MITOUFLET, old grenadier of the Imperial Guard, husband of a wealthy vineyard proprietress, kept the tavern Soleil d’Or at Vouvray in Touraine. After 1830 Felix Gaudissart lived there and Mitouflet served as his second in a harmless duel brought on by a practical joke played on the illustrious traveling salesman, dupe of the insane Margaritis. Gaudissart the Great.
MITOUFLET, usher to the minister of war under Louis Philippe, in the time of Cottin de Wissembourg, Hulot d’Ervy and Marneffe. Cousin Betty.
MITRAL, a bachelor, whose eyes and face were snuff-colored, a bailiff in Paris during the Restoration, also at the same time a money-lender. He numbered among his patrons Molineux and Birotteau. He was invited to the celebrated ball given in December, 1818, by the perfumer. Being a maternal uncle of Isidore Baudoyer, connected in a friendly way with Bidault — Gigonnet — and Esther-Jean van Gobseck, Mitral, by their good-will, obtained his nephew’s appointment to the Treasury, December, 1824. He spent his time then in Isle-Adam, the Marais and the Saint-Marceau section, places of residence of his numerous family. In possession of a fortune, which undoubtedly would go later to the Isidore Baudoyers, Mitral retired to the Seine-et-Oise division. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks.
MIZERAI, in 1836 a restaurant-keeper on rue Michel-le-Comte, Paris. Zephirin Marcas took his dinners with him at the rate of nine sous. Z. Marcas.
MODINIER, steward to Monsieur de Watteville; “governor” of Rouxey, the patrimonial estate of the Wattevilles. Albert Savarus.
MOINOT, in 1815 mail-carrier for the Chaussee-d’Antin; married and the father of four children; lived in the fifth story at 11, rue des Trois-Freres, now known as rue Taitbout. He innocently exposed the address of Paquita Valdes to Laurent, a servant of Marsay, who artfully tried to obtain it for him. “My name,” said the mail-carrier to the servant, “is written just like Moineau (sparrow) — M-o-i-n-o-t.” “Certainly,” replied Laurent. The Thirteen.
MOISE, Jew, who was formerly a leader of the rouleurs in the South. His wife, La Gonore, was a widow in 1830. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.
MOISE, a Troyes musician, whom Madame Beauvisage thought of employing in 1839 as the instructor of her daughter, Cecile, at Arcis-sur-Aube. The Member for Arcis.
MOLINEUX (Jean-Baptiste), Parisian landlord, miserly and selfish. Mesdames Crochard lived in one of his houses between rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean and rue la Tixeranderie, in 1815. Mesdames Leseigneur de Rouville and Hippolyte Schinner were also his tenants, at about the same time, on rue de Surene. Jean-Baptiste Molineux lived on Cour-Batave during the first part of Louis XVIII.’s reign. He then owned the house next to Cesar Birotteau’s shop on rue Saint-Honore. Molineux was one of the many guests present at the famous ball of December 17, 1818, and a few months later was the annoying assignee connected with the perfumer’s failure. A Second Home. The Purse. Cesar Birotteau.
MOLLOT, through the influence of his wife, Sophie, appointed clerk to the justice of the peace at Arcis-sur-Aube; often visited Madame Marion, and saw at her home Goulard, Beauvisage, Giguet, and Herbelot. The Member for Arcis.
MOLLOT (Madame Sophie), wife of the preceding, a prying, prating woman, who disturbed herself greatly over Maxime de Trailles during the electoral campaign in the division of Arcis-sur-Aube, April, 1839. The Member for Arcis.
MOLLOT (Earnestine), daughter of the preceding couple, was, in 1839, a young girl of marriageable age. The Member for Arcis.
MONGENOD, born in 1764; son of a grand council attorney, who left him an income of five or six thousand. Becoming bankrupt during the Revolution, he became first a clerk with Frederic Alain, under Bordin, the solicitor. He was unsuccessful in several ventures: as a journalist with the “Sentinelle,” started or built up by him; as a musical composer with the “Peruviens,” an opera-comique given in 1798 at the Feydau theatre.* His marriage and the family expenses attendant rendered his financial condition more and more embarrassing. Mongenod had lent money to Frederic Alain, so that he might be present at the opening performance of the “Marriage de Figaro.” He borrowed, in turn, from Alain a sum of money which he was unable to return at the time agreed. He set out thereupon for America, made a fortune, returned January, 1816, and reimbursed Alain. From this time dates the opening of the celebrated Parisian banking-house of Mongenod & Co. The firm-name changed to Mongenod & Son, and then to Mongenod Brothers. In 1819 the bankruptcy of the perfumer, Cesar Birotteau, having taken place, Mongenod became personally interested at the Bourse,+ in the affair, negotiating with merchants and discounters. Mongenod died in 1827. The Seamy Side of History. Cesar Birotteau.
