COLLIN, (Jacqueline), aunt of Jacques Collin, whom she had reared; born at Java. In her youth she was Marat's mistress, and afterwards had relations with the chemist, Duvignon, who was condemned to death for counterfeiting in 1799. During this intimacy she attained a dangerous knowledge of toxicology. From 1800 to 1805 she was a clothing dealer; and from 1806 to 1808 she spent two years in prison for having influenced minors. From 1824 to 1830 Mlle. Collin exerted a strong influence over Jacques, alias Vautrin, toward his life of adventure without the pale of the law. Her strong point was disguises. In 1839 she ran a matrimonial bureau on rue de Provence, under the name of Mme. de Saint-Esteve. She often borrowed the name of her friend Mme. Nourrisson, who, during the time of Louis Philippe, made a pretence of business more or less dubious on rue Neuve-Saint-Marc. She had some dealings with Victorin Hulot, at whose instance she brought about the overthrow of Mme. Marneffe, mistress, and afterwards wife, of Crevel. Under the name of Asie, Jacqueline Collin made an excellent cook for Esther Gobseck, whom she was ordered by Vautrin to watch. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life. Cousin Betty. The Unconscious Humorists.]
COLLINET, grocer at Arcis-sur-Aube, time of Louis Philippe. Elector for the Liberals headed by Colonel Giguet. [The Member for Arcis.]
COLLINET (Francois-Joseph), merchant of Nantes. In 1814 the political changes brought about his business failure. He went to America, returning in 1824 enriched, and re-established. He had caused the loss of twenty-four thousand francs to M. and Mme. Lorrain, small retailers of Pen-Hoel, and father and mother of Major Lorrain. But, on his return to France, he restored to Mme. Lorrain, then a widow and almost a septuagenarian, forty-two thousand francs, being capital and interest of his indebtedness to her. [Pierrette.]
COLONNA, aged Italian at Genoa, during the later part of the eighteenth century. He had reared Luigia Porta under the name of Colonna and as his own son, from the age of six until the time when the young man enlisted in the French army. [The Vendetta.]
COLOQUINTE, given name of a pensioner who was "office boy" in Finot's newspaper office in 1820. He had been through the Egyptian campaign, losing an arm at the Battle of Montmirail. [A Bachelor's Establishment. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
COLORAT (Jerome), estate-keeper for Mme. Graslin at Montegnac; born at Limoges. Retired soldier of the Empire; ex-sergeant in the Royal Guard; at one time estate-keeper for M. de Navarreins, before entering Mme. Graslin's service. [The Country Parson.]
CONSTANCE, chambermaid for Mme. de Restaud in 1819. Through her old Goriot knew about everything that was going on at the home of his elder daughter. This Constance, sometimes called Victorie, took money to her mistress when the latter needed it. [Father Goriot.]
CONSTANT DE REBECQUE (Benjamin), born at Lausanne in 1767, died at Paris, December 8, 1830. About the end of 1821 he is discovered in Dauriat's shop at Palais-Royal, where Lucien de Rubempre noticed his splendid head and spiritual eyes. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
CONTI (Gennaro), musical composer; of Neapolitan origin, but born at Marseilles. Lover of Mlle. des Touches--Camille Maupin--in 1821-1822. Afterwards he paid court to Marquise Beatrix de Rochefide. [Lost Illusions. Beatrix.]
CONYNCKS, family of Bruges, who were maternal ancestors of Marguerite Claes. In 1812 this young girl at sixteen was the living image of a Conyncks, her grandmother whose portrait hung in Balthazar Claes' home. A Conyncks, also of Bruges but later established at Cambrai, was granduncle of the children of Balthazar Claes, and was appointed their vice-guardian after the death of Mme. Claes. He had a daughter who married Gabriel Claes. [The Quest of the Absolute.]
COQUELIN (Monsieur and Madame), hardware dealers, successors to Claude-Joseph Pillerault in a store on quai de la Ferraille, sign of the Golden Bell. Guests at the big ball given by Cesar Birotteau. After getting the invitation, Mme. Coquelin ordered a magnificent gown for the occasion. [Cesar Birotteau.]
