第101章 L(3)

LA CHANTERIE (Baron Henri Le Chantre de), born in 1763, son of the preceding, shrewd, handsome and seductive. When master of petitions in the Grand Council of 1788, he married Mademoiselle Barbe-Philiberte de Champignelles. Ruined during the Restoration through having lost his position and thrown away his inheritance, Henri Le Chantre de la Chanterie became one of the most cruel presidents of the revolutionary courts and was the terror of Normandie. Imprisoned after the ninth Thermidor, he owed his escape to his wife, by means of an exchange of clothing. He did not see her more than three times during eight years, the last meeting being in 1802, when, having become a bigamist, he returned to her home to die of a disgraceful disease, leaving, at the same time, a second wife, likewise ruined. This last fact was not made public until 1804. [The Seamy Side of History.]

LA CHANTERIE (Baronne Henri Le Chantre de), wife of the preceding, born Barbe-Philiberte de Champignelles in 1772, a descendant of one of the first families of Lower Normandie. Married in 1788, she received in her home, fourteen years later, the dying man whose name she bore, a bigamist fleeing from justice. By him she had a daughter, Henriette, who was executed in 1809 for having been connected with the Chauffeurs in Orne. Unjustly accused herself, and imprisoned in the frightful Bicetre of Rouen, the baroness began to instruct in morals the sinful women among whom she found herself thrown. The fall of the Empire was her deliverance. Twenty years later, being part owner of a house in Paris, Madame de la Chanterie undertook the training of Godefroid. She was then supporting a generous private philanthropic movement, with the help of Manon Godard and Messieurs de Veze, de Montauran, Mongenod and Alain. Madame de la Chanterie aided the Bourlacs and the Mergis, an impoverished family of magistrates who had persecuted her in 1809.

Her Christian works were enlarged upon. In 1843 the baroness became head of a charitable organization which was striving to consecrate, according to law and religion, the relations of those living in free union. To this end she selected one member of the society, Adeline Hulot d'Ervy, and sent her to Passage du Soleil, then a section of Petite-Pologne, to try to bring about the marriage of Vyder--Hector Hulot d'Ervy--and Atala Judici. [The Seamy Side of History. Cousin Betty.] The Revolution having done away with titles, Madame de la Chanterie called herself momentarily Madame, or Citizeness, Lechantre.

LACROIX, restaurant-keeper on Place du Marche, Issoudun, 1822, in whose house the Bonapartist officers celebrated the crowning of the Emperor. On December 2, of the same year, the duel between Philippe Bridau and Maxence took place after the entertainment. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]

LAFERTE (Nicolas). (See Cochegrue, Jean.)

LA GARDE (Madame de). (See Aquilina.)

LA GAUDINIERE (Madame), born La Bertelliere, mother of Madame Felix Grandet; very avaricious; died in 1806; leaving the Felix Grandets an inheritance, "the amount of which no one knew." [Eugenie Grandet.]

LAGINSKI (Comte Adam Mitgislas), a wealthy man who had been proscribed, belonged to one of the oldest and most illustrious families of Poland, and counted among his relations the Sapiehas, the Radziwills, the Mniszechs, the Rezwuskis, the Czartoriskis, the Lecszinskis, and the Lubomirskis. He had relations in the German nobility and his mother was a Radziwill. Young, plain, yet with a certain distinguished bearing, with an income of eighty thousand francs, Laginski was a leading light in Paris, during the reign of Louis Philippe. After the Revolution of July, while still unsophisticated, he attended an entertainment at the home of Felicite des Touches in Chaussee-d'Antin on rue du Mont-Blanc, and had the opportunity of listening to the delightful chats between Henri de Marsay and Emile Blondet. Comte Adam Laginski, during the autumn of 1835, married the object of his affections, Mademoiselle Clementine du Rouvre, niece of the Ronquerolles. The friendship of his steward, Paz, saved him from the ruin into which his creole-like carelessness, his frivolity and his recklessness were dragging him. He lived in perfect contentment with his wife, ignorant of the domestic troubles which were kept from his notice. Thanks to the devotion of Paz and of Madame Laginska, he was cured of a malady which had been pronounced fatal by Doctor Horace Bianchon. Comte Adam Laginski lived on rue de la Pepiniere, now absorbed in part by rue de la Boetie. He occupied one of the most palatial and artistic houses of the period, so called, of Louis Philippe. He attended the celebration given in 1838 at the first opening of Josepha Mirah's residence on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. In this same year he attended the wedding of Wenceslas Steinbock.

[Another Study of Woman. The Imaginary Mistress. Cousin Betty.]

LAGINSKA (Comtesse Adam), born Clementine du Rouvre in 1816, wife of the preceding, niece, on her mother's side, of the Marquis de Ronquerolles and of Madame de Serizy. She was one of the charming group of young women, which included Mesdames de l'Estorade, de Portenduere, Marie de Vandenesse, du Guenic and de Maufrigneuse.

Captain Paz was secretly in love with the countess, who, becoming aware of her steward's affection, ended by having very nearly the same kind of feeling for him. The unselfish virtue of Paz was all that saved her; not only at this juncture, but in another more dangerous one, when he rescued her from M. de la Palferine, who was escorting her to the Opera ball and who was on the point of taking her to a private room in a restaurant--January, 1842. [The Imaginary Mistress.]