Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  MICHONNEAU (Christine-Michelle). (See Poiret, the elder, Madame.)

  MICHU, during the progress of and after the French Revolution he played a part directly contrary to his regular political affiliations. His lowly birth, his harsh appearance, and his marriage with the daughter of a Troyes tanner of advanced opinion, all helped to make his pronounced Republicanism seem in keeping, although beneath it he hid his Royalist faith and an active devotion to the Simeuses, the Hauteserres and the Cinq-Cygnes. Michu controlled the Gondreville estate between 1789 and 1804, after it was snatched from its rightful owners, and under the Terror he presided over the Jacobin club at Arcis. As a result of the assassination of the Duc d’Enghien March 21, 1804, he lost his position at Gondreville. Michu then lived not far from there, near Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, to whom he made known his secret conduct, and, as a result, became overseer of all the estate attached to the castle. Having publicly shown his opposition to Malin, he was thought guilty of being leader in a plot to kidnap the new Seigneur de Gondreville, and was consequently condemned to death, a sentence which was executed, despite his innocence, October, 1806. The Gondreville Mystery.

  MICHU (Marthe), wife of the preceding, daughter of a Troyes tanner, “the village apostle of the Revolution,” who, as a follower of Baboeuf, a believer in racial and social equality, was put to death. A blonde with blue eyes, and of perfect build, in accordance with her father’s desire, despite her modest innocence, posed before a public assembly as the Goddess of Liberty. Marthe Michu adored her husband, by whom she had a son, Francois, but being ignorant for a long time of his secret, she lived in a manner separated from him, under her mother’s wing. When she did learn of her husband’s Royalist actions, and that he was devoted to the Cinq-Cygnes, she assisted him, but falling into a skilfuly contrived plot, she innocently brought about her husband’s execution. A forged letter having attracted her to Malin’s hiding-place, Madame Michu furnished all the necessary evidence to make the charge of kidnapping seem plausible. She also was cast into prison and was awaiting trial when death claimed her, November, 1806. The Gondreville Mystery.

  MICHU (Francois), son of the preceding couple, born in 1793. In 1803, while in the service of the house of Cinq-Cygne, he ferreted out the police-system that Giguet represented. The tragic death of his parents (a picture of one of them hung on the wall at Cinq-Cygne) caused his adoption in some way or other by the Marquise Laurence, whose efforts afterwards paved the way for his career as a lawyer from 1817 to 1819, an occupation which he left, only to become a magistrate. In 1824 he was associate judge of the Alencon court. Then he was appointed attorney of the king and received the cross of the Legion of Honor, after the suit against Victurnien d’Esgrignon by M. du Bosquier and the Liberals. Three years later he performed similar duties at the Arcis court, over which he presided in 1839. Already wealthy, and receiving an income of twelve thousand francs granted him in 1814 by Madame de Cinq-Cygne, Francois Michu married a native of Champagne, Mademoiselle Girel, a Troyes heiress. In Arcis he attended only the social affairs given by the Cinq-Cygnes, then become allies of the Cadignans, and in fact never visited any others. The Gondreville Mystery. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Member for Arcis.

  MICHU (Madame Francois), wife of the preceding, born Girel. Like her husband, she rather looked with scorn upon Arcis society, in 1839, and departed little from the circle made up of government officers’ families and the Cinq-Cygnes. The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.

  MIGEON, in 1836, porter in the rue des Martyrs house in which Etienne Lousteau lived for three years; he was commissioned for nine hundred francs by Mme. de la Baudraye, who then lived with the writer, to carry her jewelry to the pawn-broker. The Muse of the Department.

  MIGEON (Pamela), daughter of the preceding, born in 1823; in 1837, the intelligent little waiting-maid of Madame de la Baudraye, when the baronne lived with Lousteau. The Muse of the Department.

  MIGNON DE LA BASTIE (Charles), born in 1773 in the district of Var, “last member of the family to which Paris is indebted for the street and the house built by Cardinal Mignon”; went to war under the Republic; was closely associated with Anne Dumay. At the beginning of the Empire, as the result of mutual affection, his marriage with Bettina Wallenrod only daughter of a Frankfort banker took place. Shortly before the return of the Bourbons, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and became commander of the Legion of Honor. Under the Restoration Charles Mignon de la Bastie lived at Havre with his wife, and acquired forthwith, by means of banking, a large fortune, which he shortly lost. After absenting himself from the country, he returned, during the last year of Charles X.’s reign, from the Orient, having become a multi-millionaire. Of his four children, he lost three, two having died in early childhood, while Bettina Caroline, the third, died in 1827, after being misled and finally deserted by M. d’Estourny. Marie-Modeste was the only child remaining, and she was confided during her father’s journeys to the care of the Dumays, who were under obligations to the Mignons; she married Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere (also called La Briere-la Bastie). The brilliant career of Charles Mignon was the means of his reassuming the title, Comte de la Bastie. Modeste Mignon.

