第26章 B(15)

But the young nobleman provoked Du Bousquier into a duel where the latter dangerously wounded him. Afterwards Bousquier gave him in marriage the hand of his niece, Mlle. Duval, dowered with three millions. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] Probably he was the father of Flavie Minoret, the daughter of a celebrated Opera danseuse. But he never acknowledged this child, and she was dowered by Princesse Galathionne and married Colleville. [The Middle Classes.]

BOSQUIER (Madame du), born Cormon (Rose-Marie-Victoire) in 1773. She was a very wealthy heiress, living with her maternal uncle, the Abbe de Sponde, in an old house of Alencon (rue du Val-Noble), and receiving, in 1816, the aristocracy of the town, with which she was related through marriage. Courted simultaneously by Athanase Granson, the Chevalier de Valois and Du Bousquier, she gave her hand to the old commissariat, whose athletic figure and /passe/ libertinism had impressed her vaguely. But her secret desires were utterly dashed by him; she confessed later that she couldn't endure the idea of dying a maid. Mme. du Bousquier was very devout. She was descended from the stewards of the ancient Ducs d'Alencon. In this same year of 1816, she hoped in vain to wed a Troisville, but he was already married. She found it difficult to brook the state of hostility declared between M. du Bousquier and the Esgrignons. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

BOUTIN, at one time sergeant in the cavalry regiment of which Chabert was colonel. He lived at Stuttgart in 1814, exhibiting white bears very well trained by him. In this city he encountered his former ranking officer, shorn of all his possessions, and just emerging from an insane asylum. Boutin aided him as best he could and took it upon himself to go to Paris and inform Mme. Chabert of her husband's whereabouts. But Boutin fell on the field of Waterloo, and could hardly have accomplished his mission. [Colonel Chabert.]

BOUVARD (Doctor), physician of Paris, born about 1758. A friend of Dr.

Minoret, with whom he had some lively tilts about Mesmer. He had adopted that system, while Minoret gainsaid the truth thereof. These discussions ended in an estrangement, for some time, between the two cronies. Finally, in 1829, Bouvard wrote Minoret asking him to come to Paris to assist in some conclusive tests of magnetism. As a result of these tests, Dr. Minoret, materialist and atheist that he was, became a devout Spiritualist and Catholic. In 1829 Dr. Bouvard lived on rue Ferou. [Ursule Mirouet.] He had been as a father to Dr. Lebrun, physician of the Conciergerie in 1830, who, according to his own avowal, owed to him his position, since he often drew from his master his own ideas regarding nervous energy. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BOUYONNET, a lawyer at Mantes, under Louis Philippe, who, urged by his confreres and stimulated by the public prosecutor, "showed up"

Fraisier, another lawyer in the town, who had been retained in a suit for both parties at once. The result of this denunciation was to make Fraisier sell his office and leave Mantes. [Cousin Pons.]

BRAMBOURG (Comte de), title of Philippe Bridau to which his brother Joseph succeeded. [A Bachelor's Establishment. The Unconscious Humorists.]

BRANDON (Lady Marie-Augusta), mother of Louis and Marie Gaston, children born out of wedlock. Together with the Vicomtesse de Beauseant she assisted, in company with Colonel Franchessini, probably her lover, at the famous ball on the morning following which the duped mistress of D'Ajuda-Pinto secretly left Paris. [The Member for Arcis.]

In 1820, while living with her two children in seclusion at La Grenadiere, in the neighborhood of Tours, she saw Felix de Vandenesse, at the time when Mme. de Mortsauf died, and charged him with a pressing message to Lady Arabelle Dudley. [The Lily of the Valley.]

She died, aged thirty-six, during the Restoration, in the house at La Grenadiere, and was buried in the Saint-Cyr Cemetery. Her husband, Lord Brandon, who had abandoned her, lived in London, Brandon Square, Hyde Park, at this time. In Touraine Lady Brandon was known only by the assumed name of Mme. Willemsens. [La Grenadiere.]

BRASCHON, upholsterer and cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-Antoine, famous under the Restoration. He did a considerable amount of work for Cesar Birotteau and figured among the creditors in his bankruptcy.

[Cesar Birotteau. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

BRAULARD, born in 1782. The head /claquer/ at the theatre of the Panorama-Dramatique, and then at the Gymnase, about 1822. The lover of Mlle. Millot. At this time he lived in rue Faubourg du Temple, in a rather comfortable flat where he gave fine dinners to actresses, managing editors and authors--among others, Adele Dupuis, Finot, Ducange and Frederic du Petit-Mere. He was credited with having gained an income of twenty thousand francs by discounting authors' and other complimentary tickets. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] When chief /claquer/, about 1843, he had in his following Chardin, alias Idamore [Cousin Betty], and commanded his "Romans" at the Boulevard theatre, which presented operas, spectaculars and ballets at popular prices, and was run by Felix Gaudissart. [Cousin Pons.]

BRAZIER, this family included the following: A peasant of Vatan (Indre), the paternal uncle and guardian of Mlle. Flore Brazier, known as "La Rabouilleuse." In 1799 he placed her in the house of Dr. Rouget on very satisfactory conditions for himself, Brazier. Rendered comparatively rich by the doctor, he died two years before the latter, in 1805, from a fall received on leaving an inn where he spent his time after becoming well-to-do. His wife, who was a very harsh aunt of Flore's. Lastly the brother and brother-in-law of this girl's guardians, the real father of "La Rabouilleuse," who died in 1799, a demented widower, in the hospital of Bourges. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]