BEAUVOIR (Charles-Felix-Theodore, Chevalier de), cousin of the Duchesse de Maille. A Chouan prisoner of the Republic in the chateau de l’Escarpe in 1799. The hero of a tale of marital revenge related by Lousteau, in 1836, to Mme. de la Baudraye, the story being obtained — so the narrator said — from Charles Nodier. The Muse of the Department.
BECANIERE (La), surname of Barbette Cibot. (See that name.)
BECKER (Edme), a student of medicine who dwelt in 1828 at number 22, rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve — the residence of the Marquis d’Espard. The Commission in Lunacy.
BEDEAU, office boy and roustabout for Maitre Bordin, attorney to the Chatelet in 1787. A Start in Life.
BEGA, surgeon in a French regiment of the Army of Spain in 1808. After having privately accouched a Spaniard under the espionage of her lover, he was assassinated by her husband, who surprised him in the telling of this clandestine operation. The foregoing adventure was told Mme. de la Baudraye, in 1836, by the Receiver of Finances, Gravier, former paymaster of the Army. The Muse of the Department.
BEGRAND (La), a dancer at the theatre of Porte-Sainte-Martin, Paris, in 1820.* Mariette, who made her debut at this time, also scored a success. A Bachelor’s Establishment.
* She shone for more than sixty years as a famous choreographical artist in the boulevards.
BELLEFEUILLE (Mademoiselle de), assumed name of Caroline Crochard.
BELLEJAMBE, servant of Lieutenant-Colonel Husson in 1837. A Start in Life.
BELOR (Mademoiselle de), young girl of Bordeaux living there about 1822. She was always in search of a husband, whom, for some cause or other, she never found. Probably intimate with Evangelista. A Marriage Settlement.
BEMBONI (Monsignor), attache to the Secretary of State at Rome, who was entrusted with the transmission to the Duc de Soria at Madrid of the letters of Baron de Macumer his brother, a Spanish refugee at Paris in 1823, 1824. Letters of Two Brides.
BENARD (Pieri). After corresponding with a German for two years, he discovered an engraving by Muller entitled the “Virgin of Dresden.” It was on Chinese paper and made before printing was discovered. It cost Cesar Birotteau fifteen hundred francs. The perfumer destined this engraving for the savant Vauquelin, to whom he was under obligations. Cesar Birotteau.
BENASSIS (Doctor), born about 1779 in a little town of Languedoc. He received his early training at the College of Soreze, Tarn, which was managed by the Oratorians. After that he pursued his medical studies at Paris, residing in the Latin quarter. When twenty-two he lost his father, who left him a large fortune; and he deserted a young girl by whom he had had a son, in order to give himself over to the most foolish dissipations. This young girl, who was thoroughly well meant and devoted to him, died two years after the desertion despite the most tender care of her now contrite lover. Later Benassis sought marriage with another young girl belonging to a Jansenist family. At first the affair was settled, but he was thrown over when the secret of his past life, hitherto concealed, was made known. He then devoted his whole life to his son, but the child died in his youth. After wavering between suicide and the monastery of Grande-Chartreuse, Doctor Benassis stopped by chance in the poor village of l’Isere, five leagues from Grenoble. He remained there until he had transformed the squalid settlement, inhabited by good-for-nothing Cretins, into the chief place of the Canton, bustling and prosperous. Benassis died in 1829, mayor of the town. All the populace mourned the benefactor and man of genius. The Country Doctor.
BENEDETTO, an Italian living at Rome in the first third of the nineteenth century. A tolerable musician, and a police spy, “on the side.” Ugly, small and a drunkard, he was nevertheless the lucky husband of Luigia, whose marvelous beauty was his continual boast. After an evening spent by him over the wine-cups, his wife in loathing lighted a brasier of charcoal, after carefully closing all the exits of the bedchamber. The neighbors rushing in succeeded in saving her alone; Benedetto was dead. The Member for Arcis.
BERENICE, chambermaid and cousin of Coralie the actress of the Panorama and Gymnase Dramatique. A large Norman woman, as ugly as her mistress was pretty, but tender and sympathetic in direct proportion to her corpulence. She had been Coralie’s childhood playmate and was absolutely bound up in her. In October, 1822, she gave Lucien de Rubempre, then entirely penniless, four five-franc pieces which she undoubtedly owed to the generosity of chance lovers met on the boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle. This sum enabled the unfortunate poet to return to Angouleme. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.
BERGERIN was the best doctor at Saumur during the Restoration. He attended Felix Grandet in his last illness. Eugenie Grandet.
BERGMANN (Monsieur and Madame), Swiss. Venerable gardeners of a certain Comte Borromeo, tending his parks located on the two famous isles in Lake Major. In 1823 they owned a house at Gersau, near Quatre-Canton Lake, in the Canton of Lucerne. For a year back they had let one floor of this house to the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini, — personages of a novel entitled, “L’Ambitieux par Amour,” published by Albert Savarus in the Revue de l’Est, in 1834. Albert Savarus.
