Works of Honore De Balzac

by Honoré de Balzac

  TONSARD (Madame), wife of the preceding; born Philippe Fourchon; daughter of the Fourchon who was the natural grandfather of Mouche; large, and of a good figure, with a sort of rustic beauty; lax in morals; extravagant in her tastes, none the less she assured the prosperity of the Grand-I-Vert, by reason of her talent as a cook, and her free coquetry. By her marriage she had four children, two sons and two daughters. The Peasantry.

  TONSARD (Jean-Louis), born about 1801, son of the preceding, and perhaps also of Francois Gaubertin, to whom Philippe Tonsard was mistress. Exempted from military service in 1821 on account of a pretended disorder in the muscles of his right arm, Jean-Louis Tonsard posed under the protection of Soudry, Rogou and Gaubertin, in a circumspect way, as the enemy of the Montcornets and Michaud. He was a lover of Annette, Rigou’s servant girl. The Peasantry.

  TONSARD (Nicolas), younger brother of the preceding, and the male counterpart of his sister Catherine; brutally persecuted, with his sister’s connivance, Niseron’s granddaughter, Genevieve, called La Pechina, whom he tried to outrage. The Peasantry.

  TONSARD (Catherine). (See Godain, Madame.)

  TONSARD (Marie), sister of the preceding; a blonde; had the loose and uncivilized morals of her family. While mistress of Bonnebault, she proved herself, on one occasion at the Cafe de la Paix of Soulanges, to be fiercely jealous of Aglae Socquard, whom he wished to marry. The Peasantry.

  TONSARD (Reine), without any known relationship to all of the preceding, was, in spite of being very ugly, the mistress of the son of the Oliviers, porters to Valerie Marneffe-Crevel; and she remained for a long time the confidential lady’s-maid of that married courtesan; but, being brought over by Jacques Collin, she eventually betrayed and ruined the Crevel family. Cousin Betty.

  TONY, coachman to Louis de l’Estorade, about 1840. The Member for Arcis.

  TOPINARD, born about 1805; officer in charge of the property of the theatre managed by Felix Gaudissart; in charge also of the lamps and fixtures; and, lastly, he had the task of placing the copies of the music on the musicians’ stands. He went every day to the rue Normandie to get news of Sylvain Pons, who was suffering from a fatal attack of hepatitis; in the latter part of April, 1845, he was, with Fraisier, Villemot and Sonet’s agent, one of the pall-bearers at the funeral of the cousin of the Camusot de Marvilles. On leaving the Pere-Lachaise, Topinard, who was living in the Cite Bordin, was moved to compassion for Schmucke, brought him home, and finally received him under his roof. Topinard then secured the position of cashier with Gaudissart, but he almost lost his position for trying to defend the interests of Schmucke, of whom the heirs-at-law of Pons had undertaken to rid themselves. Even under these circumstances Topinard aided Schmucke in his distress; he alone followed the German’s body to the cemetery, and took pains to have him buried beside Sylvain Pons. Cousin Pons.

  TOPINARD (Madame Rosalie), wife of the preceding, born about 1815, called Lolotte; she was a member of the choir under the direction of Felix Gaudissart’s predecessor, whose mistress she was. A victim of her lover’s failure, she became box-opener of the first tier, and also quite a dealer in costumes during the following administration (1834-1845). She had first lived as Topinard’s mistress, but he afterwards married her; she had three children by him. She took part in the funeral mass of Pons; when Schmucke was taken in by her husband in the Cite Bordin, she nursed the musician in his last illness. Cousin Pons.

  TOPINARD, eldest son of the preceding couple, was a supernumerary in Gaudissart’s company. Cousin Pons.

  TOPINARD (Olga), sister of the preceding; a blonde of the German type; when quite young, she won the warmest affection of Schmucke, who was making his home with the employes of Gaudissart’s theatre. Cousin Pons.

  TORLONIA (Duc), a name mentioned, in December, 1829, by the Baron Frederic de Nucingen, as that of one of his friends, and pronounced by him “Dorlonia.” The duke had ordered a magnificent carpet, the price of which he considered exorbitant, but the baron bought it for Esther van Gobseck’s “leedle balace” on the rue Saint-Georges. The Duc Torlonia belonged to the famous family of Rome, that was so hospitable to strangers, and was of French origin. The original name was Tourlogne. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  TORPILLE (La), sobriquet of Esther van Gobseck.

