Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 48

TOUPILLIER, born about 1750; of a wretchedly poor family consisting of three sisters and five brothers, one of whom was father of Madame Cardinal. From drum-major in the Gardes-Francaise, Toupillier became beadle in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris; then dispenser of holy water, having been an artist's model in the meantime. Toupillier, at the beginning of the Restoration, suspected either of being a Bonapartist, or of being unfit for his position, was discharged from the service of the church, and had only the right to stand at the threshold as a privileged beggar; however, he profited greatly by his new position, for he knew how to arouse the compa.s.sionate feelings of the faithful in every possible way, chiefly by pa.s.sing as a centenarian. Having been entrusted with the diamonds that Charles Crochard had stolen from Mademoiselle Beaumesnil and which the young thief wished to get off his hands for the time being, Toupillier denied having received them and remained possessor of the stolen jewels. But Corentin, the famous police-agent, followed the pauper of Saint-Sulpice to the rue du Coeur-Volant, and surprised that new Cardillac engrossed in the contemplation of the diamonds. He, however, left them in his custody, on condition of his leaving by will all his property to Lydie Peyrade, Corentin's ward and Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's daughter. Corentin further required Toupillier to live in his house and under his surveillance on the rue Honore-Chevalier. At that time Toupillier had an income of eighteen hundred francs; he might be seen, at the church, munching wretched crusts; but, the church once closed, he went to dine at the Lathuile restaurant, situated on the Barriere de Clichy, and at night he got drunk on the excellent Rousillon wines. Notwithstanding an attack made by Madame Cardinal and Cerizet on the closet containing the diamonds, when the pauper of Saint-Sulpice died in 1840, Lydie Peyrade, now Madame Theodose de la Peyrade, inherited all that Toupillier possessed. [The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

TOUPINET, a Parisian mechanic, at the time of the Restoration, being married and father of a family, he stole his wife's savings, the fruit of arduous labor; he was imprisoned, about 1828, probably for debts.

[The Commission in Lunacy.]

TOUPINET (Madame), wife of the preceding; known under the name Pomponne; kept a fruit-stand; lived, in 1828, on the rue du Pet.i.t-Banquier, Paris; unhappy in her married life; obtained from the charitable J.-J. Popinot, under the name of a loan, ten francs for purchasing stock. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

TOURNAN, a hatter of the rue Saint-Martin, Paris; among his customers was young Poiret, who, on July 3, 1823, brought him his head-covering, all greased, as a result of J.-J. Bixiou's practical joking. [The Government Clerks.]

TOURS-MINIERES (Bernard-Polydor Bryond, Baron des), a gentleman of Alencon; born about 1772; in 1793, was one of the most active emissaries of the Comte de Lille (Louis XVIII.), in his conspiracy against the Republic. Having received the King's thanks, he retired to his estate in the department of Orne, which had long been burdened with mortgages; and, in 1807, he married Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, with the concurrence of the Royalists, whose "pet" he was.

He pretended to take part in the reactionary revolutionary movement of the West in 1809, implicated his wife in the matter, compromised her, ruined her, and then disappeared. Returning in secrecy to his country, under the a.s.sumed name of Lemarchand, he aided the authorities in getting at the bottom of the plot, and then went to Paris, where he became the celebrated police-agent Contenson. [The Seamy Side of History.] He knew Peyrade, and received from Lenoir's old pupil the significant sobriquet of "Philosopher." Being agent for Fouche during the period of the Empire, he abandoned himself in the most sensual way to his pa.s.sions, and lived a life of irregularity and vice. During the time of the Restoration Louchard had him employed by Nucingen at the time of the latter's amours with Esther van Gobseck. In the service of this noted banker, Contenson (with Peyrade and Corentin) tried to protect him from the snares of Jacques Collin, and followed the pseudo-Carlos Herrera to his place of refuge on a house-top; but being hurled from the roof by his intended victim, he was instantly killed during the winter of 1829-1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

TOURS-MINIERES (Baronne Bryond des), wife of the preceding; born Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, in 1789; only daughter of Monsieur and Madame Le Chantre de la Chanterie; was married after her father's death. Through the machinations of Tours-Minieres she was brought into contact with Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard, became his mistress, and took the field for him in the Royalist cause, in the department of Orne, in 1809. Betrayed by her husband, she was executed in 1810, in accordance with a death-sentence of the court presided over by Mergi, Bourlac being attorney-general. [The Seamy Side of History.]

