Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  LEROI (Pierre), called also Marche-a-terre, a Fougeres Chouan, who played an important part during the civil war of 1799 in Bretagne, where he gave evidence of courage and heartlessness. He survived the tragedy of this period, for he was seen on the Place d’Alencon in 1809 when Cibot — Pille-Miche — was tried at the bar as a chauffeur and attempted to escape. In 1827, nearly twenty years later, this same Pierre Leroi was known as a peaceable cattle-trader in the markets of his province. The Chouans. The Seamy Side of History. Jealousies of a Country Town.

  LEROI (Madame), mother of the preceding, being ill, was cured on coming to Fougeres to pray under the oak of the Patte-d’Oie. This tree was decorated with a beautiful wooden image of the Virgin, placed there in memory of Sainte-Anne d’Auray’s appearance in this place. The Chouans.

  LESEIGNEUR DE ROUVILLE (Baronne), pensionless widow of a sea-captain who had died at Batavia, under the Republic, during a prolonged engagement with an English vessel; mother of Madame Hippolyte Schinner. Early in the nineteenth century she lived at Paris with her unmarried daughter, Adelaide. On the fourth story of a house belonging to Molineux, on rue de Surene, near the Madeleine, Madame Leseigneur occupied unadorned and gloomy apartments. There she frequently received Hippolyte Schinner, Messieurs du Halga and de Kergarouet. She received from two of these friends many delicate marks of sympathy, despite the gossip of the neighbors who were astonished that Madame de Rouville and her daughter should have different names, and shocked by their very suspicious behavior. The manner in which Mesdames Leseigneur recognized the good offices of Schinner led to his marriage with Mademoiselle de Rouville. The Purse.

  LESEIGNEUR (Adelaide). (See Schinner, Madame Hippolyte.)

  LESOURD, married the eldest daughter of Madame Guenic of Provins, and toward the end of the Restoration presided over the justice court of that city, of which he had first been king’s attorney. In 1828 he was able, indeed, to defend Pierrette Lorrain, thus showing his opposition to the local Liberalist leaders, represented by Rogron, Vinet and Gourand. Pierrette.

  LESOURD (Madame), wife of the preceding and eldest daughter of Madame Guenee; for a long time called in Provins, “the little Madame Lesourd.” Pierrette.

  LEVEILLE (Jean-Francois), notary in Alencon, inflexible correspondent of the Royalists of Normandie under the Empire. He issued arms to them, received the surname of Confesseur, and, in 1809, was put to death with others as the result of a judgment rendered by Bourlac. The Seamy Side of History.

  LEVRAULT, enriched by the iron industry in Paris, died in 1813; former owner of the house in Nemours which came into the possession finally of Doctor Minoret, who lived there in 1815. Ursule Mirouet.

  LEVRAULT-CREMIERE, related to the preceding, an old miller, who became a Royalist under the Restoration; he was mayor of Nemours from 1829 to 1830, and was replaced after the Revolution of July by the notary, Cremiere-Dionis. Ursule Mirouet.

  LEVRAULT-LEVRAULT, eldest son, thus named to distinguish him from his numerous relatives of the same name; he was a butcher in Nemours in 1829, when Ursule Mirouet was undergoing persecution. Ursule Mirouet.

  LIAUTARD (Abbe), in the first years of the nineteenth century was at the head of an institution of learning in Paris; had among his pupils Godefroid, Madame de la Chanterie’s lodger in 1836 and future Brother of Consolation. The Seamy Side of History.

  LINA (Duc de), an Italian, at Milan early in the century, one of the lovers of La Marana, the mother of Madame Diard. The Miranas.

  LINET (Jean-Baptiste-Robert, called Robert), member of the Legislature and of the Convention, born at Bernay in 1743, died at Paris in 1825; minister of finance under the Republic, weakened Antoine and the Poiret brothers by giving them severe work, although twenty-five years later they were still laboring in the Treasury. The Government Clerks.