  TOUCHARD, father and son, ran a line of stages, during the Restoration, to Beaumont-sur-Oise. A Start in Life.

  TOUCHES (Mademoiselle Felicite des), born at Guerande in 1791; related to the Grandlieus; not connected with the Touches family of Touraine, to which the regent’s ambassador, more famous as a comic poet, belonged; became an orphan in 1793; her father, a major in the Gardes de la Porte, was killed on the steps of the Tuileries August 10, 1792, and her only brother, a younger member of the guard, was massacred at the Carmelite convent; lastly, her mother died of a broken heart a few days after this last catastrophe. Entrusted then to the care of her maternal aunt, Mademoiselle de Faucombe, a nun of Chelles,* she was taken by her to Faucombe, a considerable estate situated near Nantes, and soon afterwards she was put in prison along with her aunt on the charge of being an emissary of Pitt and Cobourg. The 9th Thermidor found them released; but Mademoiselle de Faucombe died of fright, and Felicite was sent to M. de Faucombe, an archaeologist of Nantes, being her maternal great-uncle and her nearest relative. She grew up by herself, “a tom-boy”; she had at her command an enormous library, which allowed her to acquire, at a very early age, a great mass of information. The literary spirit being developed in her, Mademoiselle des Touches began by assisting her aged uncle; wrote three articles that he believed were his own work, and, in 1822, made her beginning in literature with two volumes of dramatic works, after the fashion of Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, which produced a sort of artistic revolution. She then assumed as a permanent appellation, the pseudonym of Camille Maupin, and led a bright and independent life. Her income of eighty thousand livres, her castle of Les Touches, near Guerande — Loire-Inferieure — her Parisian mansion on the rue de Mont-Blanc — now rue de la Chaussee-d’Antin, — her birth, and her connections, had their power of influence. Her irregularities were covered as with a veil, in consideration of her genius. Indeed, Mademoiselle des Touches had more than one lover: a gallant about 1817; then an original mind, a sceptic, the real creator of Camille Maupin; and next Gennaro Conti, whom she knew in Rome, and Claude Vignon, a critic of reputation. Beatrix. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Felicite was a patron of Joseph Bridau, the romantic painter, who was despised by the bourgeois A Bachelor’s Establishment.; she felt a liking for Lucien de Rubempre, whom, indeed, she came near marrying; though this circumstance did not prevent her from aiding the poet’s mistress, Coralie, the actress; for, at the time of their amours, Felicite des Touches was in high favor at the Gymnase. She was the anonymous collaborator of a comedy into which Leontine Volnys — the little Fay of that time — was introduced; she had intended to write another vaudeville play, in which Coralie was to have made the principal role. When the young actress took to her bed and died, which occurred under the Poirson-Cerfberr+ management, Felicite paid the expenses of her burial, and was present at the funeral services, which were conducted at Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. She gave dinner-parties on Wednesdays; Levasseur, Conti, Mesdames Pasta, Conti, Fodor, De Bargeton, and d’Espard, attended her receptions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Although a Legitimist, like the Marquise d’Espard, Felicite, after the Revolution of July, kept her salon open, where were frequently assembled her neighbor Leontine de Serizy, Lord Dudley and Lady Barimore, the Nucingens, Joseph Bridau, Mesdames de Cadignan and de Montcornet, the Comtesse de Vandenesse, Daniel d’Arthez, and Madame Rochegude, otherwise known as Rochefide. Canalis, Rastignac, Laginski, Montriveau, Bianchon, Marsay, and Blondet rivaled each other in telling piquant stories and passing caustic remarks under her roof. Another Study of Woman. Furthermore, Mademoiselle des Touches shortly afterwards gave advice to Marie de Vandenesse and condemned free love. A Daughter of Eve. In 1
836, while traveling through Italy, which she was showing to Claude Vignon and Leon de Lora, the landscape painter, she was present at an entertainment given by Maurice de l’Hostal, the French consul at Genoa; on this occasion he gave an account of the ups and downs of the Bauvan family. Honorine. In 1837, after having appointed as her residuary legatee Calyste du Guenic, whom she adored, but to whom she refused to give herself over, Felicite des Touches retired to a convent in Nantes of the order of Saint-Francois. Among the works left by this second George Sand, we may mention “Le Nouveau Promethee,” a bold attempt, standing alone among her works, and a short autobiographical romance, in which she described her betrayed passion for Conti, an admirable work, which was regarded as the counterpart of Benjamin Constant’s “Adolphe.” Beatrix. The Muse of the Department.