TRAILLES (Comte Maxime de), born in 1791, belonged to a family that was descended from an attendant to Louis XI., and raised to the n.o.bility by Francois I. This perfect example of the Parisian _condottieri_ made his beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century as a page to Napoleon. Being loved, in turn, by Sarah Gobseck and Anastasie de Restaud, Maxime de Trailles, himself already ruined, ruined both of these; gaming was his master pa.s.sion, and his caprices knew no bounds. [Cesar Birotteau. Father Goriot. Gobseck.] He took under his attention the Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere, a novice in Parisian life, whom also he would have served later as his second against Desire Minoret, but for the latter's death by accident.

[Ursule Mirouet.] His ready wit usually saved him from the throng of creditors that swarmed about him, but even thus he once paid a debt due Cerizet, in spite of himself. Maxime de Trailles, at that time, was keeping, in a modest way, Antonia Chocardelle, who had a news-stand on the rue Coquenard, near the rue Pigalle, on which Trailles lived; and, at the same time, a certain Hortense, a protegee of Lord Dudley, was seconding the genius of that excellent comedian, Cerizet. [A Man of Business. The Member for Arcis.] The dominant party of the Restoration accused Maxime de Trailles of being a Bonapartist, and rebuked him for his shameless corruption of life; but the citizen monarchy extended him a cordial welcome. Marsay was the chief promoter of the count's fortunes; he moulded him, and sent him on delicate political missions, which he managed with marvelous success. [The Secrets of a Princess.] And so the Comte de Trailles was widely known in social circles: as the guest of Josepha Mirah, by his presence he honored the house-warming in her new apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.] Marsay being dead, he lost the power of his prestige. Eugene de Rastignac, who had become somewhat of a Puritan, showed but slight esteem for him. However, Maxime de Trailles was on easy terms with one of the minister's intimate friends, the brilliant Colonel Franchessini. Nucingen's son-in-law--Eugene de Rastignac--perhaps recalled Madame de Restaud's misfortunes, and doubtless entertained no good feeling for the man who was responsible for them all. None the less, he employed the services of M. de Trailles--who was always at ease in the Marquise d'Espard's salon, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore, though a man over forty years of age, painted and padded and bowed down with debts--and sent him to look after the political situation in Arcis before the spring election of 1839. Trailles worked his wires with judgment; he tried to override the Cinq-Cygnes, partisans of Henri V.; he supported the candidacy of Phileas Beauvisage, and sought the hand of Cecile-Renee Beauvisage, the wealthy heiress, but was unsuccessful on all sides. [The Member for Arcis.] M. de Trailles, furthermore, excelled in the adjustment of private difficulties. M. d'Ajuda-Pinto, Abbe Brossette, and Madame de Grandlieu called for his a.s.sistance, and, with the further aid of Rusticoli de la Palferine, effected the reconciliation of the families of Calyste du Guenic and Arthur de Rochefide. [Beatrix.] He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, succeeding Phileas Beauvisage, who had replaced Charles de Sallenauve, at the Palais-Bourbon; here he was pointed out to S.-P. Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

TRANS (Mademoiselle), a young unmarried woman of Bordeaux, who, like Mademoiselle de Belor, was on the lookout for a husband when Paul de Manerville married Natalie Evangelista. [A Marriage Settlement.]

