第111章 L(13)

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.]