Repertory of The Comedie Humaine Part 17

FERRAUD (Comte), son of a returned councillor of the Parisian Parliament who had emigrated during the Terror, and who was ruined by these events. Born in 1781. During the Consulate he returned to France, at which time he declined certain offers made by Bonaparte. He remained ever true to the tenets of Louis XVIII. Of pleasing presence he won his way, and the Faubourg Saint-Germain regarded him as an ornament. About 1809 he married the widow of Colonel Chabert, who had an income of forty thousand francs. By her he had two children, a son and a daughter. He resided on rue de Varenne, having a pretty villa in the Montmorency Valley. During the Restoration he was made director-general in a ministry, and councillor of state. [Colonel Chabert.]

FERRAUD (Comtesse), born Rose Chapotel; wife of Comte Ferraud. During the Republic, or at the commencement of the Empire, she married her first husband, an officer named Hyacinthe and known as Chabert, who was left for dead on the battlefield of Eylau, in 1807. About 1818 he tried to rea.s.sert his marital rights. Colonel Chabert claimed to have taken Rose Chapotel out of a questionable place at Palais-Royal.

During the Restoration this woman was a countess and one of the queens of Parisian society. When brought face to face with her first husband she feigned at first not to recognize him, then she displayed such a dislike for him that he abandoned his idea of legal rest.i.tution.

[Colonel Chabert.] The Comtesse Ferraud was the last mistress of Louis XVIII., and remained in favor at the court of Charles X. She and Mesdames de Listomere, d'Espard, de Camps and de Nucingen were invited to the select receptions of the Minister of Finance, in 1824. [The Government Clerks.]

FERRAUD (Jules), son of Comte Ferraud and Rose Chapotel, the Comtesse Ferraud. While still a child, in 1817 or 1818, he was one day at his mother's house when Colonel Chabert called. She wept and he asked hotly if the officer was responsible for the grief of the countess.

The latter with her two children then played a maternal comedy which was successful with the ingenuous soldier. [Colonel Chabert.]

FESSARD, grocer at Saumur during the Restoration. Astonished one day by Nanon's, the servant's, purchase of a wax-candle, he asked if "the three magi were visiting them." [Eugenie Grandet.]

FICHET (Mademoiselle), the richest heiress of Issoudun during the Restoration. G.o.det, junior, one of the "Knights of Idlesse" paid court to her mother in the hope of obtaining, as a reward for his devotion, the hand of the young girl. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

FINOT (Andoche), managing-editor of journals and reviews, times of the Restoration and Louis Philippe. Son of a hatter of rue du Coq (now rue Marengo). Finot was abandoned by his father, a hard trader, and made a poor beginning. He wrote a bombastic announcement for Popinot's "Cephalic Oil." His first work was attending to announcements and personals in the papers. He was invited to the Birotteau ball. Finot was acquainted with Felix Gaudissart, who introduced him to little Anselme, as a great promoter. He was previously on the editorial staff of the "Courrier des Spectacles," and he had a piece performed at the Gaite. [Cesar Birotteau.] In 1820 he ran a little theatrical paper whose office was located on rue du Sentier. He was nephew of Giroudeau, a captain of dragoons; was witness of the marriage of J.-J.

Rouget. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] in 1821 Finot's paper was on rue Saint-Fiacre. Etienne Lousteau, Hector Merlin, Felicien Vernou, Nathan, F. du Bruel and Blondet all contributed to it. Then it was that Lucien de Rubempre made his reputation by a remarkable report of "L'Alcade dans l'embarras," a three act drama performed at the Panorama-Dramatique. Finot then lived on rue Feydeau. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1824 he was at the Opera ball in a group of dandies and litterateurs, which surrounded Lucien de Rubempre, who was flirting with Esther Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In this year Finot was guest at an entertainment at the home of Rabourdin, the chief of bureau, when he allowed himself to be won over to that official's cause by his friend Chardin des Lupeaulx, who had asked him to exert the voice of the press against Baudoyer, the rival of Rabourdin. [The Government Clerks.] In 1825 he was present at a breakfast given at the Rocher de Cancale, by Frederic Marest in celebration of his entrance to the law office of Desroches; he was also at the orgy which followed at the home of Florine. [A Start in Life.] In 1831 Gaudissart said that his friend Finot had an income of thirty thousand francs, that he would be councillor of state, and was booked for a peer of France. He aspired to end up as his "shareholder." [Gaudissart the Great.] In 1836 Finot was dining with Blondet, his fellow-editor, and with Couture, a man about town, in a private room of a well-known restaurant, when he heard the story of the financial trickeries of Nucingen, wittily related by Bixiou. [The Firm of Nucingen.] Finot concealed "a brutal nature under a mild exterior," and his "impertinent stupidity was flecked with wit as the bread of a laborer is flecked with garlic." [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

