Spoiler
Warning: The below contains major plot
spoilers. If your using this as a reference while reading the book,
see the abridged version (No
Spoiler) List of Characters that removes the worst of the spoilers.
I do recommend reading the full version below once your done with the
book as it contains details that may have been missed.
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*Auguste - a young swine-herd at La Bordcrie. She assisted
Soulas, the old shepherd, to look after the sheep.
*Badeuil, Charles - married Laure Fouan, and went to live at
Chartres. He tried commerce without much success, and, haunted by a
desire for rapid fortune, acquired a whore house which had fallen into
bad repute through mismanagement. Thanks to the firm control of Badeuil,
and the extraordinary activity of his wife, the establishment prospered,
and in less than twenty-five years the couple had saved three hundred
thousand francs. They were then able to realize the dream of their life,
and to retire to the country, where they purchased a property named
Roseblanche, near Madame Badeuil's native place. M. Badeuil was a
handsome man, sixty-five years of age, with a solemn face, and the air
of a retired magistrate. He was respected by his neighbours, and held
the strictest views on morality. The old couple lived in complete
happiness, their only worry being that Vaucogne, who had married their
daughter Estelle and taken over the property in Chartres, was not
managing it properly.
*Badeuil, Madame Laube - wife of Charles, was the youngest
daughter of Joseph Casimir Fouan. She was the sister of La Grande, of
Pere Fouan, and of Michel Fouan, known as Mouche. When her father's
estate was divided, she got no land, but received an indemnity in money
instead. After she and her husband acquired the establishment in
Chartres, she assisted ably in its management. At the time of their
retirement to the country, she was a woman of sixty-two years of age, of
respectable appearance and an air of religious seclusion. She set a good
example by going regularly to Mass, and paid great attention to the
education of her granddaughter, Elodie, whom she endeavored to bring up
in entire ignorance of life. She had, however, still a passion for
active life, and in busy seasons frequently returned to Chartres to
assist her daughter, who had taken over the establishment there. Madame
Badeuil received the greatest surprise of her life when she found that
her granddaughter, whom she had brought up in the innocence of
ignorance, was quite aware of the source of the family fortune, and was
ready to take up the work begun by her grandparents.
*Badeuil, Estelle - daughter of Charles and Madame Badeuil, was
educated by the Sisters of the Visitation at Chateaudun, and at eighteen
was married to Hector Vaucogne, by whom she had one daughter,
'''Elodie'''. She was thirty years of age before she had any suspicion
of the career of her parents, and at that time she took over the
management of their establishment. She proved a capable manager, and in
spite of the laziness of her husband, was able to keep up the reputation
of the house, though in a few years she killed herself with hard
work.
*Baillehache - a notary at Cloyes, was born in 1805, and
succeeded to several generations of lawyers. He had a large business
amongst the peasantry, in whose quarrels he mediated with professional
calmness. He arranged the division of Fouan's property between the
various members of the old man's family.
*Baillehache, Mademoiselle - eldest sister of Baillehache, was
born in 1799. She was plain-looking, but goodhearted, and at thirty-two
married Alexandre Hourdequin, to whom she brought a considerable dowry.
She had two children, a son and a daughter, and died in 1855.
*Becu - gamekeeper and bell-ringer at Rognes, was a man of fifty
years of age who had at one time been in the army. He was an intense
Bonapartist, and pretended that he had met the Emperor. Himself a
confirmed drunkard, he was on friendly terms with Hyacinthe Fouan, whose
poaching expeditions he over-looked.
*Becu, La - wife of Becu, was on intimate terms with Hyacinthe
Fouan. Her chief amusement was to throw Celine Macqueron and Flore
Lengaigne against one another under the pretext of reconciling them.
Though she was not devout, she made ardent intercessions to Heaven to
reserve for her son a lucky number in the drawing for the conscription,
but, after the event, turned her anger against the Deity because her
prayers had not been answered.
*Becu, Delphin - son of the Becu's, was a strong lad who, on
leaving school, went to work as a farm labourer. He was much averse to
leaving home, and, having drawn an unlucky number for the conscription,
he chopped off with a cleaver the first finger of his right hand, in
order that he might be unfit for service.
*Becu, Michel - uncle of Delphin. He died at Orleans.
*Blanchette - a cow which belonged to Lise and Francoise
Fouan.
*Bouteroue, Hilarion - second child of Vincent Bouteroue, and
grandson of Marianne Fouan (La Grande). The latter had never forgiven
the marriage of her daughter, and would do nothing to assist the two
children after the death of their parents. Hilarion, who was of weak
intellect, was looked after from childhood by his sister Palmyre, who
wore herself out in his service. After Palmyre's death his grand-mother
gave him shelter, but took advantage of his great strength by employing
him at work of the hardest kind. Ultimately Hilarion committed a serious
assault on the old woman, and in defending herself she struck him on the
head with a bill-hook, inflicting a wound from which he died.