COQUET, chief of bureau to the Minister of War, in Lebrun's division in 1838. Marneffe was his successor. Coquet had been in the service of the administration since 1809, and had given perfect satisfaction. He was a married man and his wife was still living at the time when he was displaced. [Cousin Betty.]
CORALIE (Mademoiselle), actress at the Panorama-Dramatique and at the Theatre du Gymnase, Paris, time of Louis XVIII. Born in 1803 and brought up a Catholic, she was nevertheless of distinct Jewish type. She died in August, 1822. Her mother sold her at fifteen to young Henri de Marsay, whom she abhorred and who soon deserted her. She was then maintained by Camusot, who was not obnoxious. She fell in love with Lucien de Rubempre at first sight, surrendering to him immediately and being faithful to him until her dying breath. The glory and downfall of Coralie dated from this love. An original criticism of the young Chardon established the success of "L'Alcade dans l'Embarras," at the Marais, and brought to Coralie, one of the principals in the play, an engagement at Boulevard Bonne-Nouvelle, with a salary of twelve thousand francs. But here the artist stranded, the victim of a cabal, despite the protection of Camille Maupin. At first she was housed on rue de Vendome, afterwards in a more modest lodging where she died, attended and nursed by her cousin, Berenice. She had sold her elegant furniture to Cardot, Sr., on leaving the apartment on rue de Vendome, and in order to avoid moving it, he installed Florentine there. Coralie was the rival of Mme. Perrin and of Mlle. Fleuriet, whom she resembled and whose destiny should have been her own. The funeral service of Coralie took place at noon in the little church of Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. Camusot promised to purchase a plot of ground for her in the cemetery of Pere-Lachaise. [A Start in Life. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment.]
CORBIGNY (De), prefect of Loire-et-Cher, in 1811. Friend of Mme. de Stael who authorized him to place Louis Lambert, at her expense, in the College of Vendome. He probably died in 1812. [Louis Lambert.]
CORBINET, notary at Soulanges, Burgundy, in 1823, and at one time an old patron of Sibilet's. The Gravelots, lumber dealers, were clients of his. Commissioned with the sale of Aigues, when General de Montcornet became wearied with developing his property. At one time known as Corbineau. [The Peasantry.]
CORBINET, court-judge at Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823; son of Corbinet the notary. He belonged, body and soul, to Gaubertin, the all-powerful mayor of the town. [The Peasantry.]
CORBINET, retired captain, postal director at Ville-aux-Fayes in 1823; brother of Corbinet, the notary. The last daughter of Sibilet, the copy-clerk, was engaged to him when she was sixteen. [The Peasantry.]
CORENTIN, born at Vendome in 1777; a police-agent of great genius, trained by Peyrade as Louis David was by Vien. A favorite of Fouche's and probably his natural son. In 1799 he accompanied Mlle. de Verneuil sent to lure and betray Alphonse de Montauran, the young chief of the Bretons who were risen against the Republic. For two years Corentin was attached to this strange girl as a serpent to a tree. [The Chouans.] In 1803 he and his chief, Peyrade, were entrusted with a difficult mission in the department of Aube, where he had to search the home of Mlle. de Cinq-Cygne. She surprised him at the moment when he was forcing open a casket, and struck him a blow with her riding whip. This he avenged cruelly, involving, despite their innocence, the Hauteserres and the Simeuses, friends and cousins of the young girl. This was during the affair of the abduction of Senator Malin. About the same time he concluded another delicate mission to Berlin to the satisfaction of Talleyrand, the Minister of Foreign Affairs. [The Gondreville Mystery.] From 1824 to 1830, Corentin was pitted against the terrible Jacques Collin, alias Vautrin, whose friendly plans in behalf of Lucien de Rubempre he thwarted so cruelly. Corentin it was who rendered futile the contemplated marriage of the aspirant with Clotilde de Grandlieu, bringing about as a consequence the absolute ruin of the "distinguished provincial at Paris." He rusticated at Passy, rue des Vignes, about May, 1830. Under Charles X., Corentin was chief of the political police of the chateau. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] For more than thirty years he lived on rue Honore- Chevalier under the name of M. du Portail. He sheltered Lydie, daughter of his friend, Peyrade, after the death of the old police- agent. About 1840 he brought about her marriage with Theodose de la Peyrade, nephew of Peyrade, after having upset the plans of the very astute young man, greatly in love with Celeste Colleville's dowry. Corentin--M. du Portail--then installed the chosen husband of his adopted child into his own high official duties. [The Middle Classes.]
