Part 16

FRAISIER, born about 1814, probably at Mantes. Son of a cobbler; an advocate and man of business at No. 9 rue de la Perle, Paris, in 1844-45. Began as copy-clerk at Couture's office. After serving Desroches as head-clerk for six years he bought the practice of Levroux, an advocate of Mantes, where he had occasion to meet Leboeuf, Vinet, Vatinelle and Bouyonnet. But he soon had to sell out and leave town on account of violating professional ethics. Whereupon he opened up a consultation office in Paris. A friend of Dr. Poulain who attended the last days of Sylvain Pons, he gave crafty counsel to Mme. Cibot, who coveted the chattels of the old bachelor. He also assured the Camusot de Marvilles that they should be the legatees of the old musician despite the faithful Schmucke. In 1845 he succeeded Vitel as justice of the peace; the coveted place being secured for him by Camusot de Marville, as a fee for his services. In Normandy he again acted successfully for this family. Fraisier was a dried-up little man with a blotched face and an unpleasant odor. At Mantes a certain Mme. Vatinelle nevertheless "made eyes at him"; and he lived at Marais with a servant-mistress, Dame Sauvage. But he missed more than one marriage, not being able to win either his client, Mme. Florimond, or the daughter of Tabareau. To tell the truth De Marville advised him to leave the latter alone. [Cousin Pons.]

FRANCHESSINI (Colonel), born about 1789, served in the Imperial Guard, and was one of the most dashing colonels of the Restoration, but was forced to resign on account of a slur on his character. In 1808, to provide for foolish expenditures into which a woman led him, he forged certain notes. Jacques Collin--Vautrin--took the crime to himself and was sent to the galleys for several years. In 1819 Franchessini killed young Taillefer in a duel, at the instigation of Vautrin. The following year he was with Lady Brandon--probably his mistress--at the grand ball given by the Vicomtesse de Beauseant, just before her flight. In 1839, Franchessini was a leading member of the Jockey club, and held the rank of colonel in the National Guard. Married a rich Irishwoman who was devout and charitable and lived in one of the finest mansions of the Breda quarter. Elected deputy, and being an intimate friend of Rastignac, he evinced open hostility for Sallenauve and voted against his being seated in order to gratify Maxime de Trailles. [Father Goriot. The Member for Arcis.]

FRANCOIS (Abbe), cure of the parish at Alencon in 1816. "A Cheverus on a small scale" he had taken the constitutional oath during the Revolution and for this reason was despised by the "ultras" of the town although he was a model of charity and virtue. Abbe Francois frequented the homes of M. and Mme. du Bousquier and M. and Mme. Granson; but M. du Bousquier and Athanase Granson were the only ones to give him cordial welcome. In his last days he became reconciled with the curate of Saint-Leonard, Alencon's aristocratic church, and died universally lamented. [Jealousies of a Country Town.]

FRANCOIS, head valet to Marshal de Montcornet at Aigues in 1823. Attached specially to Emile Blondet when the journalist visited them. Salary twelve hundred francs. In his master's confidence. [The Peasantry.]

FRANCOIS, in 1822, stage-driver between Paris and Beaumont-sur-Oise, in the service of the Touchard Company. [A Start in Life.]

FRANCOISE, servant of Mme. Crochard, rue Saint-Louis in Marais in 1822. Toothless woman of thirty years' service. Was present at her mistress' death-bed. This was the fourth she had buried. [A Second Home.]

FRAPPART, in 1839, at Arcis-sur-Aube, proprietor of a dance-hall where was held the primary, presided over by Colonel Giguet, which nominated Sallenauve. [The Member for Arcis.]

FRAPPIER, finest carpenter in Provins in 1827-28. It was to him that Jacques Brigaut came as apprentice when he went to the town to be near his childhood's friend, Pierrette Lorrain. Frappier took care of her when she left Rogron's house. Frappier was married. [Pierrette.]

FREDERIC, one of the editors of Finot's paper in 1821, who reported the Theatre-Francais and the Odeon. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

FRELU (La Grande), girl of Croisic who had a child by Simon Gaudry. Nurse to Pierrette Cambremer whose mother died when she was very young. [A Seaside Tragedy.]

