Works of Honore De Balzac

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Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1560

by Honoré de Balzac

CATHERINE, an old woman in the service of M. and Mme. Saillard, in 1824. The Government Clerks.

  CATHERINE, chambermaid and foster sister of Laurence de Cinq-Cygne in 1803. A handsome girl of nineteen. According to Gothard, Catherine was in all her mistress’ secrets and furthered all her schemes. The Gondreville Mystery.

  CAVALIER, Fendant’s partner; both were book-collectors, publishers and venders in Paris, on rue Serpente in 1821. Cavalier traveled for the house, whose firm name appeared as “Fendant and Cavalier.” The two associates failed shortly after having published, without success, the famous romance of Lucien de Rubempre, “The Archer of Charles IX.,” which title they had changed for one more fantastic. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In 1838, a firm of Cavalier published “The Spirit of Modern Law” by Baron Bourlac, sharing the profits with the author. The Seamy Side of History.

  CAYRON, of Languedoc, a vender of parasols, umbrellas and canes, on rue Saint-Honore in a house adjacent to that inhabited by Birotteau the perfumer in 1818. With the consent of the landlord, Molineux, Cayron sublet two apartments over his shop to his neighbor. He fared badly in business, suddenly disappearing a short time after the grand ball given by Birotteau. Cayron admired Birotteau. Cesar Birotteau.

  CELESTIN, valet de chambre of Lucien de Rubempre, on the Malaquais quai, in the closing years of the reign of Charles X. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  CERIZET, orphan from the Foundling Hospital, Paris; born in 1802; an apprentice of the celebrated printers Didot, at whose office he was noticed by David Sechard, who took him to Angouleme and employed him in his own shop, where Cerizet performed triple duties of form-maker, compositor and proof-reader. Presently he betrayed his master, and by leaguing with the Cointet Brothers, rivals of David Sechard, he obtained possession of his property. Lost Illusions. Following this he was an actor in the provinces; managed a Liberal paper during the Restoration; was sub-prefect at the beginning of the reign of Louis Philippe; and finally was a “man of business.” In the latter capacity he was sentenced to two years’ imprisonment for swindling. After business partnership with Georges d’Estourny, and later with Claparon, he was stranded and reduced to transcribing for a justice of the peace in the quartier Saint-Jacques. At the same time he began lending money on short time, and by speculating with the poorer class he acquired a certain competence. Although thoroughly debauched, Cerizet married Olympe Cardinal about 1840. At this time he was implicated in the intrigues of Theodose de la Peyrade and in the interests of Jerome Thuillier. Becoming possessed of a note of Maxime de Trailles in 1833, he succeeded by Scapinal tactics in obtaining face value of the paper. A Man of Business. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. The Middle Classes.

  CERIZET (Olympe Cardinal, Madame), wife of foregoing; born about 1824; daughter of Mme. Cardinal the fish-dealer. Actress at the Bobino, Luxembourg, then at the Folies-Dramatiques, where she made her debut in “The Telegraph of Love.” At first she was intimate with the first comedian. Afterwards she had Julien Minard for lover. From the father of the latter she received thirty thousand francs to renounce her son. This money she used as a dowry and it aided in consummating her marriage with Cerizet. The Middle Classes.

  CESARINE, laundry girl at Alencon. Mistress of the Chevalier de Valois, and mother of a child that was attributed to the old aristocrat. It was also said in the town, in 1816, that he had married Cesarine clandestinely. These rumors greatly annoyed the chevalier, since he had hoped at this time to wed Mlle. Cormon. Cesarine, the sole legatee of her lover, received an income of only six hundred livres. Jealousies of a Country Town.