BERNARD. (See Baron de Bourlac.)
BERNUS, diligence messenger carrying the passengers, freight, and perhaps, the letters of Saint-Nazaire to Guerande, during the time of Charles X. and Louis Philippe. Beatrix.
BERQUET, workman of Besancon who erected an elevated kiosk in the garden of the Wattevilles, whence their daughter Rosalie could see every act and movement of Albert Savarus, a near neighbor. Albert Savarus.
BERTHIER (Alexandre), marshal of the Empire, born at Versailles in 1753, dying in 1815. He wrote, as Minister of War at the close of 1799, to Hulot, then in command of the Seventy-second demi-brigade, refusing to accept his resignation and giving him further orders. The Chouans. On the evening of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he accompanied the Emperor and was present at the latter’s interview with the Marquis de Chargeboeuf and Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, special envoys to France to implore pardon for the Simeuses, the Hauteserres, and Michu who had been condemned as abductors of Senator Malin de Gondreville. The Gondreville Mystery.
BERTHIER, Parisian notary, successor of Cardot, whose assistant head-clerk he had been and whose daughter Felicite (or Felicie) he married. In 1843 he was Mme. Marneffe’s notary. At the same time he had in hand the affairs of Camusot de Marville; and Sylvain Pons often dined with him. Master Berthier drew up the marriage settlement of Wilhelm Schwab with Emilie Graff, and the copartnership articles between Fritz Brunner and Wilhelm Schwab. Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.
BERTHIER (Madame), nee Felicie Cardot, wife of the preceding. She had been wronged by the chief-clerk in her father’s office. This young man died suddenly, leaving her enceinte. She then espoused the second clerk, Berthier, in 1837, after having been on the point of accepting Lousteau. Berthier was cognizant of all the head-clerk’s doings. In this affair both acted for a common interest. The marriage was measurably happy. Madame Berthier was so grateful to her husband that she made herself his slave. About the end of 1844 she welcomed very coldly Sylvain Pons, then in disgrace in the family circle. The Muse of the Department. Cousin Pons.
BERTON, tax-collector at Arcis-sur-Aube in 1839. The Member for Arcis.
BERTON (Mademoiselle), daughter of the tax-collector of Arcis-sur-Aube. A young, insignificant girl who acted the satellite to Cecile Beauvisage and Ernestine Mollot. The Member for Arcis.
BERTON (Doctor), physician of Paris. In 1836 he lived on rue d’Enfer (now rue Denfert-Rochereau). An assistant in the benevolent work of Mme. de la Chanterie, he visited the needy sick whom she pointed out. Among others he attended Vanda de Mergi, daughter of the Baron de Bourlac — M. Bernard. Doctor Berton was gruff and frigid. The Seamy Side of History.
BETHUNE (Prince de), the only man of fashion who knew “what a hat was” — to quote a saying of Vital the hatter, in 1845. The Unconscious Humorists.
BEUNIER & CO., the firm Bixiou inquired after in 1845, near Mme. Nourrisson’s. The Un
conscious Humorists.
BIANCHI. Italian. During the first Empire a captain in the sixth regiment of the French line, which was made up almost entirely of men of his nationality. Celebrated in his company for having bet that he would eat the heart of a Spanish sentinel, and winning that bet. Captain Bianchi was first to plant the French colors on the wall of Tarragone, Spain, in the attack of 1808. But a friar killed him. The Maranas.
BIANCHON (Doctor), a physician of Sancerre, father of Horace Bianchon, brother of Mme. Popinot, the wife of Judge Popinot. The Commission in Lunacy.