FRESCONI, an Italian who, during the Restoration and until 1828, ran a nursery on Boulevard du Montparnasse. The business was not a success. Barbet the book-seller was interested in it; he turned it into a lodging-house, where dwelt Baron Bourlac. [The Seamy Side of History.]

FRESQUIN, former supervisor of roads and bridges. Married and father of a family. Employed, time of Louis Philippe, by Gregoire Gerard in the hydraulic operations for Mme. Graslin at Montegnac. In 1843 Fresquin was appointed district tax collector. [The Country Parson.]

FRISCH (Samuel), Jewish jeweler on rue Saint-Avoie in 1829. Furnisher and creditor of Esther Gobseck. A general pawnbroker. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

FRITAUD (Abbe), priest of Sancerre in 1836. [The Muse of the Department.]

FRITOT, dealer in shawls on the stock exchange, Paris, time of Louis Philippe. Rival of Gaudissart. He sold an absurd shawl for six thousand francs to Mistress Noswell, an eccentric Englishwoman. Fritot was once invited to dine with the King. [Gaudissart II.]

FRITOT (Madame), wife of preceding. [Gaudissart II.]

FROIDFROND (Marquis de), born about 1777. Gentleman of Maine-et-Loire. While very young he became insolvent and sold his chateau near Saumur, which was bought at a low price for Felix Grandet by Cruchot the notary, in 1811. About 1827 the marquis was a widower with children, and was spoken of as a possible peer of France. At this time Mme. des Grassins tried to persuade Eugenie Grandet, now an orphan, that she would do well to wed the marquis, and that this marriage was a pet scheme of her father. And again in 1832 when Eugenie was left a widow by Cruchot de Bonfons, the family of the marquis tried to arrange a marriage with him. [Eugenie Grandet.]

FROMAGET, apothecary at Arcis-sur-Aube, time of Louis Philippe. As his patronage did not extend to the Gondrevilles, he was disposed to work against Keller; that is why he probably voted for Giguet in 1839. [The Member for Arcis.]

FROMENTEAU, police-agent. With Contenson he had belonged to the political police of Louis XVIII. In 1845 he aided in unearthing prisoners for debt. Being encountered at the home of Theodore Gaillard by Gazonal, he revealed some curious details concerning different kinds of police to the bewildered countryman. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

FUNCAL (Comte de), an assumed name of Bourignard, when he was met at the Spanish Embassy, Paris, about 1820, by Henri de Marsay and Auguste de Maulincour. There was a real Comte de Funcal, a Portuguese-Brazilian, who had been a sailor, and whom Bourignard duplicated exactly. He may have been "suppressed" violently by the usurper of his name. [The Thirteen.]

G

GABILLEAU, deserter from the Seventeenth infantry; chauffeur executed at Tulle, during the Empire, on the very day when he had planned an escape. Was one of the accomplices of Farrabesche who profited by a hole made in his dungeon by the condemned man to make his own escape. [The Country Parson.]

GABRIEL, born about 1790; messenger at the Department of Finance, and check-receiver at the Theatre Royal, during the Restoration. A Savoyard, and nephew of Antoine, the oldest messenger in the department. Husband of a skilled lace-maker and shawl-mender. He lived with his uncle Antoine and another relative employed in the department, Laurent. [The Government Clerks.]

GABUSSON, cashier in the employ of Dauriat the editor in 1821. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]

GAILLARD (Theodore), journalist, proprietor or manager of newspapers. In 1822 he and Hector Merlin established a Royalist paper in which Rubempre, palinodist, aired opinions favorable to the existing government, and slashed a very good book of his friend Daniel d'Arthez. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] Under Louis Philippe he was one of the owners of a very important political sheet. [Beatrix. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In 1845 he ran a strong paper. At first a man of wit, "he ended by becoming stupid on account of staying in the same environment." He interlarded his speech with epigrams from popular pieces, pronouncing them with the emphasis given by famous actors. Gaillard was good with his Odry and still better with Lemaitre. He lived at rue Menars. There he was met by Lora, Bixiou and Gazonal. [The Unconscious Humorists.]