  MIGNON (Madame Charles), wife of the preceding, born Bettina Wallenrod-Tustall-Bartenstild, indulged daughter of a banker in Frankfort-on-the-Main. She became blind soon after her elder daughter, Bettina-Caroline’s troubles and early death, and had a presentiment of the romance connected with her younger daughter, Marie-Modeste, who became Madame Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere. Towards the close of the Restoration, Madame Charles Mignon, as the result of an operation by Desplein, recovered her sight and was a witness of Marie-Modeste’s happiness. Modeste Mignon.

  MIGNON (Bettina-Caroline), elder daughter of the preceding couple; born in 1805, the very image of her father; a typical Southern girl; was favored by her mother over her younger sister, Marie-Modeste, a kind of “Gretchen,” who was similar in appearance to Madame Mignon. Bettina-Caroline was seduced, taken away and finally deserted by a “gentleman of fortune,” named D’Estourny, and shortly sank at Havre under the load of her sins and suffering, surrounded by nearly all of her family. Since 1827 there has been inscribed on her tomb in the little Ingouville cemetery the following inscription: “Bettina Caroline Mignon, died when twenty-two years of age. Pray for her!” Modeste Mignon.

  MIGNON (Marie-Modeste). (See La Bastie-La Briere, Madame Ernest de.)

  MIGNONNET, born in 1782, graduate of the military schools, was an artillery captain in the Imperial Guard, but resigned under the Restoration and lived at Issoudun. Short and thin, but of dignified bearing; much occupied with science; friend of the cavalry officer Carpentier, with whom he joined the citizens against Maxence Gilet. Gilet’s military partisans, Commandant Potel and Captain Renard, lived in the Faubourg of Rome, Belleville of the corporation of Berry. A Bachelor’s Establishment.

  MILAUD, handsome representative of the self-enriched plebeian branch of Milauds; relative of Jean-Athanase-Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, in whose marriage he put no confidence, and from whom he expected to receive an inheritance. Under the favor of Marchangy, he undertook the career of a public prosecutor. Under Louis XVIII. he was a deputy at Angouleme, a position to which he was succeeded by maitre Petit-Claud. Milaud eventually performed the same duties at Nevers, which was probably his native country. Lost Illusions. The Muse of the Department.

  MILAUD DE LA BAUDRAYE. (See La Baudraye.)

  MILLET, Parisian grocer, on rue Chanoinesse, in 1836 attended to the renting of a small unfurnished room in Madame de la Chanterie’s house; gave Godefroid information, after having submitted him to a rigid examination. The Seamy Side of History.

  MINARD (Louis), refractory “chauffeur,” connected with the Royalist insurrection in western France, 1809, was tried at the bar of justice, where Bourlac and Mergi presided; he was executed the same year that he was condemned to death. The Seamy Side of History.

  MINARD (Auguste-Jean-Francois), as clerk to
the minister of finances he received a salary of fifteen hundred francs. In the florist establishment of a fellow-workman’s sister, Mademoiselle Godard, of rue Richelieu, he met a clerk, Zelie Lorain, the daughter of a porter. He fell in love with her, married her, and had by her two children, Julien and Prudence. He lived near the Courcelles gate, and as an economical worker of retiring disposition he was made the butt of J.-J. Bixiou’s jests in the Treasury Department. Necessity gave him fortitude and originality. After giving up his position in December, 1824, Minard opened a trade in adulterated teas and chocolates, and subsequently became a distiller. In 1835 he was the richest merchant in the vicinity, having an establishment on the Place Maubert and one of the best houses on the rue des Macons-Sorbonne. In 1840 Minard became mayor of the eleventh district, where he lived, judge of the tribunal of commerce, and officer of the Legion of Honor. He frequently met his former colleagues of the period of the Restoration: Colleville, Thuillier, Dutocq, Fleury, Phellion, Xavier Rabourdin, Saillard, Isidore Baudoyer and Godard. The Government Clerks. The Firm of Nucingen. The Middle Classes.

