Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  LATOURNELLE (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Agnes Labrosse, daughter to the clerk of the court of first instance at Havre. Tall and ungainly of figure, a bourgeoise of rather ancient tastes, at the same time good-hearted, she had somewhat late in life, by her marriage, a son whose given name was Exupere. She entertained Jean Butscha. Madame Latournelle was a frequent visitor of the Mignons de la Bastie, and at all times testified her affection for them. Modeste Mignon.

  LATOURNELLE (Exupere), son of the preceding couple, went with them to visit the Mignons de la Bastie, towards the end of the Restoration. He was then a tall, insignificant young man. Modeste Mignon.

  LAUDIGEOIS, married, head of a family, typical petty bourgeois, employed during the Restoration by the mayor of the eleventh or twelfth ward in Paris, a position from which he was unjustly expelled by Colleville in 1840. In 1824 an intimate neighbor of the Phellions, and exactly like them in morals, he attended their informal card-party on Thursday evening. Laudigeois, introduced by the Phellions, finally became a close friend of the Thuilliers, during the reign of Louis Philippe. His civil statistical record should be corrected, as his name in several of the papers is spelled Leudigeois. The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.

  LAURE, given name of a sweet and charming young peasant girl, who took Servin’s course in painting at Paris in 1815. She protected Ginevra di Piombo, an affectionate friend, who was her elder. The Vendetta.

  LAURENT, a Savoyard, Antoine’s nephew; husband of an expert laundress of laces, mender of cashmeres, etc. In 1824 he lived with them and their relative, Gabriel, in Paris. In the evening he was door-keeper in a subsidized theatre; in the daytime he was usher in the Bureau of Finance. In this position Laurent was first to learn of the worldly and official success attained by Celestine Rabourdin, when she attempted to have Xavier appointed successor to Flamet de la Billardiere. The Government Clerks.

  LAURENT, Paris, 1815, M. Henri de Marsay’s servant, equal to the Frontins of the old regime; was able to obtain for his master, through the mail-carrier, Moinot, the address of Paquita Valdes and other information about her. The Thirteen.

  LAVIENNE, Jean-Jules Popinot’s servant in Paris, rue du Fouarre, 1828; “made on purpose for his master,” whom he aided in his active philanthropy by redeeming and renewing pledges given to the pawnbrokers. He took the place of his master in Palais de Justice during the latter’s absence. The Commission in Lunacy.

  LAVRILLE, famous naturalist, employed in the Jardin des Plantes, and dwelling on rue de Buffon, Paris, 1831. Consulted as to the shagreen, the enlargement of which was so passionately desired by Raphael de Valentin, Lavrille could do nothing more than talk on the subject and sent the young man to Planchette, the professor of mechanics. Lavrille, “the grand mogul of zoology,” reduced science to a catalogue of names. He was then preparing a monograph on the duck family. The Magic Skin.

  LEBAS (Joseph), born in 1779, a penniless orphan, he was assisted and employed in Paris, first by the Guillaumes, cloth-merchants on rue Saint-Denis, at the Cat and Racket. Under the First Empire he married Virginie,* the elder of his employer’s daughters, although he was in love with the younger, Mademoiselle Augustine. He succeeded the Guilliaumes in business. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket. During the first years of the Restoration he presided over the Tribunal of Commerce. Joseph Lebas, who was intimate with M. and Madame Birotteau, attended their ball with his wife. He also strove for Cesar’s rehabilitation. Cesar Birotteau. During the reign of Louis Philippe, having for an intimate friend Celestin Crevel, he retired from business and lived at Corbeil. Cousin Betty.

  * The names of Virginie and Augustine are confused in the original text.

  LEBAS (Madame Joseph), wife of the preceding, born Virginie Guillaume in 1784, elder of Guillaume’s daughters, lived at the Cat and Racket; the counterpart, physically and morally, of her mother. Under the First Empire, at the parish church of Saint-Leu, Paris, her marriage took place on the same day that her younger sister, Augustine de Sommervieux, was wedded. The love which she felt for her husband was not reciprocated. She viewed with indifference her sister’s misfortunes, became intimate in turn with the Birotteaus and the Crevels; and, having retired from business, spent her last days in the middle of Louis Philippe’s reign at Corbeil. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket. Cesar Birotteau. Cousin Betty.

  LEBAS, probably a son of the preceding. In 1836 first assistant of the king’s solicitor at Sancerre; two years later counselor to the court of Paris. In 1838 he would have married Hortense Hulot if Crevel had not prevented the match. The Muse of the Department. Cousin Betty.