GAILLARD (Madame Theodore), born at Alencon about 1800. Given name Suzanne. "A Norman beauty, fresh, blooming, and sturdy." One of the employes of Mme. Lardot, the laundress, in 1816, the year when she left her native town after having obtained some money of M. du Bousquier by persuading him that she was with child by him. The Chevalier de Valois liked Suzanne immensely, but did not allow himself to be caught in this trap. Suzanne went to Paris and speedily became a fashionable courtesan. Shortly thereafter she reappeared at Alencon for a visit to attend Athanase Granson's funeral. She mourned with the desolate mother, saying to her on leaving: "I loved him!" At the same time she ridiculed the marriage of Mlle. Cormon with M. du Bousquier, thus avenging the deceased and Chevalier de Valois. [Jealousies of a Country Town.] Under the name of Mme. du Val-Noble she became noted in the artistic and fashionable set. In 1821-22, she became the mistress of Hector Merlin. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. A Bachelor's Establishment.] After having been maintained by Jacques Falleix, the broker who failed, she was for a short time in 1830 mistress of Peyrade who was concealed under the name of Samuel Johnson, "the nabob." She was acquainted with Esther Gobseck, who lived on rue Saint-Georges in a mansion that had been fitted up for her--Suzanne --by Falleix, and obtained by Nucingen for Esther. [Scenes in a Courtesan's Life.] In 1838 she married Theodore Gaillard her lover since 1830. In 1845 she received Lora, Bixiou, and Gazonal. [Beatrix. The Unconscious Humorists.]

GAILLARD, one of three guards who succeeded Courtecuisse, and under the orders of Michaud, in the care of the estate of General de Montcornet at Aigues. [The Peasantry.]

GALARD, market-gardener of Auteuil; father of Mme. Lemprun, maternal grandfather of Mme. Jerome Thuillier. He died, very aged, of an accident in 1817. [The Peasantry.]

GALARD (Mademoiselle), old maid, landed proprietor at Besancon, rue du Perron. She let the first floor of her house to Albert Savarus, in 1834. [Albert Savarus.]

GALARDON (Madame), nee Tiphaine, elder sister of M. Tiphaine, president of the court at Provins. Married at first to a Guenee, she kept one of the largest retail dry-goods shops in Paris, on rue Saint-Denis. Towards the end of the year 1815 she sold out to Rogron and went back to Provins. She had three daughters whom she provided with husbands in the little town: the eldest married M. Lesourd, king's attorney; the second, M. Martener a physician; the third, M. Auffray a notary. Finally she herself married for her second husband, M. Galardon, receiver of taxes. She invariably added to her signature, "nee Tiphaine." She defended Pierrette Lorrain, and was at outs with the Liberals of Provins, who were induced to persecute Rogron's ward. [Pierrette.]

GALATHIONNE (Prince and Princess), Russians. The prince was one of the lovers of Diane de Maufrigneuse. [The Secrets of a Princess.] In September, 1815, he protected La Minoret a celebrated opera dancer, to whose daughter he gave a dowry. [The Middle Classes.] In 1819 Marsay, appearing in the box of the Princess Galathionne, at the Italiens, had Mme. de Nucingen at his mercy. [Father Goriot.] In 1821 Lousteau said that the story of the Prince Galathionne's diamonds, the Maubreuil affair and the Pombreton will, were fruitful newspaper topics. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1834-35, the princess gave balls which the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse attended. [A Daughter of Eve.] About 1840 the prince tried to get Mme. Schontz away from the Marquis de Rochefide; but she said: "Prince, you are no handsomer, but you are older than Rochefide. You would beat me, while he is like a father to me." [Beatrix.]

GALOPE-CHOPINE. (See Cibot.)

GAMARD (Sophie), old maid; owner of a house at Tours on rue de la Psalette, which backed the Saint Gatien church. She let part of it to priests. Here lodged the Abbes Troubert, Chapeloud and Francois Birotteau. The house had been purchased during the Terror by the father of Mlle. Gamard, a dealer in wood, a kind of parvenu peasant. After receiving Abbe Birotteau most cordially she took a disliking to him which was secretly fostered by Troubert, and she finally dispossessed him, seizing the furniture which he valued so greatly. Mlle. Gamard died in 1826 of a chill. Troubert circulated the report that Birotteau had caused her death by the sorrow which he had caused the old maid. [The Vicar of Tours.]