CORMON (Rose-Marie-Victoire). (See Bousquier, Madame du.)
CORNEVIN, an old native of Perche; foster-father of Olympe Michaud. He was with the Chouans in 1794 and 1799. In 1823 he was servant at Michaud's. [The Peasantry.]
CORNOILLER (Antoine), game-keeper at Saumur; married the sturdy Nanon then fifty-nine years old, after the death of Grandet, about 1827, and became general overseer of lands and properties of Eugenie Grandet. [Eugenie Grandet.]
CORNOILLER (Madame). (See Nanon.)
COTTEREAU, well-known smuggler, one of the heads of the Breton insurrection. In 1799 he was principal in a rather stormy scene at the Vivetiere, when he threatened the Marquis de Montauran with swearing allegiance to the First Consul if he did not immediately obtain noteworthy advantages in payment of seven years of devoted service to "the good cause." "My men and I have a devilish importunate creditor," said he, slapping his stomach. One of the brothers of Jean Cottereau, was nick-named the "Chouan," a title used by all the Western rebels against the Republic. [The Chouans.]
COTTIN (Marechal), Prince of Wissembourg; Duke of Orfano; old soldier of the Republic and the Empire; Minister of War in 1841; born in 1771. He was obliged to bring great shame upon his old friend and companion- in-arms, Marshal Hulot, by advising him of the swindling of the commissariat, Hulot d'Ervy. Marshal Cottin and Nucingen were witnesses at the wedding of Hortense Hulot and Wenceslas Steinbock. [Cousin Betty.]
COTTIN (Francine), a Breton woman, probably born at Fougeres in 1773; chambermaid and confidante of Mlle. de Verneuil, who had been reared by Francine's parents. Childhood's friend of Marche-a-Terre, with whom she used her influence to save the life of her mistress during the massacre of the "Blues" at the Vivitiere in 1799. [The Chouans.]
COUDRAI (Du), register of mortgages at Alencon, time of Louis XVIII. A caller at the home of Mlle. Cormon, and afterwards at that of M. du Bousquier, who married "the old maid." One of the town's most open- hearted men; his only faults were having married a rich old lady who was unendurable, and the habit of making villainous puns at which he was first to laugh. In 1824 M. du Coudrai was poverty-stricken; he had lost his place on account of voting the wrong way. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
COUPIAU, Breton courier from Mayenne to Fougeres in 1799. In the struggle between the "Blues" and the Chouans he took no part, but acted as circumstances demanded and for his own interests. Indeed he offered no resistance when the "Brigands" stole the government chests. Coupiau was nick-named Mene-a-Bien by Marche-a-Terre the Chouan. [The Chouans.]
COUPIAU (Sulpice), Chouan and probably the father of Coupiau the messenger. Killed in 1799 in the battle of La Pelerine or at the seige of Fougeres. [The Chouans.]
COURAND (Jenny), florist; mistress of Felix Gaudissart in 1831. At that time she lived in Paris on rue d'Artois. [Gaudissart the Great.]
COURCEUIL (Felix), of Alencon, retired army surgeon of the Rebel forces of the Vendee. In 1809 he furnished arms to the "Brigands." Involved in the trial known as "Chauffeurs of Mortagne." Condemned to death for contumacy. [The Seamy Side of History.]
COURNANT, notary at Provins in 1827; rival of Auffray, the notary; of the Opposition; one of the few public-spirited men of the little town. [Pierrette.]