BIANCHON (Horace), a physician of Paris, celebrated during the times of Charles X. and Louis Philippe; an officer of the Legion of Honor, member of the Institute, professor of the Medical Faculty, physician-in-charge, at the same time, of a hospital and the Ecole Polytechnique. Born at Sancerre, Cher, about the end of the eighteenth century. He was “interne” at the Cochin Hospital in 1819, at which time he boarded at the Vauquer Pension where he knew Eugene de Rastignac, then studying law, and Goriot and Vautrin. Father Goriot. Shortly thereafter, at Hotel Dieu, he became the favored pupil of the surgeon Desplein, whose last days he tended. The Atheist’s Mass. Nephew of Judge Jean-Jules Popinot and relative of Anselme Popinot, he had dealings with the perfumer Cesar Birotteau, who acknowledged indebtedness to him for a prescription of his famous hazelnut oil, and who invited him to the grand ball which precipitated Birotteau’s bankruptcy. Cesar Birotteau. The Commission in Lunacy. Member of the “Cenacle” in rue des Quatre-Vents, and on intimate terms with all the young fellows composing this clique, he was consequently enabled, to an extent, to bring Daniel d’Arthez to the notice of Rastignac, now Under-Secretary of State. He nursed Lucien de Rubempre who was wounded in a duel with Michel Chrestien in 1822; also Coralie, Lucien’s mistress, and Mme. Bridau in their last illnesses. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor’s Establishment. The Secrets of a Princess. In 1824 the young Doctor Bianchon accompanied Desplein, who was called in to attend the dying Flamet de la Billardiere. The Government Clerks. In Provins in 1828, with the same Desplein and Dr. Martener, he gave the most assiduous attention to Pierrette Lorrain. Pierrette. In this same year of 1828 he had a momentary desire to become one of an expedition to Morea. He was then physician to Mme. de Listomere, whose misunderstanding with Rastignac he learned and afterwards related. A Study of Woman. Again in company with Desplein, in 1829, he was called in by Mme. de Nucingen with the object of studying the case of Baron de Nucingen, her husband, love-sick for Esther Gobseck. In 1830, still with his celebrated chief, he was cited by Corentin to express an opinion on the death of Peyrade and the lunacy of Lydie his daughter. Then, with Desplein and with Dr. Sinard, to attend Mme. de Serizy, who it was feared would go crazy over the suicide of Lucien de Rubempre. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Associated with Desplein, at this same time, he cared for the dying Honorine, wife of Comte de Bauvan Honorine., and examined the daughter of Baron de Bourlac — M. Bernard — who was suffering from a peculiar Polish malady, the plica. The Seamy Side of History. In 1831 Horace Bianchon was the friend and physician of Raphael de Valentin. The Magic Skin. In touch with the Comte de Granville in 1833, he attended the latter’s mistress, Caroline Crochard. A Second Home. He also attended Mme. du Bruel, then mistress of La Palferine, who had injured herself by falling and striking her head against the sharp corner of a fireplace. A Prince of Bohemia. In 1835 he attended Mme. Marie Gaston — Louise de Chaulieu — though a hopeless case. Letters of Two Brides. In 1837 at Paris he accouched Mme. de la Baudraye who had been intimate with Lousteau; he was assisted by the celebrated accoucheur Duriau. The Muse of the Department. In 1838 he was Comte Laginski’s physician. The Imaginary Mistress. In 1840 Horace Bianchon resided on rue de la Montagne-Sainte-Genevieve, in the house where his uncle, Judge Popinot, died, and he was asked to become one of the Municipal Council, in place of that upright magistrate. But he declined, declaring in favor of Thuillier. The Middle Classes. The physician of Baron Hulot, Crevel and Mme. Marneffe, he observed with seven of his colleagues, the terrible malady which carried off Valerie and her second husband in 1842. In 1843 he also visited Lisbeth Fisher in her last illness Cousin Betty. Finally, in 1844, Dr. Bianchon was consulted by Dr. Roubaud regarding Mme. Graslin at Montegnac. The Country Parson. Horace Bianchon was a brilliant and inspiring conversationalist. He gave to society the adventures known by the following titles: A Study of Woman; Another Study of Woman; La Grande Breteche.
BIBI-LUPIN, chief of secret police between 1819 and 1830; a former convict. In 1819 he personally arrested at Mme. Vauquer’s boarding-house Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin, his old galley-mate and personal enemy. Under the name of Gondureau, Bibi-Lupin had made overtures to Mlle. Michonneau, one of Mme. Vauquer’s guests, and through her he had obtained the necessary proofs of the real identity of Vautrin who was then without the pale of the law, but who later, May, 1830, became his successor as chief of secret police. Father Goriot. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
BIDAULT (Monsieur and Madame), brother and sister-in-law of Bidault, alias Gigonnet; father and mother of M. and Mme. Saillard, furniture-dealers under the Central Market pillars during the latter part of the eighteenth and perhaps the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. The Government Clerks.
BIDAULT, known as Gigonnet, born in 1755; originally an Auvergnat; uncle of Mme. Saillard on the paternal side. A paper-merchant at one time, retired from business since the year II of the Republic, he opened an account with a Dutchman called Sieur Werbrust, who was a friend of Gobseck. In business relations with the latter, he was one of the most formidable usurers in Paris, during the Empire, the Restoration and the first part of the July Government. He dwelt in rue Greneta. The Government Clerks. Gobseck. Luigi Porta, a ranking officer retired under Louis XVIII., sold all his back pay to Gigonnet. The Vendetta. Bidault was one of the syndicate that engineered the bankruptcy of Birotteau in 1819. At this time he persecuted Mme. Madou, a market dealer in filberts, who was his debtor. Cesar Birotteau. In 1824 he succeeded in making his grand-nephew, Isidore Baudoyer, chief of the division under the Minister of Finance; in this he was aided by Gobseck and Mitral, and worked on the General Secretary, Chardin des Lupeaulx, through the medium of the latter’s debts and the fact of his being candidate for deputy. The Government Clerks. Bidault was shrewd enough; he saw through — and much to his profit — the pretended speculation involved in the third receivership which was operated by Nucingen in 1826. The Firm of Nucingen. In 1833 M. du Tillet advised Nathan, then financially stranded, to apply to Gigonnet, the object being to involve Nathan. A Daughter of Eve. The nick-name of Gigonnet was applied to Bidault on account of a feverish, involuntary contraction of a leg muscle. The Government Clerks.