  * It was perhaps at Chelles that Mademoiselle de Faucombe became acquainted with Mesdemoiselles de Beauseant and de Langeais.

  + Delestre-Poirson, the vaudeville man, together with A. Cerfberr established the Gymnase-Dramatique, December 20, 1820; with the Cerfberr Brothers, Delestre-Poirson continued the management of it until 1844.

  TOUPILLIER, born about 1750; of a wretchedly poor family consisting of three sisters and five brothers, one of whom was father of Madame Cardinal. From drum-major in the Gardes-Francaise, Toupillier became beadle in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris; then dispenser of holy water, having been an artist’s model in the meantime. Toupillier, at the beginning of the Restoration, suspected either of being a Bonapartist, or of being unfit for his position, was discharged from the service of the church, and had only the right to stand at the threshold as a privileged beggar; however, he profited greatly by his new position, for he knew how to arouse the compassionate feelings of the faithful in every possible way, chiefly by passing as a centenarian. Having been entrusted with the diamonds that Charles Crochard had stolen from Mademoiselle Beaumesnil and which the young thief wished to get off his hands for the time being, Toupillier denied having received them and remained possessor of the stolen jewels. But Corentin, the famous police-agent, followed the pauper of Saint-Sulpice to the rue du Coeur-Volant, and surprised that new Cardillac engrossed in the contemplation of the diamonds. He, however, left them in his custody, on condition of his leaving by will all his property to Lydie Peyrade, Corentin’s ward and Mademoiselle Beaumesnil’s daughter. Corentin further required Toupillier to live in his house and under his surveillance on the rue Honore-Chevalier. At that time Toupillier had an income of eighteen hundred francs; he might be seen, at the church, munching wretched crusts; but, the church once closed, he went to dine at the Lathuile restaurant, situated on the Barriere de Clichy, and at night he got drunk on the excellent Rousillon wines. Notwithstanding an attack made by Madame Cardinal and Cerizet on the closet containing the diamonds, when the pauper of Saint-Sulpice died in 1840, Lydie Peyrade, now Madame Theodose de la Peyrade, inherited all that Toupillier possessed. The Middle Classes.

  TOUPINET, a Parisian mechanic, at the time of the Restoration, being married and father of a family, he stole his wife’s savings, the fruit of arduous labor; he was imprisoned, about 1828, probably for debts. The Commission in Lunacy.

  TOUPINET (Madame), wife of the preceding; known under the name Pomponne; kept a fruit-stand; lived, in 1828, on the rue du Petit-Banquier, Paris; unhappy in her married life; obtained from the charitable J.-J. Popinot, under the name of a loan, ten francs for purchasing stock. The Commission in Lunacy.

  TOURNAN, a hatter of the rue Saint-Martin, Paris; among his customers was young Poiret, who, on July 3, 1823, brought him his head-covering, all greased, as a result of J.-J. Bixiou’s practical joking. The Government Clerks.

  TOURS-MINIERES (Bernard-Polydor Bryond, Baron des), a gentleman of Alencon; born about 1772; in 1793, was one of the most active emissaries of the Comte de Lille (Louis XVIII.), in his conspiracy against the Republic. Having received the King’s thanks, he retired to his estate in the department of Orne, which had long been burdened with mortgages; and, in 1807, he married Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, with the concurrence of the Royalists, whose “pet” he was. He pretended to take part in the reactionary revolutionary movement of the West in 1809, implicated his wife in the matter, compromised her, ruined her, and then disappeared. Returning in secrecy to his country, under the assumed name of Lemarchand, he aided the authorities in getting at the bottom of the plot, and then went to Paris, where he became the celebrated police-agent Contenson. The Seamy Side of History. He knew Peyrade, and received from Lenoir’s old pupil the significant sobriquet of “Philosopher.” Being agent for Fouche during the period of the Empire, he abandoned himself in the most sensual way to his passions, and lived a life of irregularity and vice. During the time of the Restoration Louchard had him employed by Nucingen at the time of the latter’s amours with Esther van Gobseck. In the service of this noted banker, Contenson (with Peyrade and Corentin) tried to protect him from the snares of Jacques Collin, and followed the pseudo-Carlos Herrera to his place of refuge on a house-top; but being hurled from the roof by his intended victim, he was instantly killed during the winter of 1829-1830. Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.

