Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign with Hyacinthe Chabert and Luigi Porta, was quartermaster of hussars when he left the service. During the Restoration he was, in turn, cow-keeper on the rue du Petit-Banquier, keeper of a livery-stable, and cabman. As cow-keeper, Vergniaud, having a wife and three sons, being in debt to Grados, and giving too generously to Chabert, ended in insolvency; even then he aided Luigi Porta, again in trouble, and was his witness when that Corsican married Mademoiselle di Piombo. Louis Vergniaud, being a party to the conspiracies against Louis XVIII., was imprisoned for his share in these crimes. Colonel Chabert. The Vendetta.

  VERMANTON, a cynic philosopher, and a habitue of Madame Schontz’s salon, between 1835 and 1840, when she was keeping house with Arthur de Rochefide. Beatrix.

  VERMICHEL, common nick-name of Vert (Michel-Jean-Jerome.)

  VERMUT, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, during the Restoration; brother-in-law of Sarcus, the Soulanges justice of the peace, who had married his eldest sister. Though quite a distinguished chemist, Vermut was the object of the pleasantries and contemptuous remarks of the Soudry salon, especially at the hands of the Gourdons. Despite the slight esteem “of the first society of Soulanges,” Vermut gave evidence of ability, when he disturbed Madame Pigeron by finding traces of poison in the body of her dead husband. The Peasantry.

  VERMUT (Madame), wife of the preceding; life and soul of the salon of Madame Soudry, who, however, declared that she was “bad form,” and reproached her for flirting with Gourdon, author of “La Bilboqueide.” The Peasantry.

  VERNAL (Abbe), one of the four Vendean leaders, in 1799, when Montauran was opposing Hulot, the other three being Chatillon, Suzannet, and the Comte de Fontaine. The Chouans.

  VERNET (Joseph), born in 1714, died in 1789, a famous French artist; patronized the Cat and Racket, a drapery establishment on the rue Saint-Denis, of which M. Guillaume, father-in-law of Sommervieux, was proprietor. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.

  VERNEUIL (Marquis de), member of a historic family, and probably an ancestor of the Verneuils of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1591, he was on intimate terms, with the Norman Comte d’Herouville, ancestor of the keeper of Josepha Mirah, star of the Royal Academy of Music, about 1838. The relations between the two families continued unbroken through the centuries. The Hated Son.

  VERNEUIL (Victor-Amedee, Duc de), probably descended from the preceding, died before the Revolution; by Mademoiselle Blanche de Casteran, he had a daughter, Marie-Nathalie — afterwards Madame Alphonse de Montauran. He acknowledged his natural daughter at the close of his life, and almost disinherited his legitimate son in her favor. The Chouans.

  VERNEUIL (Mademoiselle de), probably a relative of the preceding; sister of the Prince de Loudon, the Vendean cavalry general; she went to Mans to save her brother, and died on the scaffold in 1793, after the Savenay affair. The Chouans.

  VERNEUIL (Duc de), son of the Duc Victor-Amedee de Verneuil, and brother of Madame Alphonse de Montauran, with whom he had a lawsuit over the inheritance left by their father; during the Restoration he lived in the town of Alencon and was on intimate terms with the D’Esgrignons of that place. He took Victurnien d’Esgrignon under his protection, and introduced him to Louis XVIII. The Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.

  VERNEUIL (Duc de), of the family of the preceding, was present at the entertainment given by Josepha Mirah, the mistress of the Duc d’Herouville, when she opened her sumptuous suite of apartments on the rue de la Ville-l’Eveque, Paris, in Louis Philippe’s reign. Cousin Betty.

  VERNEUIL (Duc de), a good-natured great nobleman, son-in-law of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800; he was the father of four children, among them being Mademoiselle Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; owned the historic chateau of Rosembray, in the vicinity of Havre, and close by the forest of Brotonne; there he received, one day in October, 1829, the Mignon de la Basties, accompanied by the Herouvilles, Canalis, and Ernest de la Briere, all of whom were at that time desirous to marry Modeste Mignon, soon to become Madame de la Briere de la Bastie. Modeste Mignon.

  VERNEUIL (Duchesse Hortense de), wife of the preceding, a haughty and pious personage, daughter of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800. Of her four children, only two lived — her daughter Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; she was on very intimate terms with the Herouvilles, and especially with the elderly Mademoiselle d’Herouville, and received a visit from them, one day in October, 1829, with the Mignon de la Basties, followed by Melchior de Canalis and Ernest de la Briere. Modeste Mignon.

  VERNEUIL (Laure de), daughter of the preceding couple. At the entertainment at Rosembray in October, 1829, Eleonore de Chaulieu gave her advice on the subject of tapestry and embroidery. Modeste Mignon.