  LISIEUX (Francois), called the Grand-Fils (grandson), a rebel of the department of Mayenne; chauffeur under the First Empire and connected with the Royalist insurrection in the West, which caused Madame de la Chanterie’s imprisonment. The Seamy Side of History.

  LISTOMERE (Marquis de) son of the “old Marquise de Listomere”; deputy of the majority under Charles X., with hopes of a peerage; husband of Mademoiselle de Vandenesse the elder, his cousin. One evening in 1828, in his own house on rue Saint-Dominique, he was quietly reading the “Gazette de France” without noticing the flirtation carried on at his side by his wife and Eugene de Rastignac, then twenty-five years old. The Lily of the Valley. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Study of Woman.

  LISTOMERE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, elder of M. de Vandenesse’s daughters, and sister of Charles and Felix. Like her husband and cousin, during the early years of the Restoration, she was a brilliant type of the period, combining, as she did, godliness with worldliness, occasionally figuring in politics, and concealing her youth under the guise of austerity. However, in 1828, her mask seemed to fall at the moment when Madame de Mortsauf died; for, then, she wrongly fancied herself the object of Eugene de Rastignac’s wooing. Under Louis Philippe she took part in an intrigue formed for the purpose of throwing her sister-in-law, Marie de Vandenesse, into the power of Raoul Nathan. The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Study of Woman. A Daughter of Eve.

  LISTOMERE (Marquise de) mother-in-law of the preceding, born Grandlieu. She lived in Paris at an advanced age in Ile Saint-Louis, during the early years of the nineteenth century; received on his holidays her grand-nephew, Felix de Vandenesse, then a student, and frightened him by the solemn or frigid appearance of everything about her. The Lily of the Valley.

  LISTOMERE (Baronne de), had been the wife of a lieutenant-general. As a widow she lived in the city of Tours under the Restoration, assuming all the grand airs of the past centuries. She helped the Birotteau brothers. In 1823 she received the army paymaster, Gravier, and the terrible Spanish husband who killed the French surgeon, Bega. Madame de Listomere died, and her wish to make Francois Birotteau her partial heir was not executed. The Vicar of Tours. Cesar Birotteau. The Muse of the Department.

  LISTOMERE (Baron de), nephew of the preceding, born in 1791; was in turn lieutenant and captain in the navy. During a leave of absence spent with his aunt at Tours he began to intervene in favor of the persecuted abbe, Francois Birotteau, but finally opposed him upon learning of the power of the Congregation, and that the priest’s name figured in the Baronne de Listomere’s will. The Vicar of Tours.

  LISTOMERE (Comtesse de), old, lived in Saint-Germain suburbs of Paris, in 1839. At the Austrian embassy she became acquainted with Rastignac, Madame de Nucingen, Ferdinand du Tillet and Maxime de Trailles. The Member for Arcis.

  LISTOMERE-LANDON (Marquise de), born in Provence, 1744; lady of the eighteenth century aristocracy, had been the friend of Duclos and Marechal de Richelieu. Later she lived in the city of Tours, where she tried to help by unbiased counsel her unsophisticated niece by marriage, the Marquise Victor d’Aiglemont. Gout and her happiness over the return of the Duc d’Angouleme caused Madame de Listomere’s death in 1814. A Woman of Thirty.

  LOLOTTE. (See Topinard, Madame.)

  LONGUEVILLE (De), noble and illustrious family, whose last scion, the Duc de Rostein-Limbourg, executed in 1793, belonged to the younger branch. The Ball at Sceaux.

  LONGUEVILLE, deputy under Charles X., son of an attorney, without authority placed the particle de before his name. M. Longueville was connected with the house of Palma, Werbrust & Co.; he was the father of Auguste, Maximilien and Clara; desired a peerage for himself and a minister’s daughter for his elder son, who had an income of fifty thousand francs. The Ball at Sceaux.