  CESARINE, dancer at the Opera de Paris in 1822; an acquaintance of Philippe Bridau, who at one time thought of breaking off with her on account of his uncle Rouget at Issoudun. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  CHABERT (Hyacinthe), Count, grand officer of the Legion of Honor, colonel of a cavalry regiment. Left for dead on the battlefield of Eylau (February 7-8, 1807). He was healed at Heilsberg, then locked up in an insane asylum at Stuttgart. Returning to France after the downfall of the Empire, he lived, in 1818, in straitened circumstances, with the herdsman Vergniaud, an old lieutenant of his regiment, on rue du Petit-Banquier, Paris. After having sought without arousing scandal to make good his rights with Rose Chapotel, his wife, now married to Count Ferraud, he sank again into poverty and was convicted of vagrancy. He ended his days at the Hospital de Bicetre; they had begun at the Foundling Hospital. Colonel Chabert.

  CHABERT (Madame), nee Rose Chapotel. (See Ferraud, Comtesse.)

  CHABOISSEAU, an old bookseller, book-lender, something of a usurer, a millionaire living in 1821-1822 on quai Saint-Michel, where he discussed a business deal with Lucien de Rubembre, who had been piloted there by Lousteau. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. He was a friend of Gobseck and of Gigonnet and with them he frequented, in 1824, the Cafe Themis. The Government Clerks. During the reign of Louis Philippe he had dealings with the Cerizet-Claparon Company. A Man of Business.

  CHAFFAROUX, building-contractor, one of Cesar Birotteau’s creditors Cesar Birotteau; uncle of Claudine Chaffaroux who became Mme. du Bruel. Rich and a bachelor, he showered much affection upon his niece; she had helped him to launch into business. He died in the second half of the reign of Louis Philippe, leaving an income of forty thousand francs to the former danseuse. A Prince of Bohemia. In 1840 he did some work on an unfinished house in the suburbs of the Madeleine, purchased by the Thuilliers. The Middle Classes.

  CHAMAROLLES (Mesdemoiselles), conducted a boarding-school for young ladies at Bourges, at the beginning of the century. This school enjoyed a great reputation in the department. Here was educated Anna Grosetete, who later married the third son of Comte de Fontaine; also Dinah Piedefer who became Mme. de la Baudray. The Muse of the Department.

  CHAMPAGNAC, charman of Limoges, a widower, native of Auvergne. In 1797 Jerome-Baptiste Sauviat married Champagnac’s daughter, who was at least thirty. The Country Parson.

  CHAMPIGNELLES (De), an illustrious Norman family. In 1822 a Marquis de Champignelles was the head of the leading house of the country at Bayeux. Through marriage this family was allied with the Navarreins, the Blamont-Chauvries, and the Beauseants. Marquis de Champignelles introduced Gaston de Nueil to Mme. de Beauseant’s home. The Deserted Woman. A M. de Champignelles presented Mme. de la Chanterie to Louis XVIII., at the beginning of the Restoration. The Baronne de la Chanterie was formerly a Champignelles. The Seamy Side of History.

  CHAMPION (Maurice), a young boy of Montegnac, Haute-Vienne, son of the postmaster of that commune; employed as stable-boy at Mme. Graslin’s, time of Louis Philippe. The Country Parson.

  CHAMPLAIN (Pierre), vine-dresser, a neighbor of the crazy Margaritis, at Vouvray in 1831. Gaudissart the Great.

  CHAMPY (Madame de), name given to Esther Gobseck.

  CHANDOUR (Stanislas de), born in 1781; one of the habitues of the Bargeton’s drawing-room at Angouleme, and the “beau” of that society. In 1821 he was decorated. He obtained some success with the ladies by his sarcastic pleasantries in the fashion of the eighteenth century. Having spread about town a slander relating to Mme. de Bargeton and Lucien de Rubempre, he was challenged by her husband and was wounded in the neck by a bullet, which wound brought on him a kind of chronic twist of the neck. Lost Illusions.

  CHANDOUR (Amelie de), wife of the preceding; charming conversationalist, but troubled with an unacknowledged asthma. In Angouleme she posed as the antagonist of her friend, Mme. de Bargeton. Lost Illusions.

