第63章 F(3)

FERRAUD (Comtesse), born Rose Chapotel; wife of Comte Ferraud. During the Republic, or at the commencement of the Empire, she married her first husband, an officer named Hyacinthe and known as Chabert, who was left for dead on the battlefield of Eylau, in 1807. About 1818 he tried to reassert his marital rights. Colonel Chabert claimed to have taken Rose Chapotel out of a questionable place at Palais-Royal.

During the Restoration this woman was a countess and one of the queens of Parisian society. When brought face to face with her first husband she feigned at first not to recognize him, then she displayed such a dislike for him that he abandoned his idea of legal restitution.

[Colonel Chabert.] The Comtesse Ferraud was the last mistress of Louis XVIII., and remained in favor at the court of Charles X. She and Mesdames de Listomere, d'Espard, de Camps and de Nucingen were invited to the select receptions of the Minister of Finance, in 1824. [The Government Clerks.]

FERRAUD (Jules), son of Comte Ferraud and Rose Chapotel, the Comtesse Ferraud. While still a child, in 1817 or 1818, he was one day at his mother's house when Colonel Chabert called. She wept and he asked hotly if the officer was responsible for the grief of the countess.

The latter with her two children then played a maternal comedy which was successful with the ingenuous soldier. [Colonel Chabert.]

FESSARD, grocer at Saumur during the Restoration. Astonished one day by Nanon's, the servant's, purchase of a wax-candle, he asked if "the three magi were visiting them." [Eugenie Grandet.]

FICHET (Mademoiselle), the richest heiress of Issoudun during the Restoration. Godet, junior, one of the "Knights of Idlesse" paid court to her mother in the hope of obtaining, as a reward for his devotion, the hand of the young girl. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

FINOT (Andoche), managing-editor of journals and reviews, times of the Restoration and Louis Philippe. Son of a hatter of rue du Coq (now rue Marengo). Finot was abandoned by his father, a hard trader, and made a poor beginning. He wrote a bombastic announcement for Popinot's "Cephalic Oil." His first work was attending to announcements and personals in the papers. He was invited to the Birotteau ball. Finot was acquainted with Felix Gaudissart, who introduced him to little Anselme, as a great promoter. He was previously on the editorial staff of the "Courrier des Spectacles," and he had a piece performed at the Gaite. [Cesar Birotteau.] In 1820 he ran a little theatrical paper whose office was located on rue du Sentier. He was nephew of Giroudeau, a captain of dragoons; was witness of the marriage of J.-J.

Rouget. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] in 1821 Finot's paper was on rue Saint-Fiacre. Etienne Lousteau, Hector Merlin, Felicien Vernou, Nathan, F. du Bruel and Blondet all contributed to it. Then it was that Lucien de Rubempre made his reputation by a remarkable report of "L'Alcade dans l'embarras," a three act drama performed at the Panorama-Dramatique. Finot then lived on rue Feydeau. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1824 he was at the Opera ball in a group of dandies and litterateurs, which surrounded Lucien de Rubempre, who was flirting with Esther Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In this year Finot was guest at an entertainment at the home of Rabourdin, the chief of bureau, when he allowed himself to be won over to that official's cause by his friend Chardin des Lupeaulx, who had asked him to exert the voice of the press against Baudoyer, the rival of Rabourdin. [The Government Clerks.] In 1825 he was present at a breakfast given at the Rocher de Cancale, by Frederic Marest in celebration of his entrance to the law office of Desroches; he was also at the orgy which followed at the home of Florine. [A Start in Life.] In 1831 Gaudissart said that his friend Finot had an income of thirty thousand francs, that he would be councillor of state, and was booked for a peer of France. He aspired to end up as his "shareholder." [Gaudissart the Great.] In 1836 Finot was dining with Blondet, his fellow-editor, and with Couture, a man about town, in a private room of a well-known restaurant, when he heard the story of the financial trickeries of Nucingen, wittily related by Bixiou. [The Firm of Nucingen.] Finot concealed "a brutal nature under a mild exterior," and his "impertinent stupidity was flecked with wit as the bread of a laborer is flecked with garlic." [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

FIRMIANI, a respectable quadragenarian who in 1813 married the lady who afterwards became Mme. Octave de Camps. He was unable, so it was said, to offer her more than his name and his fortune. He was formerly receiver-general in the department of Montenotte. He died in Greece in 1823. [Madame Firmiani.]

FIRMIANI (Madame). (See Camps, Mme. de.)

FISCHER, the name of three brothers, laborers in a village situated on the extreme frontiers of Lorraine, at the foot of the Vosges. They set out to join the army of the Rhine by reason of Republican conscriptions. The first, Pierre, father of Lisbeth--or "Cousin Betty" --was killed in 1815 in the Francstireurs. The second, Andre, father of Adeline who became the wife of Baron Hulot, died at Treves in 1820.

The third, Johann, having committed some acts of peculation, at the instigation of his nephew Hulot, while a commissary contractor in Algiers, province of Oran, committed suicide in 1841. He was over seventy when he killed himself. [Cousin Betty.]

FISCHER (Adeline). (See Hulot, d'Ervy, Baronne Hector.)