  TOURS-MINIERES (Baronne Bryond des), wife of the preceding; born Henriette Le Chantre de la Chanterie, in 1789; only daughter of Monsieur and Madame Le Chantre de la Chanterie; was married after her father’s death. Through the machinations of Tours-Minieres she was brought into contact with Charles-Amedee-Louis-Joseph Rifoel, Chevalier du Vissard, became his mistress, and took the field for him in the Royalist cause, in the department of Orne, in 1809. Betrayed by her husband, she was executed in 1810, in accordance with a death-sentence of the court presided over by Mergi, Bourlac being attorney-general. The Seamy Side of History.

  TRAILLES (Comte Maxime de), born in 1791, belonged to a family that was descended from an attendant to Louis XI., and raised to the nobility by Francois I. This perfect example of the Parisian condottieri made his beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century as a page to Napoleon. Being loved, in turn, by Sarah Gobseck and Anastasie de Restaud, Maxime de Trailles, himself already ruined, ruined both of these; gaming was his master passion, and his caprices knew no bounds. Cesar Birotteau. Father Goriot. Gobseck. He took under his attention the Vicomte Savinien de Portenduere, a novice in Parisian life, whom also he would have served later as his second against Desire Minoret, but for the latter’s death by accident. Ursule Mirouet. His ready wit usually saved him from the throng of creditors that swarmed about him, but even thus he once paid a debt due Cerizet, in spite of himself. Maxime de Trailles, at that time, was keeping, in a modest way, Antonia Chocardelle, who had a news-stand on the rue Coquenard, near the rue Pigalle, on which Trailles lived; and, at the same time, a certain Hortense, a protegee of Lord Dudley, was seconding the genius of that excellent comedian, Cerizet. A Man of Business. The Member for Arcis. The dominant party of the Restoration accused Maxime de Trailles of being a Bonapartist, and rebuked him for his shameless corruption of life; but the citizen monarchy extended him a cordial welcome. Marsay was the chief promoter of the count’s fortunes; he moulded him, and sent him on delicate political missions, which he managed with marvelous success. The Secrets of a Princess. And so the Comte de Trailles was widely known in social circles: as the guest of Josepha Mirah, by his presence he honored the house-warming in her new apartments on the rue de la Ville-l’Eveque. Cousin Betty. Marsay being dead, he lost the power of his prestige. Eugene de Rastignac, who had become somewhat of a Puritan, showed but slight esteem for him. However, Maxime de Trailles was on easy terms with one of the minister’s intimate friends, the brilliant Colonel Franchessini. Nucingen’s son-in-law — Eugene de Rastignac — perhaps recalled Madame de Restaud’s misfortunes, and doubtless entertained no good feeling for the man who was responsible for them all. None the less, he employed the services of M. de Trailles — who was always at ease in the Marquise d’Espard’s salon, in the Faubourg Saint-Honore, though a man over forty years of
age, painted and padded and bowed down with debts — and sent him to look after the political situation in Arcis before the spring election of 1839. Trailles worked his wires with judgment; he tried to override the Cinq-Cygnes, partisans of Henri V.; he supported the candidacy of Phileas Beauvisage, and sought the hand of Cecile-Renee Beauvisage, the wealthy heiress, but was unsuccessful on all sides. The Member for Arcis. M. de Trailles, furthermore, excelled in the adjustment of private difficulties. M. d’Ajuda-Pinto, Abbe Brossette, and Madame de Grandlieu called for his assistance, and, with the further aid of Rusticoli de la Palferine, effected the reconciliation of the families of Calyste du Guenic and Arthur de Rochefide. Beatrix. He became a member of the Chamber of Deputies, succeeding Phileas Beauvisage, who had replaced Charles de Sallenauve, at the Palais-Bourbon; here he was pointed out to S.-P. Gazonal. The Unconscious Humorists.