  CHANOR, partner of Florent, both being workers and dealers in bronze, rue des Tournelles, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. Wenceslas Steinbock was at first an apprentice and afterwards an employe of the firm. Cousin Betty. In 1845, Frederic Brunner obtained a watch-chain and a cane-knob from the firm of Florent & Chanor. Cousin Pons.

  CHANTONNIT, mayor of Riceys, near Besancon, between 1830 and 1840. He was a native of Neufchatel, Switzerland, and a Republican. He was involved in a lawsuit with the Wattevilles. Albert Savaru
s pleaded for them against Chantonnit. Albert Savarus.

  CHAPELOUD (Abbe), canon of the Church of Saint-Gatien at Tours. Intimate friend of the Abbe Birotteau, to whom he bequeathed on his death-bed, in 1824, a set of furniture and a library of considerable value which had been ardently coveted by the naive priest. The Vicar of Tours.

  CHAPERON (Abbe), Cure of Nemours, Seine-et-Marne, after the re-establishment of religious worship following the Revolution. Born in 1755, died in 1841, in that city. He was a friend of Dr. Minoret and helped educate Ursule Mirouet, a niece of the physician. He was nicknamed “the Fenelon of Gatinais.” His successor was the cure of Saint-Lange, the priest who tried to give religious consolation to Mme. d’Aiglemont, a prey to despair. Ursule Mirouet.

  CHAPOTEL (Rose), family name of Mme. Chabert, who afterwards became Comtesse Ferraud, which name see.

  CHAPOULOT (Monsieur and Madame), formerly lace-dealers of rue Saint-Denis in 1845. Tenants of the house, rue de Normandie, where lived Pons and Schmucke. One evening, when M. and Mme. Chapoulot accompanied by their daughter Victorine were returning from the Theatre de l’Ambigu-Comique, they met Heloise Brisetout on the landing, and a little conjugal scene resulted. Cousin Pons.

  CHAPUZOT (Monsieur and Madame), porters of Marguerite Turquet, known as Malaga, rue des Fosses-du-Temple at Paris in 1836; afterwards her servants and her confidants when she was maintained by Thaddee Paz. The Imaginary Mistress.

  CHAPUZOT, chief of division to the prefecture of police in the time of Louis Philippe. Visited and consulted in 1843 by Victorin Hulot on account of Mme. de Saint-Esteve. Cousin Betty.

  CHARDIN (Pere), old mattress-maker, and a sot. In 1843 he acted as a go-between for Baron Hulot under the name of Pere Thoul, and Cousin Betty, who concealed from the family the infamy of its head. Cousin Betty.

  CHARDIN, son of the preceding. At first a watchman for Johann Fischer, commissariat for the Minister of War in the province of Oran from 1838 to 1841. Afterwards claqueur in a theatre under Braulard, and designated at that time by the name of Idamore. A brother of Elodie Chardin whom he procured for Pere Thoul in order to release Olympe Bijou whose lover he himself was. After Olympe Bijou, Chardin paid court in 1843 to a young premiere of the Theatre des Funambules. Cousin Betty.

  CHARDIN (Elodie), sister of Chardin alias Idamore; lace-maker; mistress of Baron Hulot — Pere Thoul — in 1843. She lived then with him at number 7 rue des Bernardins. She had succeeded Olympe Bijou in the old fellow’s affections. Cousin Betty.

  CHARDON, retired surgeon of the army of the Republic; established as a druggist at Angouleme during the Empire. He was engrossed in trying to cure the gout, and he also dreamed of replacing rag-paper with paper made from vegetable fibre, after the manner of the Chinese. He died at the beginning of the Restoration at Paris, where he had come to solicit the sanction of the Academy of Science, in despair at the lack of result, leaving a wife and two children poverty-stricken. Lost Illusions.