  LONGUEVILLE (Auguste), son of the preceding, born late in the eighteenth century, possessed an income of fifty thousand francs; married, probably a minister’s daughter; was secretary of an embassy; met Madame Emilie de Vandenesse during a vacation which he was spending in Paris, and told her the secret of his family. Died young, while employed in the Russian embassy. The B
all at Sceaux.

  LONGUEVILLE (Maximilien), one of Longueville’s three children, sacrificed himself for his brother and sister; entered business, lived on rue du Sentier — then no longer called rue du Groschenet; was employed in a large linen establishment, situated near rue de la Paix; fell passionately in love with Emilie de Fontaine, who became Madame Charles de Vandenesse. She ceased to reciprocate his passion upon learning that he was merely a novelty clerk. However, M. Longueville, as a result of the early death of his father and of his brother, became a banker, a member of the nobility, a peer, and finally the Vicomte “Guiraudin de Longueville.” The Ball at Sceaux.

  LONGUEVILLE (Clara), sister of the preceding; she was probably born during the Empire; was a very refined young woman of frail constitution, but good complexion; lived in the time of the Restoration; was companion and protegee of her elder brother, Maximilien, future Vicomte Guiraudin, and was cordially received at the Planat de Baudry’s pavilion, situated in the valley of Sceaux, where she was a good friend of the last unmarried heiress of Comte de Fontaine. The Ball at Sceaux.

  LORA (Leon de), born in 1806, descendant of a noble family of Roussillon, of Spanish origin; penniless son of Comte Fernand Didas y Lora and Leonie de Lora, born Gazonal; younger brother of Juan de Lora, nephew of Mademoiselle Urraca y Lora; he left his native country at an early age. His family, with the exception of his mother, who died, remained at home long after his departure, but he never inquired concerning them. He went to Paris, where, having entered the artist, Schinner’s, studio, under the name of Mistigris, he became celebrated for his animation and repartee. From 1820 he shone in this way, rarely leaving Joseph Bridau — a friend whom he accompanied to the Comte de Serizy’s at Presles in the valley of Oise. Later Leon protected his very sympathetic but commonplace countryman, Pierre Grassou. In 1830 he became a celebrity. Arthez entrusted to him the decoration of a castle, and Leon de Lora forthwith showed himself to be a master. Some years later he took a tour through Italy with Felicite des Touches and Claude Vignon. Being present when the domestic troubles of the Bauvans were recounted, Lora was able to give a finished analysis of Honorine’s character to M. de l’Hostal. Being a guest at all the social feasts and receptions he was in attendance at one of Mademoiselle Brisetout’s gatherings on rue Chauchat. There he met Bixiou, Etienne Lousteau, Stidmann and Vernisset. He visited the Hulots frequently and their intimate friends. With the aid of Joseph Bridau he rescued W. Steinbock from Clichy, saw him marry Hortense, and was invited to the second marriage of Valerie Marneffe. He was then the greatest living painter of landscapes and sea-pieces, a prince of repartee and dissipation, and dependent on Bixiou. Fabien du Ronceret gave to him the ornamentation of an apartment on rue Blanche. Wealthy, illustrious, living on rue Berlin, the neighbor of Joseph Bridau and Schinner, member of the Institute, officer of the Legion of Honor, Leon, assisted by Bixiou, received his cousin Palafox Gazonal, and pointed out to him many well-known people about town. The Unconscious Humorists. A Bachelor’s Establishment. A Start in Life. Pierre Grassou. Honorine. Cousin Betty. Beatrix.

  LORA (Don Juan de), elder brother of the preceding, spent his whole life in Roussillon, his native country; in the presence of their cousin, Palafox Gazonal, denied that his younger brother, “le petit Leon,” possessed great artistic ability. The Unconscious Humorists.