TRANSON (Monsieur and Madame), wholesale dealers in earthenware goods on the rue des Lesdiguieres, were on intimate terms, about 1824, with their neighbors, the Baudoyers and the Saillards. [The Government Clerks.]

TRAVOT (General), with his command, conducted, in 1815, the siege of Guerande, a fortress defended by the Baron du Guenic, who finally evacuated it, but who reached the wood with his Chouans and remained in possession of the country until the second return of the Bourbons.

[Beatrix.]

TROGNON (Maitre), a Parisian notary, wholly at the disposal of his neighbor, Maitre Fraisier; during the years 1844-1845 he lived on the rue Saint-Louis-au-Marais--now rue de Turenne--and reached the death-bed of Sylvain Pons before his colleague, Maitre Leopold Hannequin, though the latter actually received the musician's last wishes. [Cousin Pons.]

TROISVILLE (Guibelin, Vicomte de), whose name is p.r.o.nounced Treville, and who, as well as his numerous family, bore simply the name Guibelin during the period of the Empire; he belonged to a n.o.ble line of ardent Royalists well known in Alencon. [The Seamy Side of History.] Very probably several of the Troisvilles, as well as the Chevalier de Valois and the Marquis d'Esgrignon, were among the correspondents of the Vendean chiefs, for it is well known that the department of Orne was counted among the centres of the anti-revolutionary uprising (1799). [The Chouans.] Furthermore, the Bourbons, after their restoration, overwhelmed the Troisvilles with honors, making several of them members of the Chamber of Deputies or peers of France. The Vicomte Guibelin de Troisville served during the emigration in Russia, where he married a Muscovite girl, daughter of the Princesse Scherbeloff; and, during the year 1816, he returned to establish himself permantly among the people of Alencon. Accepting temporarily the hospitality of Rose-Victoire Cormon (eventually Madame du Bousquier), he innocently inspired her with false hopes; the viscount, naturally reserved, failed to inform her of his being son-in-law of Scherbeloff, and legitimate father of the future Marechale de Montcornet. Guibelin de Troisville, a loyal social friend of the Esgrignons, met in their salon the Roche-Guyons and the Casterans, distant cousins of his, but the intimate relations almost came to an end, when Mademoiselle Virginie de Troisville became Madame de Montcornet. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] However, in spite of this union, which he looked upon as a mesalliance, the viscount was never cool towards his daughter and her husband, but was their guest at Aigues, in Bourgogne. [The Peasantry.]

TROMPE-LA-MORT, a sobriquet of Jacques Collin.

TROUBERT (Abbe Hyacinthe), favorite priest of M. de Bourbonne; rose rapidly during the Restoration and Louis Philippe's reign, canon and vicar-general, in turn, of Tours, he was afterwards bishop of Troyes.

His early career in Touraine showed him to be a deep, ambitious, and dangerous man, knowing how to remove from his path those that impeded his advance, and knowing how to conceal the full power of his animosity. The secret support of the Congregation and the connivance of Sophie Gamard allowed him to take advantage of Abbe Francois Birotteau's unsuspecting good nature, and to rob him of all the inheritance of Abbe Chapeloud, whom he had hated in his lifetime, and over whom he triumphed thus again, despite the shrewdness of the deceased priest. Abbe Troubert even won over to his side the Listomeres, defenders of Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]

About 1839, at Troyes, Monsiegneur Troubert was on terms of intimacy with the Cinq-Cygnes, the Hauteserres, the Cadignans, the Maufrigneuses, and Daniel d'Arthez, who were more or less concerned in the matter of the Champagne elections. [The Member for Arcis.]

TROUSSENARD (Doctor), a physician of Havre, during the Restoration, at the time that the Mignon de la Bastie family lived in that sub-prefecture of the Seine-Inferieure. [Modeste Mignon.]

TRUDON, in 1818, a grocer of Paris, in the same quarter as Cesar Birotteau, whom he furnished, on December 17th of that year, with nearly two hundred francs' worth of wax candles. [Cesar Birotteau.]