* The Feydau theatre, with its dependencies on the thoroughfare of the same name, existed in Paris until 1826 on the site now taken by the rue de la Bourse.
+ The Bourse temporarily occupied a building on rue Feydau, while the present palace was building.
MONGENOD (Madame Charlotte), wife of the preceding, in the year 1798 bore up bravely under her poverty, even selling her hair for twelve francs that her family might have bread. Wealthy, and a widow after 1827, Madame Mongenod remained the chief adviser and support of the bank, operated in Paris on rue de la Victoire, by her two sons, Frederic and Louis. The Seamy Side of History.
MONGENOD (Frederic), eldest of the preceding couple’s three children, received from his thankful parents the given name of M. Alain and became, after 1827, the head of his father’s banking-house on rue de la Victoire. His honesty is shown by the character of his patrons, among whom were the Marquis d’Espard, Charles Mignon de la Bastie, the Baronne de la Chanterie and Godefroid. The Commission in Lunacy. The Seamy Side of History.
MONGENOD (Louis), younger brother of the preceding, with whom he had business association on rue de la Victoire, where he was receiving the prudent advice of his mother, Madame Charlotte Mongenod, when Godefroid visited him in 1836. The Seamy Side of History.
MONGENOD (Mademoiselle), daughter of Frederic and Charlotte Mongenod, born in 1799; she was offered in marriage, January, 1816, to Frederic Alain, who would not accept this token of gratitude from the wealthy Mongenods. Mademoiselle Mongenod married the Vicomte de Fontaine. The Seamy Side of History.
MONISTROL, native of Auvergne, a Parisian broker, towards the last years of Louis Phillippe’s reign, successively on rue de Lappe and the new Beaumarchais boulevard. He was one of the pioneers in the curio business, along with the Popinots, Ponses, and the Remonencqs. This kind of business afterwards developed enormously. Cousin Pons.
MONTAURAN (Marquis Alophonse de), was, in the closing years of the eighteenth century, connected with nearly all of the well-known Royalist intrigues in France and elsewhere. He frequently visited, along with Flamet de la Billardiere and the Comte de Fontaine, the home of Ragon, the perfumer, who was proprietor of the “Reine des Roses,” from which went forth the Royalist correspondence between the West and Paris. Too young to have been at Versailles, Alphonse de Montauran had not “the courtly manners for which Lauzun, Adhemar, Coigny, and so many others were noted.” His education was incomplete. Towards the autumn of 1799 he especially distinguished himself. His attractive appearance, his youth, and a mingled gallantry and authoritativeness, brought him to the notice of Louis XVIII., who appointed him governor of Bretagne, Normandie, Maine and Anjou. Under the name of Gras, having become commander of the Chouans, in September, the marquis conducted them in an attack against the Blues on the plateau of La Pelerine, which extends between Fougeres, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Ernee, Mayenne. Madame du Gua did not leave him even then. Alphonse de Montauran sought the hand of Mademoiselle d’Uxelles, after leaving this, the last mistress of Charette. Nevertheless, he fell in love with Marie de Verneuil, the spy, who had entered Bretagne with the express intention of delivering him to the Blues. He married her in Fougeres, but the Republicans murdered him and his wife a few hours after their marriage. Cesar Birotteau. The Chouans.
MONTAURAN (Marquise Alphonse de), wife of the preceding; born Marie-Nathalie de Verneuil at La Chanterie near Alencon, natur
al daughter of Mademoiselle Blanche de Casteran, who was abbess of Notre-Dame de Seez at the time of her death, and of Victor-Amedee, Duc de Verneuil, who owned her and left her an inheritance, at the expense of her legitimate brother. A lawsuit between brother and sister resulted. Marie-Nathalie lived then with her guardian, the Marechal Duc de Lenoncourt, and was supposed to be his mistress. After vainly trying to bring him to the point of marriage she was cast off by him. She passed through divers political and social paths during the Revolutionary period. After having shone in court circles she had Danton for a lover. During the autumn of 1799 Fouche hired Marie de Verneuil to betray Alphonse de Montauran, but the lovely spy and the chief of the Chouans fell in love with each other. They were united in marriage a few hours before their death towards the end of that year, 1799, in which Jacobites and Chouans fought on Bretagne soil. Madame de Montauran was attired in her husband’s clothes when a Republican bullet killed her. The Chouans.