  LORAUX (Abbe), born in 1752, of unattractive bearing, yet the very soul of tenderness. Confessor of the pupils of the Lycee Henry IV., and of Agathe Bridau; for twenty-five years vicar of Saint-Sulpice at Paris; in 1818 confessor of Cesar Birotteau; became in 1819 cure of the Blancs-Manteaux in Marais parish. He thus became a neighbor of Octave de Bauvan, in whose home he placed in 1824 M. de l’Hostal, his nephew and adopted son. Loraux, who was the means of restoring to Bauvan the Comtesse Honorine, received her confessions. He died in 1830, she being his nurse at the time. A Start in Life. A Bachelor’s Establishment. Cesar Birotteau. Honorine.

  LORRAIN, petty merchant of Pen-Hoel in the beginning of the nineteenth century; married and had a son, whose wife and child, Pierrette, he took care of after his son’s death. Lorrain was completely ruined later, and took refuge in a home for the old and needy, confiding Pierrette, both of whose parents were now dead, to the care of some near relatives, the Rogrons of Provins. Lorrain’s death took place previously to that of his wife. Pierrette.

  LORRAIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, and grandmother of Pierrette; born about 1757; lived the simple life of her husband, to whom she bore some resemblance. A widow towards the end of the Restoration, she became comfortably situated after the return of Collinet of Nantes. Upon going to Provins to recover her granddaughter, she found her dying; went into retirement in Paris, and died soon after, making Jacques Brigaut her heir. Pierrette.

  LORRAIN, son of the preceding couple, Bretagne; captain in the Imperial Guard; major in the line; married the second daughter of a Provins grocer, Auffray, through whom he had Pierrette; died a poor man, on the battlefield of Montereau, February 18, 1814. Pierrette.

  LORRAIN (Madame), wife of the preceding and mother of Pierrette; born Auffray in 1793; half sister to the mother of Sylvie and Denis Rogron of Provins. In 1814, a poor widow, still very young, she lived with the Lorrains of Pen-Hoel, a town in the Vendean Marais. It is said that she was consoled by the ex-major, Brigaut, of the Catholic army, and survived the unfortunate marriage of Madame Neraud, widow of Auffray, and maternal grandmother of Pierrette, only three years. Pierrette.

  LORRAIN (Pierrette), daughter of the preceding, born in the town of Pen-Hoel in 1813; lost her father when fourteen months old and her mother when six years old; lovable disposition, delicate and unaffected. After a happy childhood, spent with her excellent maternal grandparents and a playmate, Jacques Brigaut, she was sent to some first maternal cousins of Provins, the wealthy Rogrons, who treated her with pitiless severity. Pierrette died on Easter Tuesday, March, 1828, as the result of sickness brought on by the brutality of her cousin, Sylvie Rogron, who was extremely envious of her. A trial of her persecutors followed her death, and, despite the efforts of old Madame Lorrain, Jacques Brigaut, Martener, Desplein and Bianchon, her assailants escaped through the craftily exerted influence of Vinet. Pierrette.

  LOUCHARD, the craftiest bailiff of Paris; undertook the recovery of Esther van Gobseck, who had escaped from Frederic de Nucingen; did business with Maitre Fraisier. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. Cousin Pons.

  LOUCHARD (Madame), wife of the preceding, did not live with him; acquainted with Madame Komorn de Godollo and, in 1840, furnished her information about Theodose de la Peyrade. The Middle Classes.

  LOUDON (Prince de), general in the Vendean cavalry, lived at Le Mans during the Terror. He was brother of a Verneuil who was guillotined, was noted for “his boldness and the martyrdom of his punishment.” The Chouans. Modeste Mignon.

  LOUDON (Prince Gaspard de), born in 1791, third and only surviving son of the Duc de Verneuil’s four children; fat and commonplace, having, very inappropriately, the same name as the celebrated Vendean cavalry general; became probably Desplein’s son-in-law. He took part in 1829 in a great hunt given in Normandie, in company with the Herouvilles, the Cadignans and the Mignons. Modeste Mignon.

