confided during her father's journeys to the care of the Dumays, who were under obligations to the Mignons; she married Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere (also called La Briere-la Bastie). The brilliant career of Charles Mignon was the means of his rea.s.suming the t.i.tle, Comte de la Bastie. [Modeste Mignon.]

MIGNON (Madame Charles), wife of the preceding, born Bettina Wallenrod-Tustall-Bartenstild, indulged daughter of a banker in Frankfort-on-the-Main. She became blind soon after her elder daughter, Bettina-Caroline's troubles and early death, and had a presentiment of the romance connected with her younger daughter, Marie-Modeste, who became Madame Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere. Towards the close of the Restoration, Madame Charles Mignon, as the result of an operation by Desplein, recovered her sight and was a witness of Marie-Modeste's happiness. [Modeste Mignon.]

MIGNON (Bettina-Caroline), elder daughter of the preceding couple; born in 1805, the very image of her father; a typical Southern girl; was favored by her mother over her younger sister, Marie-Modeste, a kind of "Gretchen," who was similar in appearance to Madame Mignon.

Bettina-Caroline was seduced, taken away and finally deserted by a "gentleman of fortune," named D'Estourny, and shortly sank at Havre under the load of her sins and suffering, surrounded by nearly all of her family. Since 1827 there has been inscribed on her tomb in the little Ingouville cemetery the following inscription: "Bettina Caroline Mignon, died when twenty-two years of age. Pray for her!"

[Modeste Mignon.]

MIGNON (Marie-Modeste). (See La Bastie-La Briere, Madame Ernest de.)