TULLIA, professional sobriquet of Madame du Bruel.

TULLOYE, the name of the owner of a small estate near Angouleme, where M. de Bargeton, in the autumn of 1821, severely wounded M. de Chandour, an unsophisticated hot-head, whom he had challenged to a duel. The name Tulloye furnished a good opportunity in the affair for a play on words. [Lost Illusions.]

TURQUET (Marguerite), born about 1816, better known under the sobriquet of Malaga, having a further appellaton of the "Aspasia of the Cirque-Olympique," was originally a rider in the famous Bouthor Traveling Hippodrome, and was later a Parisian star at the Franconi theatre, in the summer on the Champs-Elysees, in the winter on the Boulevard du Crime. In 1837, Mademoiselle Turquet was living in the fifth story of a house on the rue des Fosses-du-Temple--a thoroughfare that has been built up since 1862--when Thaddee Paz set her up in sumptuous style elsewhere. But she wearied of the role of supposed mistress of the Pole. [The Imaginary Mistress.] Nevertheless, this position had placed Marguerite in a prominent light, and she shone thenceforth among the artists and courtesans. She had in Maitre Cardot, a notary on the Place du Chatelet, an earnest protector; and as her lover she had a quite young musician. [The Muse of the Department.] A shrewd girl, she held on to Maitre Cardot, and made a popular hostess, in whose salon Desroches, about 1840, gave an entertaining account of a strange battle between two roues, Trailles and Cerizet, debtor and creditor, that resulted in a victory for Cerizet. [A Man of Business.] In 1838, Malaga Turquet was present at Josepha Mirah's elegant house-warming in her gorgeous new apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]

U

URBAIN, servant of Soudry, mayor of Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the Restoration; was at one time a cavalry soldier, who entered into the service of the mayor, an ex-brigadier of gendarmes, after failing to receive an appointment as gendarme. [The Peasantry.]

URRACA, aged Spanish woman, nurse of Baron de Mac.u.mer; the only family servant kept by her master after his ruin and during his exile in France. Urraca prepared the baron's chocolate in the very best style.

[Letters of Two Brides.]

URRACA Y LORA (Mademoiselle), paternal aunt of Leon de Lora, remained a spinster. As late as 1845 this quasi-Spaniard was still living in poverty in a commune of the Pyrenees-Orientales, with the father and elder brother of the artist. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

URSULE, servant employed by the Abbe Bonnet, cure of Montegnac, in 1829; a woman of canonical age. She received the Abbe de Rastignac, who had been sent by the Bishop of Limoges to bring the village curate to Jean-Francois Tascheron. It was desired that this man, although he was condemned to death, should be brought back within the "pale of the Church." Ursule learned from the Abbe de Rastignac of the reprieve that had been given the murderer, and being not only inquisitive, but also a gossip; she spread it throughout the whole village, during the time that she was buying the articles necessary for the preparation of breakfast for the Cure Bonnet and the Abbe de Rastignac. [The Village Parson.]

URSULE, from Picardie, very large; cook employed by Ragon, perfumer on rue Saint-Honore, Paris, towards the end of the eighteenth century; about 1793 she took in hand the amorous education of Cesar Birotteau, the little Tourraine peasant just employed by the Ragons as errand-boy.

Ill-natured, wanton, wheedling, dishonest, selfish and given to drink, Ursule did not suit the candid Cesar, whom she abandoned, moreover, two years later, for a young Picardie rebel, who owned a few acres of land. He found concealment in Paris, and let her marry him.

[Cesar Birotteau.]

UXELLES (Marquise d'), related to the Princess de Blamont-Chauvry, and to the Duc and d.u.c.h.esse de Lenoncourt; G.o.d-mother of Cesar Birotteau.

[Cesar Birotteau.]