FIRMIANI, a respectable quadragenarian who in 1813 married the lady who afterwards became Mme. Octave de Camps. He was unable, so it was said, to offer her more than his name and his fortune. He was formerly receiver-general in the department of Montenotte. He died in Greece in 1823. [Madame Firmiani.]

FIRMIANI (Madame). (See Camps, Mme. de.)

FISCHER, the name of three brothers, laborers in a village situated on the extreme frontiers of Lorraine, at the foot of the Vosges. They set out to join the army of the Rhine by reason of Republican conscriptions. The first, Pierre, father of Lisbeth--or "Cousin Betty"

--was killed in 1815 in the Francstireurs. The second, Andre, father of Adeline who became the wife of Baron Hulot, died at Treves in 1820.

The third, Johann, having committed some acts of peculation, at the instigation of his nephew Hulot, while a commissary contractor in Algiers, province of Oran, committed suicide in 1841. He was over seventy when he killed himself. [Cousin Betty.]

FISCHER (Adeline). (See Hulot, d'Ervy, Baronne Hector.)

FISCHER (Lisbeth), known as "Cousin Betty"; born in 1796; brought up a peasant. In her childhood she had to give way to her first cousin, the pretty Adeline, who was pampered by the whole family. In 1809 she was called to Paris by Adeline's husband and placed as an apprentice with the well-known Pons Brothers, embroiderers to the Imperial Court. She became a skilled workwoman and was about to set up for herself when the Empire was overthrown. Lisbeth was a Republican, of restive temperament, capricious, independent and unaccountably savage. She habitually declined to wed. She refused in succession a clerk of the minister of war, a major, an army-contractor, a retired captain and a wealthy lace-maker. Baron Hulot nick-named her the "Nanny-Goat." A resident of rue du Doyenne (which ended at the Louvre and was obliterated about 1855), where she worked for Rivet, a successor of Pons, she made the acquaintance of her neighbor, Wenceslas Steinbock, a Livonian exile, whom she saved from poverty and suicide, but whom she watched with a jealous strictness. Hortense Hulot sought out and succeeded in seeing the Pole; a wedding followed between the young people which caused Cousin Betty a deep resentment, cunningly concealed, but terrific in its effects. Through her Wenceslas was introduced to the irresistible Mme. Marneffe, and the happiness of a young household was quickly demolished. The same thing happened to Baron Hulot whose misconduct Lisbeth secretly abetted. Lisbeth died in 1844 of a pulmonary phthisis, princ.i.p.ally caused by chagrin at seeing the Hulot family reunited. The relatives of the old maid never found out her evil actions. They surrounded her bedside, caring for her and lamenting the loss of "the angel of the family." Mlle. Fischer died on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, after having dwelt in turn on rues du Doyenne, Vaneau, Plumet (now Oudinot) and du Montparna.s.se, where she managed the household of Marshal Hulot, through whom she dreamed of wearing the countess' coronet, and for whom she donned mourning.

[Cousin Betty.]

FITZ-WILLIAM (Miss Margaret), daughter of a rich and n.o.ble Irishman who was the maternal uncle of Calyste du Guenic; hence the first cousin of that young man. Mme. de Guenic, the mother, was desirous of mating her son with Miss Margaret. [Beatrix.]

FLAMET. (See la Billardiere, Flamet de.)

FLEURANT (Mother), ran a cafe at Croisic which Jacques Cambremer visited. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

FLEURIOT, grenadier of the Imperial Guard, of colossal size, to whom Philippe de Sucy entrusted Stephanie de Vandieres, during the pa.s.sage of the Beresina in 1812. Unfortunately separated from Stephanie, the grenadier did not find her again until 1816. She had taken refuge in an inn of Strasbourg after escaping from an insane asylum. Both were then sheltered by Dr. Fanjat and taken to Auvergne, where Fleuriot soon died. [Farewell.]