  CHARDON (Madame), nee Rubempre, wife of the preceding. The final branch of an illustrious family. Saved from the scaffold in 1793 by the army surgeon Chardon who declared her enceinte by him and who married her despite their mutual poverty. Reduced to suffering by the sudden death of her husband, she concealed her misfortunes under the name of Mme. Charlotte. She adored her two children, Eve and Lucien. Mme. Chardon died in 1827. Lost Illusions. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  CHARDON (Lucien). (See Rubempre, Chardon de).

  CHARDON (Eve). (See Sechard, Madame David.)

  CHARELS (The), worthy farmers in the outskirts of Alencon; the father and mother of Olympe Charel who became the wife of Michaud, the head-keeper of General de Montcornet’s estate. The Peasantry.

  CHARGEBOEUF (Marquis de), a Champagne gentleman, born in 1739, head of the house of Chargeboeuf in the time of the Consulate and the Empire. His lands reached from the department of Seine-et-Marne into that of the Aube. A relative of the Hauteserres and the Simeuses whom he sought to erase from the emigrant list in 1804, and whom he assisted in the lawsuit in which they were implicated after the abduction of Senator Malin. He was also related to Laurence de Cinq-Cygne. The Chargeboeufs and the Cinq-Cygnes had the same origin, the Frankish name of Duineff being their joint property. Cinq-Cygne became the name of the junior branch of the Chargeboeufs. The Marquis de Chargeboeuf was acquainted with Talleyrand, at whose instance he was enabled to transmit a petition to First-Consul Bonaparte. M. de Chargeboeuf was apparently reconciled to the new order of things springing out of the year ‘89; at any rate he displayed much politic prudence. His family reckoned their ancient titles from the Crusades; his name arose from an equerry’s exploit with Saint Louis in Egypt. The Gondreville Mystery.

  CHARGEBOEUF (Madame de), mother of Bathilde de Chargeboeuf who married Denis Rogron. She lived at Troyes with her daughter during the Restoration. She was poor but haughty. Pierrette.

  CHARGEBOEUF (Bathilde de), daughter of the preceding; married Denis Rogron. (See Rogron, Madame.)

  CHARGEBOEUF (Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de), of the poor branch of the Chargeboeufs. Made sub-prefect of Arcis-sur-Aube in 1815, through the influence of his kinswoman, Mme. de Cinq-Cygne. It was there that he met Mme. Severine Beauvisage. A mutual attachment resulted, and a daughter called Cecile-Renee was born of their intimacy. The Member for Arcis. In 1820 the Vicomte de Chargeboeuf removed to Sancerre where he knew Mme. de la Baudraye. She would probably have favored him, had he not been made prefect and left the city. The Muse of the Department.

  CHARGEBOEUF (De), secretary of attorney-general Granville at Paris in 1830; then a young man. Entrusted by the magistrate with the details of Lucien de Rubempre’s funeral, which was carried through in such a way as to make one believe that he had died a free man and in his own home, on quai Malaquais. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  CHARGEGRAIN (Louis), inn-keeper of Littray, Normandy. He had dealings with the brigands and was arrested in the suit of the Chauffeurs of Mortagne, in 1809, but acquitted. The Seamy Side of History.

  CHARLES, first name of a rather indifferent young painter, who in 1819 boarded at the Vauquer pension. A tutor at college and a Museum attache; very jocular; given to personal witticisms, which were often aimed at Goriot. Father Goriot.

  CHARLES, a young prig who was killed in a duel of small arms with Raphael de Valentin at Aix, Savoy, in 1831. Charles had boasted of having received the title of “Bachelor of shooting” from Lepage at Paris, and that of doctor from Lozes the “King of foils.” The Magic Skin.

  CHARLES, valet de chambre of M. d’Aiglemont at Paris in 1823. The marquis complained of his servant’s carelessness. A Woman of Thirty.