UXELLES (d.u.c.h.esse d'), born about 1769, mother of Diane d'Uxelles; beloved by the Duc de Maufrigneuse, and about 1814 gave him her daughter in marriage; ten years later she withdrew to her Uxelles estate, where she lived a life of piety and selfishness. [The Secrets of a Princess.]

V

VAILLANT (Madame), wife of a cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine; mother of three children. In 1819 and 1820, for forty sous per month, she kept house for a young author,[*] who lived in a garret in rue Lesdiguieres. She utilized her remaining time in turning the crank for a mechanic, and received only ten sous a day for this hard work. This woman and her husband were perfectly upright. At the wedding of Madame Vaillant's sister, the young writer became acquainted with Pere Canet--Facino Cane--clarinetist at the Quinze-Vingts--who told him his strange story. [Facino Cane.] In 1818, Madame Vaillant, already aged, kept house for Claude-Joseph Pillerault, the former Republican, on rue des Bourdonnais. The old merchant was good to his servant and did not let her shine his shoes. [Cesar Birotteau.]

[*] Honore de Balzac. He employed Madame Vaillant as a servant.

VALDES (Paquita), born in the West Indies about 1793, daughter of a slave bought in Georgia on account of her great beauty; lived in the early part of the Restoration and during the Hundred Days in Hotel San-Real, rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, with her mother and her foster-father, Christemio. In April, 1815, in the Jardin des Tuileries, she was met by Henri de Marsay, who loved her. She agreed to receive him secretly in her own home. She gave up everything for his sake, but in a transport of love, she cried out from force of habit: "O Mariquita!" This put her lover in such a fury that he tried to kill her. Not being able to do this, he returned, accompanied by some other members of "The Thirteen," only to find Paquita murdered; for, the Marquise de San-Real, Marsay's own sister, who was very jealous of the favors granted the man by this girl, has slashed her savagely with a dagger. Having been kept in retirement since she was twelve years old, Paquita Valdes knew neither how to read nor to write. She spoke only English and Spanish. On account of the peculiar color of her eyes she was known as "the girl with the golden eyes," by some young men, one of whom was Paul de Manerville, who had noticed her during his promenades. [The Thirteen.]

VALDEZ, a Spanish admiral, const.i.tutional minister of King Ferdinand VII. in 1820; was obliged to flee at the time of the reaction, and embarked on an English vessel. His escape was due to the warning given him by Baron de Mac.u.mer, who told him in time. [Letters of Two Brides.]

VALENTIN (De), head of a historic house of Auvergne, which had fallen into poverty and obscurity; cousin of the Duc de Navarreins; came to Paris under the monarchy, and made for himself an excellent place at the "very heart of power." This he lost during the Revolution. Under the Empire he bought many pieces of property given by Napoleon to his generals; but the fall of Napoleon ruined him completely. He reared his only son, Raphael, with great harshness, although he expected him to restore the house to its former position. In the autumn of 1826, six months after he had paid his creditors, he died of a broken heart.

The Valentins had on their arms: an eagle of gold in a field of sable, crowned with silver, beak and talons with gules, with this device: "The soul has not perished." [The Magic Skin.]

VALENTIN (Madame de), born Barbe-Marie O'Flaharty, wife of the preceding; heiress of a wealthy house; died young, leaving to her only son an islet in the Loire. [The Magic Skin.]