GAMBARA (Paolo), musician, born at Cremona in 1791; son of an instrument-maker, a moderately good performer and a great composer who was driven from his home by the French and ruined by the war. These events consigned Paolo Gambara to a wandering existence from the age of ten. He found little quietude and obtained no congenial situation till about 1813 in Venice. At this time he put on an opera, "Mahomet," at the Fenice theatre, which failed miserably. Nevertheless he obtained the hand of Marianina, whom he loved, and with her wandered through Germany to settle finally in Paris in 1831, in a wretched apartment on rue Froidmanteau. The musician, an accomplished theorist, could not interpret intelligently any of his remarkable ideas and he would play to his wondering auditors jumbled compositions which he thought to be sublime inspirations. However he enthusiastically analyzed "Robert le Diable," having heard Meyerbeer's masterpiece while a guest of Andrea Marcosini. In 1837 he was reduced to mending musical instruments, and occasionally he went with his wife to sing duets in the open air on the Champs-Elysees, to pick up a few sous. Emilio and Massimilla de Varese were deeply sympathetic of the Gambaras, whom they met in the neighborhood of Faubourg Saint-Honore. Paolo Gambara had no commonsense except when drunk. He had invented an outlandish instrument which he called the "panharmonicon." [Gambara.]

GAMBARA (Marianina), Venetian, wife of Paolo Gambara. With him she led a life of almost continual poverty, and for a long time maintained them at Paris by her needle. Her clients on rue Froidmanteau were mostly profligate women, who however were kind and generous towards her. From 1831 to 1836 she left her husband, going with a lover, Andrea Marcosini, who abandoned her at the end of five years to marry a dancer; and in January, 1837, she returned to her husband's home emaciated, withered and faded, "a sort of nervous skeleton," to resume a life of still greater squalor. [Gambara.]

GANDOLPHINI (Prince), Neapolitan, former partisan of King Murat. A victim of the last Revolution he was, in 1823, banished and poverty stricken. At this time he was sixty-five years old, though he looked eighty. He lived modestly enough with his young wife at Gersau --Lucerne--under the English name of Lovelace. He also passed for a certain Lamporani, who was at that time a well-known publisher of Milan. When in the presence of Rodolphe the prince resumed his true self he said: "I know how to make up. I was an actor during the Empire with Bourrienne, Mme. Murat, Mme. d'Abrantes, and any number of others."--Character in a novel "L'Ambitieux par Amour," published by Albert Savarus, in the "Revue de l'Est," in 1834. Under this fictitious name the author related his own history: Rodolphe was himself and the Prince and Princesse Gandolphini were the Duc and Duchesse d'Argaiolo. [Albert Savarus.]

GANDOLPHINI (Princesse), nee Francesca Colonna, a Roman of illustrious origin, fourth child of the Prince and Princess Colonna. While very young she married Prince Gandolphini, one of the richest landed proprietors of Sicily. Under the name of Miss Lovelace, she met Rodolphe in Switzerland and he fell in love with her.--Heroine of a novel entitled "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus. [Albert Savarus.]

GANIVET, bourgeois of Issoudun, In 1822, in a conversation where Maxence Gilet was discussed, Commandant Potel threatened to make Ganivet "swallow his tongue without sauce" if he continued to slander the lover of Flore Brazier. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GANIVET (Mademoiselle), a woman of Issoudun "as ugly as the seven capital sins." Nevertheless she succeeded in winning a certain Borniche-Hereau who in 1778 left her an income of a thousand crowns. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

GANNERAC, in transfer business at Angouleme. In 1821-22 he was involved in the affair of the notes endorsed by Rubempre in imitation of the signature of his brother-in-law Sechard. [Lost Illusions.]

GARANGEOT, in 1845 conducted the orchestra in a theatre run by Felix Gaudissart, succeeding Sylvain Pons to the baton. Cousin of Heloise Brisetout, who obtained the place for him. [Cousin Pons.]

GARCELAND, mayor of Provins during the Restoration. Son-in-law of Guepin. Indirectly protected Pierrette Lorrain from the Liberals of the village led by Maitre Vinet, who acted for Rogron. [Pierrette.]

GARCENAULT (De), first president of the Court of Besancon in 1834. He got the chapter of the cathedral to secure Albert Savarus as counsel in a lawsuit between the chapter and the city. Savarus won the suit. [Albert Savarus.]