*Bouteroue, Palmyre - sister of Hilarion, worked like a slave to
support her brother, and died completely worn out by toil and hardship
at the age of thirty-five.
*Bouteroue, Vincent - a poor peasant, whom ? insisted on
marrying, despite the opposition of her mother La Grande. They both
died of want, leaving two children, Palmyre and Hilarion.
*Briquet - a peasant of Rognes. His son drew the number 13 for
the conscription.
*Buteau - second son of Pere Fouan ; brother of Hyacinthe ("Jesus
Christ") and of Fanny Delhomme ; cousin and husband of Lise Mouche ;
father of Jules and Laure. From early youth he was of violent temper,
and having drawn a lucky number in the conscription, he went away from
home, and got work, first at the farm of La Borderie and later at La
Chamade. He was a true son of the soil, knowing nothing of the world
beyond the narrow district in which he was born, and possessing that
fierce passion for the land which is the characteristic of so many
peasants. When Pere Fouan made a division of his property among his
family, Buteau was dissatisfied with the lot which he drew, and refused
to take possession of it. In this attitude he persisted for two years,
until the formation of a new road gave a greatly increased value to his
share. In the same way he refused to marry his cousin Lise Mouche, by
whom he already had a son, until, after her father's death, she had
inherited a share of his property. Buteau's chief anxiety then became to
prevent a division of this land between his wife and her sister
Françoise, and when, after the girl's marriage to Jean Macquart, this
became imminent, he and his wife eventually murdered her. His father had
been a witness of the crime, and as his silence was essential, he too
was cruelly done to death. After these terrible events Buteau was able
to sleep calmly, for the land, his over-whelming passion in life, was
his beyond possibility of dispute.
*Buteau, Jules - the eldest child of Buteua and Lise, who were
not married till three years after his birth. At nine years old he was
the sole friend of old Fouan, but he soon came to neglect the old
man.
*Buteau, Laure - the second child of the Buteaus. At four years
old she had already the hard eyes of her family, and was hostile to her
grandfather, old Fouan. By jealousy she detached from him her brother
Jules.
*Canon - see Leroi.
*Cesar - a bull at the farm of La Borderie.
*Chedeville, De - deputy for Eure-et-Loir under the Empire. He
was an old beau who had flourished in the reign of Louis Philippe, and
was still supposed to have Orleanist sympathies, though his reputed
friendship with the Emperor was sufficient to secure his success at the
polls. He had gone through all his money, and had now only the farm of
La Chamade left. His political career was cut short by a scandal which
gave offense at the Tuileries, and he was defeated by Rochefontaine, who
was nominated by Government as the official candidate.
*Clou - Municipal Councilor at Rognes. He played the trombone at
choral services in church.
*Cognet - a roadman at Rognes. He was an old drunkard, who beat
his daughter unmercifully.
*Cognet, Jacqueline, alias La Cognette - daughter of
Cognet. She went to La Borderie at the age of twelve years, and before
long had several lovers. She made her fortune, however, by resisting her
master, Alexandre Hourdequin, for six months, and when she ultimately
became his mistress she had made her position so secure that he was
afterwards unable to part with her. Notwithstanding her relations with
Hourdequin, she had other lovers, and the old shepherd Soulas, from
motives of revenge, informed Hourdequin of her intimacy with one of
them, a man named Tron. The latter, having been dismissed, killed
Hourdequin and burned down the farm, so that Jacqueline was compelled to
leave La Borderie no richer than she had come.
*Coliche, La - a fine cow which belonged to the Mouche family and
was a great favorite with them.
*Coquart, Les - proprietors of the farm of Saint-Juste, which,
however, they were forced by bad times to sell. The family consisted of
the father, mother, three sons, and two daughters.
*Couillot, Les - peasants at Rognes. Their son got the number 206
in the drawing for the conscription.
*Delhomme - was the son-in-law of Pere Fouan, whose daughter
Fanny he married. He was the owner of a small farm, which he managed so
well that he became one of the richest of the peasant proprietors at
Rognes. He was a man of calm, upright nature, and was frequently
selected as arbiter in petty disputes. In his own affairs, however, he
allowed himself to be much influenced by his wife. He was a municipal
councillor, and ultimately became mayor.
*Delhomme, Madame, also known as Fanny Fouan - wife of
Delhomme. At first kind, she became hardened, and eventually the
cleanliness of her house became a mania with her. She was unkind to her
father, with whose little weaknesses she had no patience, and her
persecution of him was carried to such an extent that he ceased to live
with her and her husband. She was so annoyed at this that she refused to
speak to him again, and her ill-will was not even terminated by his
death. When her husband became mayor her conceit knew no bounds.