  VERNEUIL (Duchesse de), sister of the Prince de Blamont-Chauvry; an intimate friend of the Duchesse de Bourbon, sorely tried by the disasters of the Revolution; aunt and, in a way, mother by adoption of Blanche-Henriette de Mortsauf (born Lenoncourt). She belonged to a society of which Saint-Martin was the soul. The Duchesse de Verneuil, who owned the Clochegourde estate in Touraine, gave it, in her lifetime, to Madame de Mortsauf, reserving for herself only one room of the mansion. Madame de Verneuil died in the early part of the nineteenth century. The Lily of the Valley.

  VERNEUIL (Marie-Nathalie de).* (See Montauran, Marquise Alphonse de.)

  * On June 23, 1837, under the title of Le Gars, the Ambigu-Comique presented a drama of Antony Beraud’s in five acts and six tableaux, which was a modified reproduction of the adventures of Marie-Nathalie de Montauran.

  VERNIER (Baron), intendant-general, under obligations to Hector Hulot d’Ervy, whom he met, in 1843, at the Ambigu theatre, as escort of a gloriously handsome woman. He afterwards received a visit from the Baronne Adeline Hulot, coming for information. Cousin Betty.

  VERNIER, formerly a dyer, who lived on his income at Vouvray (Touraine), about 1821; a cunning countryman, father of a marriageable daughter named Claire; was challenged by Felix Gaudissart in 1831, for having played a practical joke on that illustrious traveling merchant, and fought a bloodless pistol duel. Gaudissart the Great.

  VERNIER (Madame), wife of the preceding, a stout little woman, of robust health; a friend of Madame Margaritis; she gladly contributed her share to the mystification of Gaudissart as conceived by her husband. Gaudissart the Great.

  VERNISSET (Victore de), a poet of the “Angelic School,” at the head of which stood Canalis, the academician; a contemporary of Beranger, Delavigne, Lamartine, Lousteau, Nathan, Vigny, Hugo, Barbier, Marie Gaston and Gautier, he moved in various Parisian circles; he was seen at the Brothers of Consolation on the rue Chanoinesse, and he received pecuniary assistance from the Baronne de la Chanterie, president of the above-mentioned association; he was to be found, with Heloise Brisetout, on the rue Chauchat, at the time of her house-warming in the apartments in which she succeeded Josepha Mirah; there he met J.-J. Bixiou, Leon de Lora, Etienne Lousteau and Stidmann; he fell madly in love with Madame Schontz. He was invited to the marriage of Celestin Crevel and Valerie Marneffe. The Seamy Side of History. Beatrix. Cousin Betty.

  VERNON (Marechal) father of the Duc de Vissembourg and the Prince Chiavari. Beatrix.

  VERNOU (Felicien), a Parisian journalist. He used his influence in starting Marie Godeschal, usually called Mariette, at the Porte Saint-Martin. The husband of an ugly, vulgar, and crabbed woman, he had by her children that were by no means welcome. He lived in wretched lodgings on the rue Mandar, when Lucien de Rubempre was presented to him. Vernou was a caustic critic on the side of the oppositon. The uncongeniality of his domestic life embittered his character and his genius. He was a finished specimen of the envious man, and pursued Lucien de Rubempre with an alert and malicious jealousy. A Bachelor’s Establishment. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. In 1834, Blondet recommended him to Nathan as a “Handy Andy” for
a newspaper. A Daughter of Eve. Celestin Crevel invited him to his marriage with Valerie Marneffe. Cousin Betty.

  VERNOU (Madame Felicien), wife of the preceding, whose vulgarity was one of the causes of her husband’s bitterness, revealed herself in her true light to Lucien de Rubempre, when she mentioned a certain Madame Mahoudeau as one of her friends. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  VERT (Michel-Jean-Jerome), nick-named Vermichel, formerly violinist in the Bourgogne regiment, was occupied, during the Restoration, with the various callings of fiddler, door-keeper of the Hotel de Ville, drum-beater of Soulanges, jailer of the local prison, and finally bailiff’s deputy in the service of Brunet. He was intimate friend of Fourchon, with whom he was in the habit of getting on sprees, and whose hatred for the Montcornets, owners of Aigues, he shared. The Peasantry.

  VERT (Madame Michel), wife of the preceding, commonly called Vermichel, as was the case with her husband; a mustached virago, a metre in width, and of two hundred and forty pounds weight, but active in spite of this; she ruled her husband absolutely. The Peasantry.