COURTECUISSE, game-keeper of the Aigues estate in Burgundy under the Empire and Restoration until 1823. Born about 1777; at first in the service of Mlle. Laguerre; discharged by General de Montcornet for absolute incapacity, and replaced by keepers who were trusty and true. Courtecuisse was a little fellow with a face like a full moon. He was never so happy as when idle. On leaving he demanded a sum of eleven hundred francs which was not due him. His master indignantly denied his claim at first, but yielded the point, however, on being threatened with a lawsuit, the scandal of which he wished to avoid. Courtecuisse, out of a job, purchased from Rigou for two thousand francs the little property of La Bachelerie, enclosed in the Aigues estate, and wearied himself, without gain, in the management of his land. He had a daughter who was tolerably pretty and eighteen years old in 1823. At this time she was in the service of Mme. Mariotte the elder, at Auxerre. Courtecuisse was given the sobriquet of "Courtebotte"--short-boot. [The Peasantry.]
COURTECUISSE (Madame), wife of the preceding; in abject fear of the miser, Gregoire Rigou, mayor of Blangy, Burgundy. [The Peasantry.]
COURTEVILLE (Madame de), cousin of Comte de Bauvan on the maternal side; widow of a judge of the Seine Court. She had a very beautiful daughter, Amelie, whom the comte wished to marry to his secretary, Maurice de l'Hostal. [Honorine.]
COURTOIS, Marsac miller, near Angouleme during the Restoration. In 1821 rumor had it that he intended to wed a miller's widow, his patroness, who was thirty-two years old. She had one hundred thousand francs in her own right. David Sechard was advised by his father to ask the hand of this rich widow. At the end of 1822 Courtois, now married, sheltered Lucien de Rubempre, returning almost dead from Paris. [Lost Illusions.]
COURTOIS (Madame), wife of the preceding, who cared sympathetically for Lucien de Rubempre, on his return. [Lost Illusions.]
COUSSARD (Laurent). (See Goussard, Laurent.)
COUTELIER, a creditor of Maxime de Trailles. The Coutelier credit, purchased for five hundred francs by the Claparon-Cerizet firm, came to thirty-two hundred francs, seventy-five centimes, capital, interest and costs. It was recovered by Cerizet by means of a strategy worthy of a Scapin. [A Man of Business.]
COUTURE, a kind of financier-journalist of an equivocal reputation; born about 1797. One of Mme. Schontz's earliest friends; and she alone remained faithful to him when he was ruined by the downfall of the ministry of March 1st, 1840. Couture was always welcome at the home of the courtesan, who dreamed, perhaps, of making him her husband. But he presented Fabien du Ronceret to her and the "lorette" married him. In 1836, in company with Finot and Blondet, he was present in a private room of a well-known restaurant when Jean-Jacques Bixiou related the origin of the Nucingen fortune. At the time of his transient wealth Couture splendidly maintained Jenny Cadine. At one time he was celebrated for his waistcoats. He had no known relationship with the widow Couture. [Beatrix. The Firm of Nucingen.] The financier drew upon himself the hatred of Cerizet for having deceived him in a deal about the purchase of lands and houses situated in the suburbs of the Madeleine, an affair in which Jerome Thuillier was afterwards concerned. [The Middle Classes.]
COUTURE (Madame), widow of an ordonnance-commissary of the French Republic. Relative and protectress of Mlle. Victorine Taillefer with whom she lived at the Vauquer pension, in 1819. [Father Goriot.]
COUTURIER (Abbe), curate of Saint-Leonard church at Alencon, time of Louis XVIII. Spiritual adviser of Mlle. Cormon, remaining her confessor after her marriage with Du Bousquier, and influencing her in the way of excessive penances. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]
CREMIERE, tax-collector at Nemours during the Restoration. Nephew by marriage of Dr. Minoret, who had secured the position for him, furnishing his security. One of the three collateral heirs of the old physician, the two others being Minoret-Levrault, the postmaster, and Massin-Levrault, copy-clerk to the justice of the peace. In the curious branching of these four Gatinais bourgeois families--the Minorets, the Massins, the Levraults and the Cremieres--the tax collector belonged to the Cremiere-Cremiere branch. He had several children, among others a daughter named Angelique. After the Revolution of July, 1830, he became municipal councillor. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CREMIERE (Madame), nee Massin-Massin, wife of the tax-collector, and niece of Dr. Minoret--that is, daughter of the old physician's sister. A stout woman with a muddy blonde complexion splotched with freckles. Passed for an educated person on account of her reading. Her /lapsi linguoe/ were maliciously spread abrby Goupil, the notary's clerk, who labelled them, "Capsulinguettes"; indeed, Mme. Cremiere thus translated the two Latin words. [Ursule Mirouet.]