BIDDIN, goldsmith, rue de l’Arbe-Sec, Paris, in 1829; one of Esther Gobseck’s creditors. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
BIFFE (La), concubine of the criminal Riganson, alias Le Biffon. This woman, who was a sort of Jacques Collin in petticoats, evaded the police, thanks to her disguises. She could ape the marquise, the baronne and the comtesse to perfection. She had her own carriage and footmen. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
BIFFON (Le), an alias of Riganson.
BIGORNEAU, sentimental clerk of Fritot’s, the shawl merchant in the Bourse quarter, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. Gaudissart II.
BIJOU (Olympe). (See Grenouville, Madame.)
BINET, inn-keeper in the Department of l’Orne in 1809. He was concerned in a trial which created some stir, and cast a shadow over Mme. de la Chanterie, striking at her daughter, Mme. des Tours-Minieres. Binet harbored some brigands known as “chauffeurs.” He was brought to trial for it and sentenced to five years’ imprisonment. The Seamy Side of History.
BIROTTEAU (Jacques), a gardener hard by Chinon. He married the chambermaid of a lady on whose estate he trimmed vines. Three boys were born to them: Francois, Jean and Cesar. He lost his wife on the birth of the last child (1779), and himself died shortly after. Cesa
r Birotteau.
BIROTTEAU (Abbe Francois), eldest son of Jacques Birotteau; born in 1766; vicar of the church of Saint-Gatien at Tours, and afterwards cure of Saint-Symphorien in the same city. After the death of the Abbe de la Berge, in 1817, he became confessor of Mme. de Mortsauf, attending her last moments. The Lily of the Valley. His brother Cesar, the perfumer, wrote him after his — Cesar’s — business failure in 1819, asking aid. Abbe Birotteau, in a touching letter, responded with the sum of one thousand francs which represented all his own little hoard and, in addition, a loan obtained from Mme. de Listomere. Cesar Birotteau. Accused of having inveigled Mme. de Listomere to leave him the income of fifteen hundred francs, which she bequeathed him on her death, Abbe Birotteau was placed under interdiction, in 1826, the victim of the terrible hatred of the Abbe Troubert. The Vicar of Tours.
BIROTTEAU (Jean), second son of Jacques Birotteau. A captain in the army, killed in the historic battle of La Trebia which lasted three days, June 17-19, 1799. Cesar Birotteau.
BIROTTEAU (Cesar), third son of Jacques Birotteau, born in 1779; dealer in perfumes in Paris at number 397 rue Saint-Honore, near the Place Vendome, in the old shop once occupied by the grocer Descoings, who was executed with Andre Chenier in 1794. After the eighteenth Brumaire, Cesar Birotteau succeeded Sieur Ragon, and moved the source of the “Queen of Roses” to the above address. Among his customers were the Georges, the La Billardieres, the Montaurans, the Bauvans, the Longuys, the Mandas, the Berniers, the Guenics, and the Fontaines. These relations with the militant Royalists implicated him in the plot of the 13th Vendemaire, 1795, against the Convention; and he was wounded, as he told over and over, “by Bonaparte on the borders of Saint-Roche.” In May, 1800, Birotteau the perfumer married Constance-Barbe-Josephine Pillerault. By her he had an only daughter, Cesarine, who married Anselme Popinot in 1822. Successively captain, then chief of battalion in the National Guard and adjunct-mayor of the eleventh arrondissement, Birotteau was appointed Chevalier of the Legion of Honor in 1818. To celebrate his nomination in the Order, he gave a grand ball* which, on account of the very radical changes necessitated in his apartments, and coupled with some bad speculations, brought about his total ruin; he filed a petition in bankruptcy the year following. By stubborn effort and the most rigid economy, Birotteau was able to indemnify his creditors completely, three years later (1822). But he died soon after the formal court reinstating. He numbered among his patrons in 1818 the following: the Duc and Duchesse de Lenoncourt, the Princesse de Blamont-Chauvry, the Marquise d’Espard, the two Vandenesses, Marsay, Ronquerolles, and the Marquis d’Aiglemont. Cesar Birotteau. A Bachelor’s Establishment. Cesar Birotteau was likewise on friendly terms with the Guillaumes, clothing dealers in the rue Saint-Denis. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1554