FLEURY, retired infantry captain, comptroller of the Cirque-Olympique, and employed during the Restoration in Rabourdin's bureau, of the minister of finance. He was attached to his chief, who had saved him from dest.i.tution. A subscriber, but a poor payer, to "Victories and Conquests." A zealous Bonapartist and Liberal. His three great men were Napoleon, Bolivar and Beranger, all of whose ballads he knew by heart, and sang in a sweet, sonorous voice. He was swamped with debt.

His skill at fencing and small-arms kept him from Bixiou's jests. He was likewise much feared by Dutocq who flattered him basely. Fleury was discharged after the nomination of Baudoyer as chief of division in December, 1824. He did not take it to heart, saying that he had at his disposal a managing editors.h.i.+p in a journal. [The Government Clerks.] In 1840, still working for the above theatre, Fleury became manager of "L'Echo de la Bievre," the paper owned by Thuillier.

[The Middle Cla.s.ses.]

FLICOTEAUX, rival of Rousseau the Aquatic. Historic, legendary and strictly honest restaurant-keeper in the Latin quarter between rue de la Harpe and rue des Gres--Cujas--enjoying the custom, in 1821-22, of Daniel d'Arthez, Etienne Lousteau and Lucien Chardon de Rubempre. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

FLORENT, partner of Chanor; they were manufacturers and dealers in bronze, rue des Tournelles, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. [Cousin Betty. Cousin Pons.]

FLORENTNE. (See Cabirolle, Agathe-Florentine.)

FLORIMOND (Madame), dealer in linens, rue Vielle-du-Temple, Paris, 1844-45. Maintained by an "old fellow" who made her his heir, thanks to Fraisier, the man of business, whom she perhaps would have married through grat.i.tude, had it not been for his physical condition. [Cousin Pons.]

FLORINE. (See Nathan, Mme. Raoul.)

FLORVILLE (La), actress at the Panorama-Dramatique in 1821. Among her contemporaries were Coralie, Florine, and Bouffe, or Vignol. On the first night performance of "The Alcade," she played in a curtain-raiser, "Bertram." For a few days she was the mistress of a Russian prince who took her to Saint-Mande, paying her manager a good sum for her absence from the theatre. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

FOEDORA (Comtesse), born about 1805. Of Russian lower cla.s.s origin and wonderfully beautiful. Espoused perhaps morganatically by a great lord of the land. Left a widow she reigned over Paris in 1827. Supposed to have an income of eighty thousand francs. She received in her drawing-rooms all the notables of the period, and there "appeared all the works of fiction that were not published anywhere else." Raphael de Valentin was presented to the countess by Rastignac and fell desperately in love with her. But he left her house one day never to return, being definitely persuaded that she was "a woman without a heart." Her memory was cruel, and her address enough to drive a diplomat to despair. Although the Russian amba.s.sador did not receive her, she had entry into the set of Mme. de Serizy; visited with Mme.

de Nucingen and Mme. de Restaud; received the d.u.c.h.esse de Carigliano, the haughtiest of the Bonapartist clique. She had listened to many young dandies, and to the son of a peer of France, who had offered her their names in exchange for her fortune. [The Magic Skin.]

FONTAINE (Madame), fortune teller, Paris, rue Vielle-du-Temple, time of Louis Philippe. At one time a cook. Born in 1767. Earned a considerable amount of money, but previously had lost heavily in a lottery. After the suppression of this game of chance she saved up for the benefit of a nephew. In her divinations Mme. Fontaine made use of a giant toad named Astaroth, and of a black hen with bristling feathers, called Cleopatra or Bilouche. These two animals caught Gazonal's eye in 1845, when in company with De Lora and Bixiou he visited the fortune-teller's. The Southerner, however, asked only a five-franc divination, while in the same year Mme. Cibot, who came to consult her on an important matter, had to pay a hundred francs.

According to Bixiou, "a third of the lorettes, a fourth of the statesmen and a half of the artists" consulted Mme. Fontaine. She was the Egeria of a minister, and also looked for "a tidy fortune," which Bilouche had promised her. [The Unconscious Humorists. Cousin Pons.]