  LEBOEUF, for a long time connected with the prosecuting attorney at Nantes, being president of the court there in the latter part of Louis Philippe’s reign. He was well acquainted with the Camusot de Marvilles, and knew Maitre Fraisier, who claimed his acquaintance in 1845. Cousin Pons.

  LEBRUN, sub-lieutenant, then captain in the Seventy-second demi-brigade, commanded by Hulot during the war against the Chouans in 1799. The Chouans.

  LEBRUN, division-chief in the War Department in 1838. Marneffe was one of his employes. Cousin Betty.

  LEBRUN, protege, friend and disciple of Doctor Bouvard. Being a physician at the prison in May, 1830, he was called upon to establish the death of Lucien de Rubempre. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. In 1845 Lebrun was chief physician of the Parisian boulevard theatre, managed by Felix Gaudissart. Cousin Pons.

  LECAMUS (Baron de Tresnes), counselor to the royal court of Paris, lived, in 1816, rue Chanoinesse, with Madame de la Chanterie. Known there by the name of Joseph, he was a Brother of Consolation in company with Montauran, Alain, Abbe de Veze and Godefroid. The Seamy Side of History.

  LECHESNEAU, through the influence of Cambaceres and Bonaparte, appointed attorney-general in Italy, but as a result of his many disreputable love-affairs, despite his real capacity for office-holding, he was forced to give up his position. Between the end of the Republic and the beginning of the Empire he became head of the grand jury at Troyes. Lechesneau, who had been repeatedly bribed by Senator Malin, had to occupy himself in 1806 with the Hauteserre-Simeuse-Michu affair. The Gondreville Mystery.

  LECLERQ, native of Bourgogne, commissioner for the vinters in the department to which Ville-aux-Fayes, a sub-prefecture of this same province, belonged. He was of service to Gaubertin, Madame Soudry, also Rigon, perhaps, and was in turn under obligations to them. Having arranged a partnership he founded the house of “Leclerq & Company,” on Quai de Bethune, Ile Saint-Louis, Paris, in competition with the well-known house of Grandet. In 1815 Leclerq married Jenny Gaubertin. As a banker he dealt in wine commissions, and became regent of the National Bank. During the Restoration he represented as deputy on the Left Centre the district of Ville-aux-Fayes, and not far from the sub-prefecture, in 1823, bought a large estate, which brought thirty thousand francs rental. The Peasantry.

  LECLERQ (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Jenny Gaubertin, eldest daughter of Gaubertin, steward of Aigues in Bourgogne, received two hundred thousand francs as dowry. The Peasantry.

  LECLERQ, brother-in-law of the preceding, during the Restoration was special collector at Ville-aux-Fayes, Bourgogne, and joined the other members of his family in worrying, more or less, the Comte de Montcornet. The Peasantry.

  LECOCQ, a trader, whose failure was very cleverly foretold by Guillaume at the Cat and Racket. This failure was Guillaume’s Battle of Marengo. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.

  LEFEBVRE, Louis Lambert’s uncle, was successively oratorian, sworn priest and cure of Mer, a small city near Blois. Had a delightful disposition and a heart of rare tenderness. He exercised a watchful care over the childhood and youth of his remarkable nephew. The Abbe Lefebvre later on lived at Blois, the Restoration having caused him to lose his position. In 1822, under form of a letter sent from Croisic, he was the first to receive information concerning the Cambremers. The next year, having become much older in appearance, while riding in a stage-coach he told of the
frightful state of suffering, sometimes mingled with remarkable displays of intellect, which preceded the death of Louis Lambert. Louis Lambert. A Seaside Tragedy.

  LEFEBVRE (Robert), well-known French painter of the First Empire. In 1806, at the expense of Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, he painted Michu’s portrait. The Gondreville Mystery. Among the many paintings executed by Robert Lefebvre is a portrait of Hulot d’Ervy dressed in the uniform of chief commissary of the Imperial Guard. This is dated 1810. Cousin Betty.