MONTAURAN (Marquis de), younger brother of Alphonse de Montauran, was in London, in 1799, when he received a letter from Colonel Hulot containing Alphonse’s last wishes. Montauran complied with them; returned to France, but did not fight against his country. He kept his wealth through the intervention of Colonel Hulot and finally served the Bourbons in the gendarmerie, where he himself became a colonel. When Louis Philippe came to the throne, Montauran believed an absolute retirement necessary. Under the name of M. Nicolas, he became one of the Brothers of Consolation, who met in Madame de la Chanterie’s home on rue Chanoinesse. He saved M. Auguste de Mergi from being prosecuted. In 1841 Montauran was seen on rue du Montparnasse, where he assisted at the funeral of the elder Hulot. The Chouans. The Seamy Side of History. Cousin Betty.
MONTBAURON (Marquise de), Raphael de Valentin’s aunt, died on the scaffold during the Revolution. The Magic Skin.
MONTCORNET (Marechal, Comte de), Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor, Commander of Saint-Louis, born in 1774, son of a cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, “child of Paris,” mingled in almost all of the wars in the latter part of the eighteenth and beginning of the nineteenth centuries. He commanded in Spain and in Pomerania, and was colonel of cuirassiers in the Imperial Guard. He took the place of his friend, Martial de la Roche-Hugon in the affections of Madame de Vaudremont. The Comte de Montcornet was in intimate relations with Madame or Mademoiselle Fortin, mother of Valerie Crevel. Towards 1815, Montcornet bought, for about a hundred thousand francs, the Aigues, Sophie Laguerre’s old estate, situated between Conches and Blangy, near Soulanges and Ville-aux-Fayes. The Restoration allured him. He wished to have his origin overlooked, to gain position under the new regime, to efface all memory of the expressive nick-name received from the Bourgogne peasantry, who called him the “Upholsterer.” In the early part of 1819 he married Virginie de Troisville. His property, increased by an income of sixty thousand francs, allowed him to live in state. In winter he occupied his beautiful Parisian mansion on rue Neuve-des-Mathurins, now called rue des Mathurins, and visited many places, especially the homes of Raoul Nathan and of Esther Gobseck. During the summer the count, then mayor of Blangy, lived at Aigues. His unpopularity and the hatred of the Gaubertins, Rigous, Sibilets, Soudrys, Tonsards, and Fourchons rendered his sojourn there unbearable, and he decided to dispose of the estate. Montcornet, although of violent disposition and weak character, could not avoid being a subordinate in his own family. The monarchy of 1830 overwhelmed Montcornet, then lieutenant-general unattached, with gifts, and gave a division of the army into his command. The count, now become marshal, was a frequent visitor at the Vaudeville.* Montcornet died in 1837. He never acknowledged his daughter, Valerie Crevel, and left her nothing. He is probably buried in Pere-Lachaise cemetery, where a monument was to be raised for him under W. Steinbock’s supervision. Marechal de Montcornet’s motto was: “Sound the Charge.” Domestic Peace. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. The Peasantry. A Man of Business. Cousin Betty.
* A Parisian theatre, situated until 1838 on rue de Chartres. Rue de Chartres, which also disappeared, although later, was located between the Palais-Royal square and the Place du Carrousel.
MONTCORNET (Comtesse de.) (See Blondet, Madame Emile.)
MONTEFIORE, Italian of the celebrated Milanese family of Montefiore, commissary in the Sixth of the line under the Empire; one of the finest fellows in the army; marquis, but unable under the laws of the kingdom of Italy to use his title. Thrown by his disposition into the “mould of the Rizzios,” he barely escaped being assassinated in 1808 in the city of Tarragone by La Marana, who surprised him in company with her daughter, Juana-Pepita-Maria de Mancini, afterwards Francois Diard’s wife. Later, Montefiore himself married a celebrated Englishwoman. In 1823 he was killed and plundered in a deserted alley in Bordeaux by Diard, who found him, after being away many years, in a gambling-house at a watering-place. The Maranas.
MONTES DE MONTEJANOS (Baron), a rich Brazilian of wild and primitive disposition; towards 1840, when very young, was one of the first lovers of Valerie Fortin, who became in turn Madame Marneffe and Madame Celestin Crevel. He saw her again at the Faubourg Saint-Germain and at the Place or Pate des Italiens, and had occasion for being envious of Hector Hulot, W. Steinbock and still others. He had revenge on his mistress by communicating to her a mysterious disease from which she died in the same manner as Celestin Crevel. Cousin Betty.