GARNERY, one of two special detectives in May, 1830, authorized by the attorney-general, De Granville, to seize certain letters written to Lucien de Rubempre by Mme. de Serizy, the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse and Mlle. Clotilde de Grandlieu. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]

GASNIER, peasant living near Grenoble; born about 1789. Married and the father of several children whom he loved dearly. Inconsolable at the loss of the eldest. Doctor Benassis, mayor of the commune, mentioned this parental affection as a rare instance among tillers of the soil. [The Country Doctor.]

GASSELIN, a Breton born in 1794; servant of the Guenics of Guerande, in 1836, having been in their employ since he was fifteen. A short, stout fellow with black hair, furrowed face; silent and slow. He took care of the garden and stables. In 1832 in the foolish venture of Duchesse de Berry, in which Gasselin took part with the Baron du Guenic and his son Calyste, the faithful servant received a sabre cut on the shoulder, while shielding the young man. This action seemed so natural to the family that Gasselin received small thanks. [Beatrix.]

GASTON (Louis), elder natural son of Lady Brandon, born in 1805. Left an orphan in the early years of the Restoration, he was, though still a child, like a father to his younger brother Marie Gaston, whom he placed in college at Tours; after which he himself shipped as cabin-boy on a man-of-war. After being raised to the rank of captain of an American ship and becoming wealthy in India, he died at Calcutta, during the first part of the reign of Louis Philippe, as a result of the failure of the "famous Halmer," and just as he was starting back to France, married and happy. [La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides.]

GASTON (Marie), second natural son of Lady Brandon; born in 1810. Educated at the college of Tours, which he quitted in 1827. Poet; protege of Daniel d'Arthez, who often gave him food and shelter. In 1831 he met Louise de Chaulieu, the widow of Macumer, at the home of Mme. d'Espard. He married her in October, 1833, though she was older than he, and he was encumbered with debts amounting to 30,000 francs. The couple living quietly at Ville-d'Avray, were happy until a day when the jealous Louise conceived unjustifiable suspicions concerning the fidelity of her husband; on which account she died after they had been married two years. During these two years Gaston wrote at least four plays. One of them written in collaboration with his wife was presented with the greatest success under the names of Nathan and "others." [La Grenadiere. Letters of Two Brides.] In his early youth Gaston had published, at the expense of his friend Dorlange, a volume of poetry, "Les Perce-neige," the entire edition of which found its way, at three sous the volume, to a second-hand book-shop, whence, one fine day, it inundated the quays from Pont Royal to Pont Marie. [The Member for Arcis.]

GASTON (Madame Louis), an Englishwoman of cold, distant manners; wife of Louis Gaston; probably married him in India where he died as a result of unfortunate business deals. As a widow she came to France with two children, where without resource she became a charge to her brother-in-law who visited and aided her secretly. She lived in Paris on rue de la Ville-Eveque. The visits made by Marie Gaston were spoken of to his wife who became jealous, not knowing their object. Mme. Louis Gaston was thus innocently the cause of Mme. Marie Gaston's death. [Letters of Two Brides.]

GASTON (Madame Marie), born Armande-Louise-Marie de Chaulieu, in 1805. At first destined to take the veil; educated at the Carmelite convent of Blois with Renee de Maucombe who became Mme. de l'Estorade. She remained constant in her relations with this faithful friend--at least by letter--who was a prudent and wise adviser. In 1825 Louise married her professor in Spanish, the Baron de Macumer, whom she lost in 1829. In 1833 she married the poet Marie Gaston. Both marriages were sterile. In the first she was adored and believed that she loved; in the second she was loved as much as she loved, but her insane jealousy, and her horseback rides from Ville-d'Avray to Verdier's were her undoing, and she died in 1835 of consumption, contracted purposely through despair at the thought that she had been deceived. After leaving the convent she had lived successively at the following places: on Faubourg Saint-Germain, Paris, where she saw M. de Bonald; at Chantepleur, an estate in Burgundy, at La Crampade, in Provence, with Mme. de l'Estorade; in Italy; at Ville-d'Avray, where she sleeps her last sleep in a park of her own planning. [Letters of Two Brides.]

GATIENNE, servant of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems, at Bayeux, in 1805. [A Second Home.]

GAUBERT, one of the most illustrious generals of the Republic; first husband of a Mlle. de Ronquerolles whom he left a widow at the age of twenty, making her his heir. She married again in 1806, choosing the Comte de Serizy. [A Start in Life.]