FONTAINE (Comte de), one of the leaders of the Vendee, in 1799, and then known as Grand-Jacques. [The Chouans.] One of the confidential advisers of Louis XVIII. Field marshal, councillor of state, comptroller of the extraordinary domains of the realm, deputy and peer of France under Charles X.; decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor and the Order of Saint Louis. Head of one of the oldest houses of Poitou. Had married a Mlle. de Kergarouet, who had no fortune, but who came of a very old Brittany family related to the Rohans. Was the father of three sons and three daughters. The oldest son became president of a court, married the daughter of a multi-millionaire salt merchant. The second son, a lieutenant-general, married Mlle. MoneG.o.d, a rich banker's daughter whom the aunt of Duc d'Herouville had refused to consider for her nephew. [Modeste Mignon.] The third son, director of a Paris munic.i.p.ality, then director-general in the Department of Finance, married the only daughter of M. Grossetete, receiver-general at Bourges. Of the three daughters, the first married M. Planat at Baudry, receiver-general; the second married Baron de Villaine, a magistrate of bourgeois origin enn.o.bled by the king; the third, Emilie, married her old uncle, the Comte de Kergarouet, and after his death, Marquis Charles de Vandenesse. [The Ball at Sceaux.] The Comte de Fontaine and his family were present at the Birotteau ball, and after the perfumer's bankruptcy procured a situation for him. [Cesar Birotteau.] He died in 1824. [The Government Clerks.]

FONTAINE (Baronne de), born Anna Grossetete, only daughter of the receiver-general of Bourges. Attended the school of Mlles. Chamarolles with Dinah Piedefer, who became Mme. de la Baudraye. Thanks to her fortune she married the third son of the Comte de Fontaine. She removed to Paris after her marriage and kept up correspondence with her old school-mate who now lived at Sancerre. She kept her informed as to the prevailing styles. Later at the first performance of one of Nathan's dramas, about the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe, Anna de Fontaine affected not to recognize this same Mme. de la Baudraye, then the known mistress of Etienne Lousteau. [The Muse of the Department.]

FONTANIEU (Madame), friend and neighbor of Mme. Vernier at Vouvray in 1831. The jolliest gossip and greatest joker in town. She was present at the interview between the insane Margaritis and Felix Gaudissart, when the drummer was so much at sea. [Gaudissart the Great.]

FONTANON (Abbe), born about 1770. Canon of Bayeux cathedral in the beginning of the nineteenth century when he "guided the consciences"

of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems. In November, 1808, he got himself enrolled with the Parisian clergy, hoping thus to obtain a curacy and eventually a bishopric. He became again the confessor of Mlle.

Bontems, now the wife of M. de Granville, and contributed to the trouble of that household by the narrowness of his provincial Catholicism and his inflexible bigotry. He finally disclosed to the magistrate's wife the relations of Granville with Caroline Crochard.

He also brought sorrow to the last moments of Mme. Crochard, the mother. [A Second Home.] In December, 1824, at Saint-Roch he p.r.o.nounced the funeral oration of Baron Flamet de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.] Previous to 1824 Abbe Fontanon was vicar at the church of Saint Paul, rue Saint-Antoine. [Honorine.] Confessor of Mme.

de Lanty in 1839, and always eager to pry into family secrets, he undertook an affair with Dorlange-Sallenauve in the interest of Mariannina de Lanty. [The Member for Arcis.]

FORTIN (Madame), mother of Mme. Marneffe. Mistress of General de Montcornet, who had lavished money on her during his visits to Paris which she had entirely squandered, under the Empire, in the wildest dissipations. For twenty years she queened it, but died in poverty though still believing herself rich. Her daughter inherited from her the tastes of a courtesan. [Cousin Betty.]

FORTIN (Valerie), daughter of preceding and of General de Montcornet.

(See Crevel, Madame.)

FOSSEUSE (La), orphan daughter of a grave-digger, whence the nick-name. Born in 1807. Frail, nervous, independent, retiring at first, she tried hiring out, but then fell into vagrant habits. Reared in a village on the outskirts of Gren.o.ble, where Dr. Bena.s.sis came to live during the Restoration, she became an object of special attention on the part of the physician who became keenly interested in the gentle, loyal, peculiar and impressionable creature. La Fosseuse though homely was not without charm. She may have loved her benefactor. [The Country Doctor.]

FOUCHE (Joseph), Duc d'Otrante, born near Nantes in 1753; died in exile at Trieste in 1820. Oratorian, member of the National Convention, councillor of state, minister of police under the Consulate and Empire, also chief of the department of the Interior and of the government of the Illyrian provinces, and president of the provisional government in 1815. In September, 1799, Colonel Hulot said: "Bernadotte, Carnot, even citizen Talleyrand--all have left us.

In a word we have with us but a single good patriot, friend Fouche, who holds everything by means of the police. There's a man for you!"