  CHARLES, footman to Comte de Montcornet at Aigues, Burgundy, in 1823. Through no good motive he paid court to Catherine Tonsard, being encouraged in his gallantries by Fourchon the girl’s maternal grandfather, who desired to have a spy in the chateau. In the peasants’ struggle against the people of Aigues, Charles usually sided with the peasants: “Sprung from the people, their livery remained upon him.” The Peasantry.

  CHARLOTTE, a great lady, a duchess, and a widow without children. She was loved by Marsay then only sixteen and some six years younger than she. She deceived him and he resented by procuring her a rival. She died young of consumption. Her husband was a statesman. Another Study of Woman.

  CHARLOTTE (Madame), name assumed by Mme. Chardon, in 1821 at Angouleme, when obliged to make a living as a nurse. Lost Illusions.

  CHATELET (Sixte, Baron du), born in 1776 as plain Sixte Chatelet. About 1806 he qualified for and later was made baron under the Empire. His career began with a secretaryship to an Imperial princess. Later he entered the diplomatic corps, and finally, under the Restoration, M. de Barante selected him for director of the indirect taxes at Angouleme. Here he met and married Mme. de Bargeton when she became a widow in 1821. He was the prefect of the Charente. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In 1824 he was count and deputy. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Chatelet acco
mpanied General Marquis Armand de Montriveau in a perilous and famous excursion into Egypt. The Thirteen.

  CHATELET (Marie-Louise-Anais de Negrepelisse, Baronne du), born in 1785; cousin by marriage of the Marquise d’Espard; married in 1803 to M. de Bargeton of Angouleme; widow in 1821 and married to Baron Sixte du Chatelet, prefect of the Charente. Temporarily enamored of Lucien de Rubempre, she attached him to her party in a journey to Paris made necessary by provincial slanders and ambition. There she abandoned her youthful lover at the instigation of Chatelet and of Mme. d’Espard. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In 1824, Mme. du Chatelet attended Mme. Rabourdin’s evening reception. The Government Clerks. Under the direction of Abbe Niolant (or Niollant), Madame du Chatelet, orphaned of her mother, had been reared a little too boyishly at l’Escarbas, a small paternal estate situated near Barbezieux. Lost Illusions.

  CHATILLONEST (De), an old soldier; father of Marquise d’Aiglemont. He was hardly reconciled to her marriage with her cousin, the brilliant colonel. A Woman of Thirty. The device of the house of Chatillonest (or Chastillonest) was: Fulgens, sequar (“Shining, I follow thee”). Jean Butscha had put this device beneath a star on his seal. Modest Mignon.

  CHAUDET (Antoine-Denis), sculptor and painter, born in Paris in 1763, interested in the birth of Joseph Bridau’s genius. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  CHAULIEU (Henri, Duc de), born in 1773; peer of France; one of the gentlemen of the Court of Louis XVIII. and of that of Charles X., principally in favor under the latter. After having been ambassador from France to Madrid, he became Minister of Foreign Affairs at the beginning of 1830. He had three children: the eldest was the Duc de Rhetore; the second became Duc de Lenoncourt-Givry through his marriage with Madeleine de Mortsauf; the third, a daughter, Armande-Louise-Marie, married Baron de Macumer and, left a widow, afterwards married the poet Marie Gaston. Letters of Two Brides. Modeste Mignon. A Bachelor’s Establishment. The Duc de Chaulieu was on good terms with the Grandlieus and promised them to obtain the title of marquis for Lucien de Rubempre, who was aspiring to the hand of their daughter Clotilde. The Duc de Chaulieu resided in Paris in very close relations with these same Grandlieus of the elder branch. More than once he took particular interest in the family’s affairs. He employed Corentin to clear up the dark side of the life of Clotilde’s fiance. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Some time before this M. de Chaulieu made one of the portentous conclave assembled to extricate Mme. de Langeais, a relative of the Grandlieus, from a serious predicament. The Thirteen.

 

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