VALENTIN (Marquis Raphael de),[*] only son of the preceding couple, born in 1804, and probably in Paris, where he was reared; lost his mother when he was very young, and, after an unhappy childhood, received on the death of his father the sum of eleven hundred and twelve francs. On this he lived for nearly three years, boarding at the rate of a franc per day at the Hotel de Saint-Quintin, rue des Cordiers. He began two great works there: a comedy, which was to bring him fame in a day, and the "Theory of the Will," a long work, like that of Louis Lambert, meant to be a continuation of the books by Mesmer, Lavater, Gall and Bichat. Raphael de Valentin as a doctor of laws was destined by his father for the life of a statesman. Reduced to extreme poverty, and deprived of his last possession, the islet in the Loire, inherited from his mother, he was on the point of committing suicide, in 1830, when a strange dealer in curiosities of the Quai Voltaire, into whose shop he had entered by chance, gave him a strange piece of s.h.a.green, the possession of which a.s.sured him the gratification of every desire, although his life would be shortened by each wish. Shortly after this he was invited to a sumptuous feast at Frederic Taillefer's. On the next morning Raphael found himself heir to six million francs. In the autumn of 1831 he died of consumption in the arms of Pauline Gaudin; they were mutual lovers. He tried in vain to possess himself of her, in a supreme effort. As a millionaire, Raphael de Valentin lived in friendship with Rastignac and Blondet, looked after by his faithful servant, Jonathas, in a house on rue de Varenne. At one time he was madly in love with a certain Comtesse Foedora. Neither the waters of Aix, nor those of Mont-Dore, both of which he tried, were able to give him back his lost health. [The Magic Skin.]

[*] During the year 1851, at the Ambigu-Comique, was performed a drama by Alphonse Arnault and Louis Judicis, in which the life of Raphael Valentin was reproduced.

VALENTINE, given name and t.i.tle of the heroine of a vaudeville play[*]

in two acts, by Scribe and Melesville, which was performed at the Gymnase-Dramatique, January 4, 1836. This was more than twenty years after the death of M. and Madame de Merret, whose lives and tragic adventures were more or less vividly pictured in the play. [The Muse of the Department.]

[*] Madame Eugenie Savage played the princ.i.p.al part.

VALLAT (Francois), deputy to the king's attorney at Ville-aux-Fayes, Bourgogne, under the Restoration, at the time of the peasant uprising against General de Montcornet. He was a cousin of Madame Sarcus, wife of Sarcus the Rich. He sought promotion through Gaubertin, the mayor, who was influential throughout the entire district. [The Peasantry.]

VALLET, haberdasher in Soulanges, Bourgogne, during the Restoration, at the time of General de Montcornet's struggle against the peasants.

The Vallet house was next to Socquard's Cafe de la Paix. [The Peasantry.]

VAL-n.o.bLE (Madame du). (See Gaillard, Madame Theodore.)

VALOIS (Chevalier de), born about 1758; died, as did his friend and fellow-countryman, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, with the legitimate monarchy, August, 1830. This poor man pa.s.sed his youth in Paris, where he was surprised by the Revolution. He was finally a Chouan, and when the western Whites arose in arms against the Republic, he was one of the members of the Alencon royal committee. At the time of the Restoration he was living in this city very modestly, but received by the leading aristocracy of the province as a true Valois. The chevalier carried snuff in an old gold snuffbox, ornamented with the picture of the Princess Goritza, a Hungarian, celebrated for her beauty, under Louis XV. He spoke only with emotion of this woman, for whom he had battled with Lauzun. The Chevalier de Valois tried vainly to marry the wealthy heiress of Alencon, Rose-Victoire Cormon, a spinster, who had the misfortune to become the wife, platonically speaking, of M. du Bousquier, the former contractor. In his lodging at Alencon with Madame Lardot, a laundress, the chevalier had as mistress one of the working women, Cesarine, whose child was usually attributed to him. Cesarine was, as a result, the sole legatee of her lover. The chevalier also took some liberties with another employe of Madame Lardot, Suzanne, a very beautiful Norman girl, who was afterwards known at Paris as a courtesan, under the name of Val-n.o.ble, and who still later married Theodore Gaillard. M. de Valois, although strongly attached to this girl, did not allow her to defraud him. He was intimate with Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de Verneuil, de Fontaine, de la Billardiere, de Maufrigneuse and de Chaulieu. Valois made a living by gambling, but pretended to gain his modest livelihood from a Maitre Bordin, in the name of a certain M. de Pombreton. [The Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.]