Fouche took especial care of Corentin who was perhaps his natural son.

He sent him to Brittany during an uprising in the year VIII, to accompany and direct Mlle. de Verneuil, who was commissioned to betray and capture the Marquis de Montauran, the Chouan leader. [The Chouans.] In 1806 he caused Senator Malin de Gondreville to be kidnapped by masked men in order that the Chateau de Gondreville might be searched for important papers which, however, proved as compromising for Fouche as for the senator. This kidnapping, which was charged against Michu, the Simeuses and the Hauteserres, led to the execution of the first and the ruin of the others. In 1833, Marsay, president of the ministerial chamber, while explaining the mysteries of the affair to the Princesse de Cadignan, paid this tribute to Fouche: "A genius dark, deep and extraordinary, little understood but certainly the peer of Philip II., Tiberius or Borgia." [The Gondreville Mystery.] In 1809 Fouche and Peyrade saved France in connection with the Walcheren episode; but on the return of the Emperor from the Wagram campaign Fouche was rewarded by dismissal.

[Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

FOUQUEREAU, concierge to M. Jules Desmarets, stock-broker, rue Menars in 1820. Specially employed to look after Mme. Desmarets. [The Thirteen.]

FOURCHON, retired farmer of the Ronquerolles estate, near the forest of Aigues, Burgundy. Had also been a schoolmaster and a mail-carrier.

An old man and a confirmed toper since his wife's death. At Blangy in 1823 he performed the three-fold duties of public clerk for three districts, a.s.sistant to a justice of the peace, and clarionet player.

At the same time he followed the trade of rope-maker with his apprentice Mouche, the natural son of one of his natural daughters.

But his chief income was derived from catching otters. Fourchon was the father-in-law of Tonsard, who ran the Grand-I-Vert tavern. [The Peasantry.]

FOY (Maximilien-Sebastien), celebrated general and orator born in 1775 at Ham; died at Paris in 1825. [Cesar Birotteau.] In 1821, General Foy, while in the shop of Dauriat talking with an editor of the "Const.i.tutionnel" and the manager of "La Minerve," noticed the beauty of Lucien de Rubempre, who had come in with Lousteau to dispose of some sonnets. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

FRAISIER, born about 1814, probably at Mantes. Son of a cobbler; an advocate and man of business at No. 9 rue de la Perle, Paris, in 1844-45. Began as copy-clerk at Couture's office. After serving Desroches as head-clerk for six years he bought the practice of Levroux, an advocate of Mantes, where he had occasion to meet Leboeuf, Vinet, Vatinelle and Bouyonnet. But he soon had to sell out and leave town on account of violating professional ethics. Whereupon he opened up a consultation office in Paris. A friend of Dr. Poulain who attended the last days of Sylvain Pons, he gave crafty counsel to Mme.

Cibot, who coveted the chattels of the old bachelor. He also a.s.sured the Camusot de Marvilles that they should be the legatees of the old musician despite the faithful Schmucke. In 1845 he succeeded Vitel as justice of the peace; the coveted place being secured for him by Camusot de Marville, as a fee for his services. In Normandy he again acted successfully for this family. Fraisier was a dried-up little man with a blotched face and an unpleasant odor. At Mantes a certain Mme.

Vatinelle nevertheless "made eyes at him"; and he lived at Marais with a servant-mistress, Dame Sauvage. But he missed more than one marriage, not being able to win either his client, Mme. Florimond, or the daughter of Tabareau. To tell the truth De Marville advised him to leave the latter alone. [Cousin Pons.]

FRANCHESSINI (Colonel), born about 1789, served in the Imperial Guard, and was one of the most das.h.i.+ng colonels of the Restoration, but was forced to resign on account of a slur on his character. In 1808, to provide for foolish expenditures into which a woman led him, he forged certain notes. Jacques Collin--Vautrin--took the crime to himself and was sent to the galleys for several years. In 1819 Franchessini killed young Taillefer in a duel, at the instigation of Vautrin. The following year he was with Lady Brandon--probably his mistress--at the grand ball given by the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, just before her flight. In 1839, Franchessini was a leading member of the Jockey club, and held the rank of colonel in the National Guard. Married a rich Irishwoman who was devout and charitable and lived in one of the finest mansions of the Breda quarter. Elected deputy, and being an intimate friend of Rastignac, he evinced open hostility for Sallenauve and voted against his being seated in order to gratify Maxime de Trailles. [Father Goriot. The Member for Arcis.]