CREMIERE-DIONIS, always called Dionis, which name see.
CREVEL (Celestin), born between 1786 and 1788; clerked for Cesar Birotteau the perfumer--first as second clerk, then as head-clerk when Popinot left the house to set up in business for himself. After his patron's failure in 1819, he purchased for five thousand seven hundred francs, "The Queen of Roses," making his own fortune thereby. During the reign of Louis Philippe he lived on his income. Captain, then chief of battalion in the National Guard; officer of the Legion of Honor; mayor of one of the arrondissements of Paris, he ended up by being a very great personage. He had married the daughter of a farmer of Brie; became a widower in 1833, when he gave himself over to a life of pleasure. He maintained Josepha, who was taken away from him by his friend, Baron Hulot. To avenge himself he tried to win Mme. Hulot. He "protected" Heloise Brisetout. Finally he was smitten with Mme. Marneffe, whom he had for mistress and afterwards married when she became a widow in 1843. In May of this same year, Crevel and his wife died of a horrible disease which had been communicated to Valerie by a negro belonging to Montes the Brazilian. In 1838 Crevel lived on rue des Saussaies; at the same time he owned a little house on rue du Dauphin, where he had prepared a secret chamber for Mme. Marneffe; this last house he leased to Maxime de Trailles. Besides these Crevel owned: a house on rue Barbet de Jouy; the Presles property bought of Mme. de Serizy at a cost of three million francs. He caused himself to be made a member of the General Council of Seine-et-Oise. By his first marriage he had an only daughter, Celestine, who married Victorin Hulot. [Cesar Birotteau. Cousin Betty.] In 1844-1845 Crevel owned a share in the management of the theatre directed by Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]
CREVEL (Celestine), only child of the first marriage of the preceding. (See Hulot, Mme. Victorin.)
CREVEL (Madame Celestin), born Valerie Fortin in 1815; natural daughter of the Comte de Montcornet, marshal of France; married, first Marneffe, an employe in the War Office, with whom she broke faith by agreement with the clerk; and second, Celestin Crevel. She bore Marneffe a child, a stunted, scrawny urchin named Stanislas. An intimate friend of Lisbeth Fischer who utilized Valerie's irresistible attractions for the satisfying of her hatred towards her rich relatives. At this time Mme. Marneffe belonged jointly to Marneffe, to the Brazilian Montes, to Steinbock the Pole, to Celestin Crevel and to Baron Hulot. Each of these she held responsible for a child born in 1841, and which died on coming into the world. By prearrangement, she was surprised with Hulot by the police-commissioners, during this period, in Crevel's cottage on rue du Dauphin. After having lived with Marneffe on rue du Doyenne in the house occuped by Lisbeth Fischer-- "Cousin Betty"--she was installed by Baron Hulot on rue Vaneau; then by Crevel in a mansion on rue Barbet-de-Jouy. She died in 1843, two days prior to Celestin. She perished while trying to "cajole God"--to use her own expression. She bequeathed, as a restitution, 300,000 francs to Hector Hulot. Valerie Marneffe did not lack spirit. Claude Vignon, the great critic, especially appreciated this woman's intellectual depravity. [Cousin Betty.]