  LEGANES (Marquis de), Spanish grandee, married, father of two daughters, Clara and Mariquita, and of three sons, Juanito, Philippe and Manuel. He manifested a spirit of patriotism in the war carried on against the French during the Empire and died then under the most tragic circumstances, in which Mariquita was an unwilling abettor. The Marquis de Leganes died by the hand of his eldest son, who had been condemned to be his executioner. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Marquise de), wife of the preceding and condemned to die with the other members of the family by the hand of her eldest son. She spared him the necessity of doing this terrible deed of war by committing suicide. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Clara de), daughter of the preceding couple; also shared the condemnation of the Marquis de Leganes and died by the hand of Juanito. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Mariquita de), sister of the preceding, had rescued Major Victor Marchand of the French infantry from danger in 1808. In testimony of his gratitude he was able to obtain pardon for one member of the Leganes family, but with the horribly cruel provision that the one spared should become executioner of the rest of the family. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Juanito de), brother of the last-named, born in 1778. Small and of poor physique, of gentlemanly manners, yet proud and scornful, he was gifted with that delicacy of feeling which in olden times caused Spanish gallantry to be so well known. Upon the earnest request of his proud-spirited family he consented to execute his father, his two sisters and his two brothers. Juanito only was saved from death, that his family might not become extinct. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Philippe de), younger brother of the preceding, born in 1788, a noble Spaniard condemned to death; executed by his elder brother in 1808, during the war waged against the French. El Verdugo.

  LEGANES (Manuel de), born in 1800, youngest of the five Leganes children, suffered, in 1808, during the war waged by the French in Spain, the fate of his father, the marquis, and of his elder brother and sisters. The youngest scion of this noble family died by the hand of Juanito de Leganes. El Verdugo.

  LEGER, extensive farmer of Beaumont-sur-Oise, married daughter of Reybert, Moreau’s successor as exciseman of the Presles estate, belonging to the Comte de Serizy; had by his wife a daughter who became, in 1838, Madame Joseph Bridau. A Start in Life.

  LEGRELU, a bald-headed man, tall and good-looking; in 1840 became a vintner in Paris on rue des Canettes, corner of rue Guisarde. Toupillier, Madame Cardinal’s uncle, the “pauper of Saint-Sulpice,” was his customer. The Middle Classes.

  LELEWEL, a nineteenth century revolutionist, head of the Polish Republican party in Paris in 1835. One of his friends was Doctor Moise Halpersohn. The Imaginary Mistress. The Seamy Side of History.

  LEMARCHAND. (See Tours, Minieres des.)

  LEMIRE, professor of drawing in the Imperial Lyceum, Paris, in 1812; foresaw the talent of Joseph Bridau, one of his pupils, for painting, and threw the future artist’s mother into consternation by telling her of this fact. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  LEMPEREUR, in 1819, Chaussee-d’Antin, Paris, clerk to Charles Claparon, at that time “straw-man” of Tillet, Roguin & Company. Cesar Birotteau.

  LEMPRUN, born in 1745, son-in-law of Galard, market-gardener of Auteuil. Employed, in turn, in the houses of Thelusson and of Keller in Paris, he was probably the first messenger in the service of the Bank of France, having entered that establishment when it was founded. He met Mademoiselle Brigitte Thuillier during this period of his life, and in 1814 gave Celeste, his only daughter, in marriage to Brigitte’s brother, Louis-Jerome Thuillier. M. Lemprun died the year following. The Middle Classes.

  LEMPRUN (Madame), wife of the preceding, daughter of Galard, the market-gardener of Auteuil, mother of one child — Madame Celeste Thuillier. She lived in the village of Auteuil from 1815 until the time of her death in 1829. She reared Celeste Phellion, daughter of L.-J. Thuillier and of Madame de Colleville. Madame Lemprun left a small fortune inherited from her father, M. Galard, which was administered by Brigitte Thuillier. This Lemprun estate consisted of twenty thousand francs, saved by the strictest economy, and of a house which was sold for twenty-eight thousand francs. The Middle Classes.

  LEMULQUINIER, a native of Flanders, owed his name to the linen-yarn dealers of that province, who are called mulquiniers. He lived in Douai, was the valet of Balthazar Claes, and encouraged and aided his master in his foolish investigations, despite the extreme coldness of his own nature and the opposition of Josette, Martha, and the women of the Claes family. Lemulquinier even went so far as to give all his personal property to M. Claes. The Quest of the Absolute.

  LENONCOURT (De), born in 1708, marshal of France, marquis at first, then duke, was the friend of Victor-Amedee de Verneuil, and adopted Marie de Verneuil, the acknowledged natural daughter of his old comrade, when the latter died. Suspected unjustly of being this young girl’s lover, the septuagenarian refused to marry her, and leaving her behind he changed his place of residence to Coblentz. The Chouans.

  LENONCOURT (Duc de), father of Madame de Mortsauf. The early part of the Restoration was the brilliant period of his career. He obtained a peerage, owned a house in Paris on rue Saint-Dominique-Saint-Germain, looked after Birotteau and found him a situation just after his failure. Lenoncourt played for the favor of Louis XVIII., was first gentleman in the king’s chamber, and welcomed Victurnien d’Esgrignon, with whom he had some relationship. The Duc de Lenoncourt was, in 1835, visiting the Princesse de Cadignan, when Marsay explained the reasons the political order had for the mysterious kidnapping of Gondreville. Three years later he died a very old man. The Lily of the Valley. Cesar Birotteau. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Gondreville Mystery. Beatrix.