  VERVELLE (Antenor), an eccentric bourgeois of Paris, made his fortune in the cork business. Retiring from the trade, Vervelle became, in his own way, an amateur artist; wished to form a gallery of paintings, and believed that he was collecting Flemish specimens, works of Tenier, Metzu, and Rembrandt; employed Elie Magus to form the collection, and, with that Jew as go-between, married his daughter Virginie to Pierre Grassou. Vervelle, at that time, was living in a house of his own on the rue Boucherat, a part of the rue Saint-Louis (now rue de Turenne), near the rue Charlot. He also owned a cottage at Ville-d’Avray, in which the famous Flemish collection was stored — pictures really painted by Pierre Grassou. Pierre Grassou.

  VERVELLE (Madame Antenor), wife of the preceding, gladly accepted Pierre Grassou for a son-in-law, as soon as she found out that Maitre Cardot was his notary. Madame Vervelle, however, was horrified at the idea of Joseph Bridau’s bursting in Pierre’s studio, and “touching up” the portrait of Mademoiselle Virginie, afterwards Madame Grassou. Pierre Grassou.

  VERVELLE (Virginie). (See Grassou, Madame Pierre.)

  VEZE (Abbe de), a priest of Mortagne, during the Empire, administered the last sacrament to Madame Bryond des Tours-Minieres just before her execution in 1810; he was afterwards one of the Brothers of Consolation, installed in the home of the Baronne de la Chanterie on the rue Chanoinesse, Paris. The Seamy Side of History.

  VIALLET, an excellent gendarme, appointed brigadier at Soulanges, Bourgogne; replaced Soudry, retired. The Peasantry.

  VICTOIRE, in 1819, a servant of Charles Claparon, a banker on the rue de Provence, Paris; “a real Leonarde bedizened like a fish-huckster.” Cesar Birotteau.

  VICTOR, otherwise known as the Parisian, a mysterious personage who lived in marital relations with the Marquis d’Aiglemont’s eldest daughter, and made her the mother of several children. Victor, while dodging the pursuit of the police, who were on his track for the murder of Mauny, had found refuge for two hours in Versailles, on Christmas night of one of the last years of the Restoration, in a house near the Barriere de Montreuil (57, Avenue de Paris), with the parents of Helene d’Aiglemont, the last named of whom fled with him. During Louis Philippe’s reign, Victor was captain of the “Othello,” a Colombian pirate, and lived very happily with his family — Mademoiselle d’Aiglemont and the children he had by her. He met with General d’Aiglemont, his mistress’s father, who was at that time a passenger on board the “Saint-Ferdinand,” and saved his life. Victor perished at sea in a shipwreck. A Woman of Thirty.

  VICTORINE, a celebrated seamstress of Paris, had among her customers the Duchesse Cataneo, Louise de Chaulieu, and, probably, Madame de Bargeton. Massimilla Doni. Lost Illusions. Letters of Two Brides. Her successors assumed and handed down her name; Victorine IV.’s “intelligent scissors” were praised in the latter part of Louis Philippe’s reign, when Fritot sold Mistress Noswell the Selim shawl. Gaudissart II.

  VIDAL & PORCHON, book-sellers on commission, Quai des Augustins, Paris, in 1821. Lucien de Rubempre had an opportunity to judge of their method of doing business, when his “Archer of Charles IX.” and a volume of poems were brutally refused by them. Vidal & Porchon had in stock at that time the works of Keratry, Arlincourt, and Victor Ducange. Vidal was a stout, blunt man, who traveled for the firm. Porchon, colder and more diplomatic, seemed to have special charge of negotiations. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  VIEN (Joseph-Marie), a celebrated painter, born at Montpellier in 1716, died at Rome in 1809. In 1758, with Allegrain and Loutherbourg, he aided his friend Sarrasine in abducting Zambinella, with a view to taking him to the apartments of the sculptor, who was madly in love with the eunuch, believing him to be a woman. At a later period, Vien made for Madame de Lantry a copy of the statue modeled by Sarrasine after Zambinella, and it was from this picture of Vien’s that Girodet, the signer of “Endymion,” received his inspiration. This statue of Sarrasine’s was, long afterwards, reproduced by the sculptor Dorlange-Sallenauve. Sarrasine. The Member for Arcis.

  VIEUX-CHAPEAU, a soldier in the Seventy-second demi-brigade; was killed in an engagement with the Chouans, in September, 1799. The Chouans.

  VIGNEAU, of the commune of Isere, of which Benassis was creator, so to speak; he courageously took charge of an abandoned tile-factory, made a successful business of it, and lived with his family around him, which consisted of his mother, his mother-in-law, and his wife, who had formerly been in the service of the Graviers of Grenoble. The Country Doctor.