CROCHARD, Opera dancer in the second half of the eighteenth century. Director of theatrical evolutions. He commanded a band of assailants upon the Bastile, July 14, 1789; became an officer, a colonel, dying of wounds received at Lutzen, May 2, 1813. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Madame), widow of the preceding. Before the Revolution she had sung with her husband in the chorus. In 1815 she lived wretchedly with her daughter Caroline, following the embroiderer's trade, in a house on rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean, which belonged to Molineux. Wishing to find a protector for her daughter, Caroline, Mme. Crochard favored the attentions of the Comte de Granville. He rewarded her with a life-annuity of three thousand francs. She died, in 1822, in a comfortable lodging on rue Saint-Louis at Marais. She constantly wore on her breast the cross of chevalier of the Legion of Honor conferred on her husband by the Emperor. The widow Crochard, watched by an eager circle, received, at her last moments, a visit from Abbe Fontanon, confessor of the Comtesse de Granville, and was greatly troubled by the prelate's proceedings. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Caroline), daughter of the proceding; born in 1797. For several years during the Restoration she was the mistress of Comte de Granville; at that time she was known as Mlle. de Bellefeuille, from the name of a small piece of property at Gatinais given to the young woman by an uncle of the comte who had taken a liking to her. Her lover installed her in an elegant apartment on rue Taitbout, where Esther Gobseck afterwards lived. Caroline Crochard abandoned M. de Granville and a good position for a needy young fellow named Solvet, who ran through with all her property. Sick and poverty-stricken in 1833, she lived in a wretched two-story house on rue Gaillon. She gave the Comte de Granville a son, Charles, and a daughter, Eugenie. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Charles), illegitimate child of Comte de Granville and Caroline Crochard. In 1833 he was apprehended for a considerable theft, when he appealed to his father through the agency of Eugene de Granville, his half-brother. The comte gave the latter money enough to clear up the miserable business, if such were possible. [A Second Home.] The theft in question was committed at the home of Mlle. Beaumesnil. He carried off her diamonds. [The Middle Classes.]
CROISIER (Du). (See Bousquier, Du.)
CROIZEAU, former coachmaker to Bonaparte's Imperial court; had an income of about forty thousand francs; lived on rue Buffault; a widower without children. He was a constant visitor at Antonia Chocardelle's reading-room on rue Coquenard, time of Louis Philippe, and he offered to marry the "charming woman." [A Man of Business.]
CROTTAT (Monsieur and Madame), retired farmers; parents of the notary Crottat, assassinated by some thieves, among them being the notorious Dannepont, alias La Pouraille. The trial of this crime was called in May, 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] They were well-to-do folk and, according to Cesar Birotteau who knew them, old man Crottat was as "close as a snail." [Cesar Birotteau.]
CROTTAT (Alexandre), head-clerk of Maitre Roguin, and his successor in 1819, after the flight of the notary. He married the daughter of Lourdois, the painting-contractor. Cesar Birotteau thought for a time of making him his son-in-law. He called him, familiarly, "Xandrot." Alexandre Crottat was a guest at the famous ball given by the perfumer in December, 1818. He was in friendly relations with Derville, the attorney, who commissioned him with a sort of half-pay for Colonel Chabert. He was also Comtesse Ferraud's notary at this time. [Cesar Birotteau. Colonel Chabert.] In 1822 he was notary to Comte de Serizy. [A Start in Life.] He was also notary to Charles de Vandenesse; and one evening, at the home of the marquis, he made some awkward allusions which undoubtedly recalled unpleasant memories to his client and Mme. d'Aiglemont. Upon his return home he narrated the particulars to his wife, who chided him sharply. [A Woman of Thirty.] Alexandre Crottat and Leopold Hannequin signed the will dictated by Sylvain Pons on his death-bed. [Cousin Pons.]
CRUCHOT (Abbe), priest of Saumur; dignitary of the Chapter of Saint- Martin of Tours; brother of Cruchot, the notary; uncle of President Cruchot de Bonfons; the Talleyrand of his family; after much angling he induced Eugenie Grandet to wed the president in 1827. [Eugenie Grandet.]
CRUCHOT, notary at Saumur during the Restoration; brother of Abbe Cruchot; uncle of President Cruchot de Bonfons. He as well as the prelate was much concerned with making the match between his nephew and Eugenie Grandet. The young girl's father entrusted M. Cruchot with his usurious dealings and probably with all his money matters. [Eugenie Grandet.]
CURIEUX (Catherine). (See Farrabesche, Madame.)
CYDALISE, magnificent woman of Valognes, Normandy, who launched out in Paris in 1840 to make capital out of her beauty. Born in 1824, she was then only sixteen. She served as an instrument for Montes the Brazilian who, in order to avenge himself on Mme. Marneffe--now Mme. Crevel--inoculated the young girl with a terrible disease through one of his negroes. He in turn obtained it from Cydalise and transmitted it to the faithless Valerie who died as also did her husband. Cydalise probably accompanied Montes to Brazil, the only place where this horrible ailment is curable. [Cousin Betty.]
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