  MINARD (Madame), wife of the preceding, born Zelie Lorain, daughter of a porter. On account of her cold and prudent disposition, she did not persist long in her trial at the Conservatory, but became a florist’s girl in Mademoiselle Godard’s establishment on rue Richelieu. After her marriage to Francois Minard she gave birth to two children, and, with the help of Madame Lorain, her mother, reared them comfortably near the Courcelles gate. Under Louis Philippe, having become rich, and living in that part of the Saint-Germain suburbs which lies next to Saint-Jacques, she showed, as did her husband, the silly pride of the enriched mediocrity. The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.

  MINARD (Julien), son of the preceding couple, attorney; at first considered “the family genius.” In 1840 he committed some indiscretions with Olympe Cardinal, creator of “Love’s Telegraphy,” played at Mourier’s small theatre* on the Boulevard. His dissipation ended in a separation brought about by Julien’s parents, who contributed to the support of the actress, then become Madame Cerizet. The Middle Classes.

  * This theatre was built in 1831 on the Boulevard du Temple, where the first Ambigu had been situated; it was afterwards moved to No. 40, rue de Bondy, December 30, 1862.

  MINARD (Prudence), sister of the preceding, was sought in marriage by Felix Gaudissart towards the end of Louis Philippe’s reign. The Middle Classes. Cousin Pons.

  MINETTE,* vaudeville actress on rue de Chartres, during the Restoration, died during the first part of the Second Empire, lawful wife of a director of the Gaz; was well known for her brilliancy, and was responsible for the saying that “Time is a great faster,” quoted sometimes before Lucien de Rubempre in 1821-22. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.

  * Minette married M. Marguerite; she lived in Paris during the last years of her life in the large house at the corner of rue Saint-Georges and rue Provence.

  MINORETS (The), representatives of the well-known “company of army contractors,” in which Mademoiselle Sophie Laguerre’s steward, who preceded Gaubertin at Aigues, in Bourgogne, acquired a one-third share, after giving up his stewardship. The Peasantry. The relatives of Madame Flavie Colleville, daughter of a ballet-dancer, who was supported by Galathionne and, perhaps, by the contractor, Du Bourguier, were connected with the Minorets, probably the army contractor Minorets. The Government Clerks.

  MINORET (Doctor Denis), born in Nemours in 1746, had the support of Dupont, deputy to the States-General in 1789, who was his fellow-citizen; he was intimate with the Abbe Morellet, also the pupil of Rouelle the chemist, and an ardent admirer of Diderot’s friend, Bordeu, by means of whom, or his friends, he gained a large practice. Denis Minoret invented the Lelievre balm, became an acquaintance and protector of Robespierre, married the daughter of the celebrated harpsichordist, Valentin Mirouet, died suddenly, soon after the execution of Madame Roland. The Empire, like the former governments, recompensed Minoret’s ability, and he became consulting physician to His Imperial and Royal Majesty, in 1805, chief hospital physician, officer of the Legion of Honor, chevalier of Saint-Michel, and member of the Institute. Upon withdrawing to Nemours, January, 1815, he lived there in company with his ward, Ursule Mirouet, daughter of his brother-in-law, Joseph Mirouet, later Madame Savinien de Portenduere, a girl whom he had taken care of since she had become an orphan. As she was the living image of the late Madame Denis Minoret, he loved her so devotedly that his lawful heirs, Minoret-Levrault, Massin, Cremiere, fearing that they would lose a large inheritance, mistreated the adopted child. Doctor Minoret, at the time when he was worried over their plotting, saw Bouvard, a fellow-Parisian with whom he had formerly associated, and through his influence interested himself greatly in the subject of magnetism. In 1835, surrounded by some of his nearest relatives, Minoret died at an advanced age, having been converted from the philosophy of Voltaire through the influence of Ursule, whom he remembered substantially in his will. Ursule Mirouet.

  MINORET-LEVRAULT (Francois), son of the oldest brother of the preceding, and his nearest heir, born in 1769, strong but uncouth and illiterate, had charge of the post-horses and was keeper of the best tavern in Nemours, as a result of his marriage with Zelie Levrault-Cremiere, an only daughter. After the Revolution of 1830 he became deputy-mayor. As principle heir to Doctor Minoret’s estate he was the bitterest persecutor of Ursule Mirouet, and made away with the will which favored the young girl. Later, being compelled to restore her property, overcome by remorse, and sorrowing for his son, who was the victim of a runaway, and for his insane wife, Francois Minoret-Levrault became the faithful keeper of the property of Ursule, who had then become Madame Savinien de Portenduere. Ursule Mirouet.