  VIGNEAU (Madame), wife of the preceding, a perfect housekeeper; she received Genestas cordially, when brought to call by Benassis; Madame Vigneau was then on the point of becoming a mother. The Country Doctor.

  VIGNOL (See Bouffe.)

  VIGNON (Claude), a French critic, born in 1799, brought a remarkable power of analysis to the study of all questions of art, literature, philosophy, or political problems. A clear, deep, and unerring judge of men, a strong psychologist, he was famous in Paris as early as 1821, and was present, at the apartments of Florine, then acting at the Panorama-Dramatique, at the supper following the presentation of the “Alcade dans l’Embarras,” and had a brilliant conversation on the subject of the press with Emile Blondet, in the presence of a German diplomatist. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. In 1834, Claude Vignon was entrusted with the haute critique of the newspaper founded by Raoul Nathan. A Daughter of Eve. For quite a period Vignon had Felicite des Touches (Camille Maupin) as his mistress. In 1836, he brought her back from Italy, accompanied by Lora, when he heard the story of the domestic difficulties of the Bauvans from Maurice de l’Hostal, French consul at Genoa. Honorine. Again, in 1836, at Les Touches, Vignon, on the point of giving up Camille Maupin, delivered to his former mistress a veritable dissertation, of surprising insight, on the subject of the heart, with reference to Calyste du Guenic, Gennaro Conti, and Beatrix de Rochefide. Such intimate knowledge of the human heart had gradually saddened and wearied him; he sought relief for his ennui in debauchery; he paid attention to La Schontz, really a courtesan of superior stamp, and moulded her. Beatrix. Afterwards, he became ambitious, and was secretary to Cottin de Wissembourg, minister of war; this position brought him into contact with Valerie Marneffe, whom he secretly loved; he, Stidmann, Steinbock, and Massol, were witnesses of her marriage to Crevel, this being the second time she had been led to the altar. He was counted among the habitues of Valerie’s salon, when “Jean-Jacques Bixiou was going . . . to cozen Lisbeth Fischer.” Cousin Betty. He rallied to the support of Louis Philippe, and as editor of the Journal des Debats, and master of requests in the Council of State, he gave his attention to the lawsuit pending between S.-P. Gazonal and the prefect of the Pyrenees-Orientales; a position as librarian, a chair at the Sorbonne, and the decoration bore further testimony to the favor that he enjoyed. The Unconscious Humorists. Vignon’s reputation remained undiminished, and, even in our own time, Madame Noemi Rouvier, scu
lptor and novelist, signs the critic’s name to her works.

  VIGOR, manager of the post-station at Ville-aux-Fayes, during the Restoration; officer in the National Guard of that sub-prefecture of Bourgogne; brother-in-law of Leclercq, the banker, whose sister he had married. The Peasantry.

  VIGOR, son of the preceding, and, like the rest of his family, interested in protecting Francois Gaubertin from Montcornet; he was deputy judge of the court of Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823. The Peasantry.

  VILLEMOT, head-clerk of Tabareau, the bailiff, was entrusted, in April, 1845, with the work of superintending the details of the interment of Sylvain Pons, and also to look after the interests of Schmucke, who had been appointed residuary legatee by the deceased. Villemot was entirely under the influence of Fraisier, business agent of the Camusot de Marvilles. Cousin Pons.

  VILLENOIX (Salomon de), son of a wealthy Jew named Salomon, who in his old age had married a Catholic. Brought up in his mother’s religion; he raised the Villenoix estate to a barony. Louis Lambert.

  VILLENOIX (Pauline Salomon de), born about 1800; natural daughter of the preceding. During the Restoration, she was made to feel her origin. Her character and her superiority made her an object of envy in her provincial circle. Her meeting with Louis Lambert at Blois was the turning point in her life. Community of age, country, disappointments, and pride of spirit brought them in touch — a reciprocated passion was the result. Mademoiselle Salomon de Villenoix was going to marry Lambert, when the scholar’s terrible mental malady asserted itself. She was frequently able to avert the sick man’s paroxysms; she nursed him, advised him, and guided him, notably at Croisic, where at her suggestion Lambert related in letter-form the tragic misfortunes of the Cambremers, which he had just learned. On her return to Villenoix, Pauline took her fiance with her where she noted down and understood his last thoughts, sublime in their incoherence; he died in her arms, and from that time forth she considered herself the widow of Louis Lambert, whom she had buried in one of the islands of the lake park at Villenoix. Louis Lambert. A Seaside Tragedy. Two years later, being sensibly aged, and living in almost total retirement from the world at the town of Tours, but full of sympathy for weak mortals, Pauline de Villenoix protected the Abbe Francois Birotteau, the victim of Troubert’s hatred. The Vicar of Tours.