MONTPERSAN (Comte de), nephew of a canon of Saint-Denis, upon whom he called frequently; an aspiring rustic, grown sour on account of disappointment and deceit; married, and head of a family. At the beginning of the Restoration he owned the Chateau de Montpersan, eight leagues from Moulins in Allier, where he lived. In 1819 he received a call from a young stranger who came to inform him of the death of Madame de Montpersan’s lover. The Message.
MONTPERSAN (Comtesse Juliette de), wife of the preceding, born about 1781, lived at Montpersan with her family, and while there learned from her lover’s fellow-traveler of the former’s death as a result of an overturned carriage. The countess rewarded the messenger of misfortune in a delicate manner. The Message.
MONTPERSAN (Mademoiselle de), daughter of the preceding couple, was but a child when the sorrowful news arrived which caused her mother to leave the table. The child, thinking only of the comical side of affairs, remarked upon her father’s gluttony, suggesting that the countess’ abrupt departure had allowed him to break the rules of diet imposed by her presence. The Message.
MONTRIVEAU (General Marquis de), father of Armand de Montriveau. Although a knighted chevalier, he continued to hold fast to the exalted manners of Bourgogne, and scorned the opportunities which rank and wealth had offered in his birth. Being an encyclopaedist and “one of those already mentioned who served the Republic nobly,” Montriveau was killed at Novi near Joubert’s side. The Thirteen.
MONTRIVEAU (Comte de), paternal uncle of Armand de Montriveau. Corpulent, and fond of oysters. Unlike his brother he emigrated, and in his exile met with a cordial reception by the Dulmen branch of the Rivaudoults of Arschoot, a family with which he had some relationship. He died at St. Petersburg. The Thirteen.
MONTRIVEAU (General Marquis Armand de), nephew of the preceding and only son of General de Montriveau. As a penniless orphan he was entered by Bonaparte in the school of Chalons. He went into the artillery service, and took part in the last campaigns of the Empire, among others that in Russia. At the battle of Waterloo he received many serious wounds, being then a colonel in the Guard. Montriveau passed the first three years of the Restoration far away from Europe. He wished to explore the upper sections of Egypt and Central Africa. After being made a slave by savages he escaped from their hands by a bold ruse and returned to Paris, where he lived on rue de Seine near the Chamber of Peers. Despite his poverty and lack of ambition and influential friends, he was soon promoted to a general’s position. His association with The Thirteen, a powerful and secret band of men, who counted among their members Ronquerolles, Mar
say and Bourignard, probably brought him this unsolicited favor. This same freemasonry aided Montriveau in his desire to have revenge on Antoinette de Langeais for her delicate flirtation; also later, when still feeling for her the same passion, he seized her body from the Spanish Carmelites. About the same time the general met, at Madame de Beauseant’s, Rastignac, just come to Paris, and told him about Anastasie de Restaud. Towards the end of 1821, the general met Mesdames d’Espard and de Bargeton, who were spending the evening at the Opera. Montriveau was the living picture of Kleber, and in a kind of tragic way became a widower by Antoinette de Langeais. Having become celebrated for a long journey fraught with adventures, he was the social lion at the time he ran across a companion of his Egyptian travels, Sixte du Chatelet. Before a select audience of artists and noblemen, gathered during the first years of the reign of Louis Philippe at the home of Mademoiselle des Touches, he told how he had unwittingly been responsible for the vengeance taken by the husband of a certain Rosina, during the time of the Imperial wars. Montriveau, now admitted to the peerage, was in command of a department. At this time, having become unfaithful to the memory of Antoinette de Langeais, he became enamored of Madame Rogron, born Bathilde de Chargeboeuf, who hoped soon to bring about their marriage. In 1839, in company with M. de Ronquerolles, he beame second to the Duc de Rhetore, elder brother of Louise de Chaulieu, in his duel with Dorlange-Sallenauve, brought about because of Marie Gaston. The Thirteen. Father Goriot. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Another Study of Woman. Pierrette. The Member for Arcis.
MORAND, formerly a clerk in Barbet’s publishing-house, in 1838 became a partner; along with Metivier tried to take advantage of Baron de Bourlac, author of “The Spirit of Modern Law.” The Seamy Side of History.
Works of Honore De Balzac Page 1585