  MINORET-LEVRAULT (Madame Francois), wife of the preceding, born Zelie Levrault-Cremiere, physically feeble, sour of countenance and action, harsh, greedy, as illiterate as her husband, brought him as dower half of her maiden name (a local tradition) and a first-class tavern. She was, in reality, the manager of the Nemours post-house. She worshiped her son Desire, whose tragic death was sufficient punishment for her avaricious persecutions of Ursule de Portenduere. She died insane in Doctor Blanche’s sanitarium in the village of Passy* in 1841. Ursule Mirouet.

  * Since 1860 a suburb of Paris.

  MINORET (Desire), son of the preceding couple, born in 1805. Obtained a half scholarship in the Louis-le-Grand lyceum in Paris, through the instrumentality of Fontanes, an acquaintance of Dr. Minoret; finally studied law. Under Goupil’s leadership he became somewhat dissipated as a young man, and loved in turn Esther van Gobseck and Sophie Grignault — Florine — who, after declining his offer of marriage, became Madame Nathan. Desire Minoret was not actively associated with his family in the persecution of Ursule de Portenduere. The Revolution of 1830 was advantageous to him. He took part during the three glorious days of fighting, received the decoration, and was selected to be deputy attorney to the king at Fontainebleau. He died as a result of the injuries received in a runaway, October, 1836. Ursule Mirouet.

  MIRAH (Josepha), born in 1814. Natural daughter of a wealthy Jewish banker, abandoned in Germany, although she bore as a sign of her identity an anagram of her Jewish name, Hiram. When fifteen years old and a working girl in Paris, she was found out and misled by Celestine Crevel, whom she left eventually for Hector Hulot, a more liberal man. The munificence of the commissary of stores exalted her socially, and gave her the opportunity of training her voice. Her vocal attainments established her as a prima donna, first at the Italiens, then on rue le Peletier. After Hector Hulot became a bankrupt, she abandoned him and his house on rue Chauchat, near the Royal Academy, where, at different times, had lived Tullia, Comtesse du Bruel and Heloise Brisetout. The Duc d’Herouville became Mademoiselle Mirah’s lover. This affair led to an elegant reception on rue de la Ville-l’Eveque to which all Paris received invitation. Josepha had at all times many followers. One of the Kellers and the Marquis d’Esgrignon made fools of themselves over her. Eug
ene de Rastignac, at that time minister, invited her to his home, and insisted upon her singing the celebrated cavatina from “La Muette.” Irregular in her habits, whimisical, covetous, intelligent, and at times good-natured, Josepha Mirah gave some proof of generosity when she helped the unfortunate Hector Hulot, for whom she went so far as to get Olympe Grenouville. She finally told Madame Adeline Hulot of the baron’s hiding-place on the Passage du Soleil in the Petite-Pologne section. Cousin Betty.

  MIRAULT, name of one branch of the Bargeton family, merchants in Bordeaux during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Lost Illusions.

  MIRBEL (Madame de), well-known miniature-painter from 1796 to 1849; made successively the portrait of Louise de Chaulieu, given by this young woman to the Baron de Macumer, her future husband; of Lucien de Rubempre for Esther Gobseck; of Charles X. for the Princess of Cadignan, who hung it on the wall of her little salon on rue Miromesnil, after the Revolution of 1830. This last picture bore the inscription, “Given by the King.” Letters of Two Brides. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life. The Secrets of a Princess.

  MIROUET (Ursule). (See Portenduere, Vicomtesse Savinien de.)

  MIROUET (Valentin), celebrated harpsichordist and instrument-maker; one of the best known French organists; father-in-law of Doctor Minoret; died in 1785. His business was bought by Erard. Ursule Mirouet.

  MIROUET (Joseph), natural son of the preceding and brother-in-law of Doctor Denis Minoret. He was a good musician and of a Bohemian disposition. He was a regiment musician during the wars in the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. He passed through Germany, and while there married Dinah Grollman, by whom he had a daughter, Ursule, later the Vicomtesse de Portenduere, who had been left a penniless orphan in her early youth. Ursule Mirouet.

  MITANT (La), a very poor woman of Conches in Bourgogne, who was condemned for having let her cow graze on the Montcornet estate. In 1823 the animal was seized by the deputy, Brunet, and his assistants, Vermichel and Fourchon. The Peasantry.