  LOUIS XVIII. (Louis-Stanislas-Xavier), born at Versailles, November 16, 1754, died September 16, 1824, King of France. He was in political relations with Alphonse de Montauran, Malin de Gondreville, and some time before this, under the name of the Comte de Lille, with the Baronne de la Chanterie. He considered Peyrade an able officer and was his patron. King Louis XVIII., friend of the Comte de Fontaine, engaged Felix de Vandenesse as secretary. His last mistress was the Comtesse Ferraud. The Chouans. The Seamy Side of History. The Gondreville Mystery. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. The Ball at Sceaux. The Lily of the Valley. Colonel Chabert. The Government Clerks.

  LOUISE, during the close of Louis Philippe’s reign, was Madame W. Steinbock’s waiting-maid at Paris, rue Louis-le-Grand, and was courted by Hulot d’Ervy’s
cook, at the time when Agathe Piquetard, who was destined to become the second Baronne Hulot, was another servant. (Cousin Betty.]

  LOURDOIS, during the Empire wealthy master-painter of interiors; contractor with thirty thousand francs income, of Liberal views. Charged an enormous sum for the famous decorations in Cesar Birotteau’s apartments, where he was a guest with his wife and daughter at the grand ball of December 17, 1818. After the failure of the perfumer, a little later, he treated him somewhat slightingly. At the Sign of the Cat and Racket. Cesar Birotteau.

  LOUSTEAU, sub-delegate at Issoudun and afterwards the intimate friend of Doctor Rouget, at that time his enemy, because the doctor was possibly the father of Mademoiselle Agathe Rouget, then become Madame Bridau. Lousteau died in 1800. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  LOUSTEAU (Etienne), son of the preceding, born at Sancerre in 1799, nephew of Maximilienne Hochon, born Lousteau, school-mate of Doctor Bianchon. Urged on by his desire for a literary vocation, he entered Paris without money, in 1819, made a beginning with poetry, was the literary partner of Victor Ducange in a melodrama played at the Gaite in 1821, undertook the editing of a small paper devoted to the stage, of which Andoche Finot was proprietor. He had at that time two homes, one in the Quartier Latin, rue de la Harpe, above the Servel cafe, another on rue de Bondy, with Florine his mistress. Not having a better place, he became at times Flicoteaux’s guest, in company with Daniel d’Arthez and especially Lucien de Rubempre, whom he trained, piloted, and introduced to Dauriat, in fact, whose first steps he aided, not without feeling regret later in life. For one thousand francs per month, Lousteau rid Philippe Bridau of his wife, Flore, placing her in a house of ill-fame. He was at the Opera, the evening of the masque ball of the year 1824, where Blondet, Bixiou, Rastignac, Jacques Collin, Chatelet and Madame d’Espard discovered Lucien de Rubempre with Esther Gobseck. Lousteau wrote criticisms, did work for various reviews, and for Raoul Nathan’s gazette. He lived on rue des Martyrs, and was Madame Schontz’s lover. He obtained by some intrigue a deputyship at Sancerre; carried on a long liaison with Dinah de la Baudraye; just escaped a marriage with Madame Berthier, then Felicie Cardot; was father of Madame de la Baudraye’s children, and spoke as follows concerning the birth of the eldest: “Madame la Baronne de la Baudraye is happily delivered of a child; M. Etienne Lousteau has the honor of announcing it.” During this liaison, Lousteau, for the sum of five hundred francs, gave to Fabien du Ronceret a discourse to be read at a horticultural exhibition, for which the latter was decorated. He attended a house-warming at Mademoiselle Brisetout’s, rue Chauchat; asked Dinah and Nathan for the purpose or moral of the “Prince of Bohemia.” Lousteau’s manner of living underwent little change when Madame de la Baudraye left him. He heard Maitre Desroches recount one of Cerizet’s adventures, saw Madame Marneffe marry Crevel, took charge of the “Echo de la Bievre,” and undertook the management of a theatre with Ridal, the author of vaudevilles. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor’s Establishment. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. A Daughter of Eve. Beatrix. The Muse of the Department. Cousin Betty. A Prince of Bohemia. A Man of Business. The Middle Classes. The Unconscious Humorists.