  LENONCOURT (Duchesse de), wife of the preceding, born in 1758, of a cold, severe, insincere, ambitious nature, was almost always unkind to her daughter, Madame de Mortsauf. The Lily of the Valley.

  LENONCOURT-GIVRY (Duc de), youngest son of M. and Madame de Chaulieu, at first followed a military career. Titles and names in abundance came to him. In 1827 he married Madeleine de Mortsauf, the only heir of her parents. Letters of Two Brides. The Duc de Lenoncourt-Givry was a man of some importance in the Paris of Louis Philippe and was invited to the festival at the opening of Josepha Mirah’s new house, rue de la Ville-l’Eveque. Cousin Betty. The year following attention was still turned towards him indirectly, when Sallenauve was contending in defence of the duke’s brother-in-law. The Member for Arcis.

  LENONCOURT-GIVRY (Duchesse de), wife of the preceding, bore the first name of Madeleine. Madame de Lenoncourt-Givry was one of two children of the Comte and Comtesse de Mortsauf. She lived almost alone in her family, having lost at an early age her mother, then her brother Jacques. While passing her girlhood in Touraine, she met Felix de Vandenesse, from whom she knew how to keep aloof on becoming an orphan. Her inheritance of names, titles and wealth brought about her marriage with the youngest son of M. and Madame de Chaulieu in 1827, and established for her a friendship with the Grandlieus, whose daughter, Clotilde, accompanied her to Italy about 1830. During the first day of their journey the arrest of Lucien Chardon de Rubempre took place under their eyes near Bouron, Seine-et-Marne. The Lily of the Valley. Letters of Two Brides. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  LENORMAND was court registrar at Paris during the Restoration, and did Comte Octave de Bauvan a service by passing himself off as owner of a house on rue Saint-Maur, which belonged in reality to the count and where the wife of that high magistrate lived, at that time being separated
from her husband. Honorine.

  LEOPOLD, a character in “L’Ambitieux par Amour,” a novel by Albert Savarus, was Maitre Leopold Hannequin. The author pictured him as having a strong passion — imaginary or true — for the mother of Rodolphe, the hero of this autobiographical novel, published by the “Revue de l’Est” under the reign of Louis Philippe. Albert Savarus.

  LEPAS (Madame de), for a long time keeper of a tavern at Vendome, of Flemish physique; acquainted with M. and Madame de Merret, and furnished information about them to Doctor Horace Bianchon; Comte Bagos de Feredia, who died so tragically, having been a lodger in her house. She was also interviewed by the author, who, under the name of Valentine, gave on the stage of the Gymnase-Dramatique the story of the incontinence and punishment of Josephine de Merret. This Vendome tavern-keeper pretended also to have lodged some princesses, M. Decazes, General Bertrand, the King of Spain, and the Duc and Duchesse of d’Abrantes. La Grande Bretche.

  LEPITRE, strong Royalist, had some relations with M. de Vandenesse, when they wished to rescue Marie-Antoinette from the Temple. Later, under the Empire, having become head of an academy, in the old Joyeuse house, Quartier Saint-Antoine, Paris, Lepitre counted among his pupils a son of M. de Vandenesse, Felix. Lepitre was fat, like Louis XVIII., and club-footed. The Lily of the Valley.

  LEPITRE (Madame), wife of the preceding, reared Felix de Vandenesse. The Lily of the Valley.

  LEPRINCE (Monsieur and Madame). M. Leprince was a Parisian auctioneer towards the end of the Empire and at the beginning of the Restoration. He finally sold his business at a great profit; but being injured by one of Nucingen’s failures, he lost in some speculations on the Bourse some of the profits that he had realized. He was the father-in-law of Xavier Rabourdin, whose fortune he risked in these dangerous speculations, that his son-in-law’s domestic comfort might be increased. Crushed by misfortune he died under Louis XVIII., leaving some rare paintings which beautified the parlor of his children’s home on rue Duphot. Madame Leprince, who died before the bankrupt auctioneer, a distinguished woman and a natural artist, worshiped and, consequently, spoiled her only child, Celestine, who became Madame Xavier Rabourdin. She communicated to her daughter some of her own tastes, and thoughtlessly, perhaps, developed in her a love of luxury, intelligent and refined. The Government Clerks.