*Delhomme, Ernest, known as Nenesse - son of the
Delhomme's. From childhood he had a fancy for dressing himself up and
aping the city lads, and as he had always a horror of the land he went
to Chartres to assist in a restaurant, with which was connected a public
dancing-hall. His parents effected an insurance against him being drawn
in the conscription ; but he drew a lucky number, and the loss of the
money caused his mother considerable annoyance. He proposed to take over
the ''maison de tolerance'' at Chartres which belonged to his grand-aunt
Madame Badeuil and her husband, and he eventually did so by marrying
their granddaughter Elodie Vaucogne.
*Empereur - one of the dogs of the shepherd Soulas. He was a
fierce animal, and, like his master, hated Jacqueline Cognet.
*Finet - a doctor of medicine who resided at Cloyes. He was
disgusted by the brutality of his patients, whom he accused of always
sending for him when it was too late. His indifference became such that
he did not make any inquiries about the death of Rose Fouan, whose end
was hastened by her son Buteau, or that of Pere Fouan, who was burned
alive.
*Fouan, Hyacinthe, also known as Jesus Christ - the elder
son of Pere Fouan and Rose Maliveme, his wife. He was an idler and
drunkard, who, when he had left the army, after having seen service in
Africa, had taken to tramp the fields, refusing to do any regular work,
but living by theft and poaching, as though he were still looting a
trembling nation of Bedouins. Withal there looked out of his fine,
sunken eyes a merriment that was not altogether evil, the open heart of
good-humoured drunkenness. He lived with his daughter in a ruined hut
amongst the ruins of an ancient castle near Rognes. After the division
of land by his father, Hyacinthe soon mortgaged his share and drank the
proceeds, never paying to his parents any part of the rent which had
been agreed upon. For a time he sheltered his father, but frightened the
old man by searching for some bonds which he had concealed. He had,
however, neither the cold rapacity of his sister Fanny nor the murderous
instincts of his brother Buteau.
*Fouan, Joseph Casimir - the father of Marianne, Louis, Michel,
and Laure. Born in 1766, he belonged to a family of peasant proprietors
which for centuries had owned land, in varying quantities, in the
neighborhood of Rognes. They were originally serfs of the
Roques-Bouqucval family. Bit by bit they acquired their land, until,
when the Revolution of 1789 arrived, the Fouan of that day, Joseph
Casimir, was the owner of twenty-one acres — the conquest of four
centuries from the seigneurial territory. When, in 1793, the rest of the
estate was declared national property and sold in lots by auction, he
was too timid to purchase any, and had the mortification to see La
Borderie sold to Isidore Hourdequin, a citizen of Chateaudun, for a
fifth of its value. When he became old he divided his twenty-one acres
between three of his family, Marianne, Louis, and Michel, and gave a
corresponding sum of money to his younger daughter Laure, who had been
brought up as a sempstress and was in service at Chateaudun.
*Fouan, Lauee - younger daughter of the preceding. See Madame
Charles Badeuil.
*Fouan, Louis - known as Pere Fouan. He was the son of
Joseph Casimir Fouan, and married Rose Maliverne, by whom he had three
children, Hyacinthe, Buteau, and Fanny. He received seven acres of land
from his father, and his wife brought him twelve acres more. This land
he cultivated well, and with a passion for the soil, as such, which
amounted to frenzy. It alone had his love, and his wife and children
trembled before him under a rude despotism. At seventy years of age he
was still healthy, but his limbs were failing, and he reluctantly
decided to divide his land between his children. He retained his house
and garden, which had come to him with his wife, and his family
undertook to pay him a rent for the land handed over to them. Upon this
along with a nest-egg of three hundred francs per annum, known to no
one, the old people would be able to live comfortably. The division
made, the family soon became rapacious; Hyacinthe never paid anything,
Buteau only a part, and Delhomme, Fanny's husband, alone fulfilled his
obligation. Rose Fouan died, and the old man lived alone for a year ;
after that he went to his daughter Fanny Delhomme, but her unkindness
made his life miserable, and he accepted in turn the hospitality of his
two sons, Buteau and Hyacinthe, both of whom had come to suspect the
existence of his nest-egg and were anxious to secure it. In this sordid
aim Buteau was eventually successful, and his subsequent treatment of
the old man was even more infamous than it had been before. From this
time Pere Fouan lived in isolation ; he spoke to none and looked at none
; as far as appearances went, he might have been blind and dumb. But
even worse was to follow. He had seen the assault on Francoise Mouche
which resulted in her death, and to ensure his silence he was murdered
by Buteau and Lise, his son and daughter-in-law, who attempted to
suffocate him, and subsequently burned him alive in his bed.
*Fouan, Madame Rose - wife of Pere Fouan and mother of Hyacinthe,
Buteau, and Fanny. She worked on the farm like a man, rising first and
going to bed last, her only reward being that she had lived. Stupid, and
reduced by labour to the level of an animal, she had always trembled
before the despotic authority of her husband. She brought up her family
without love, and as if she resented their requiring even the simple
necessaries of life. She did not long survive the division of land by
her husband. Her favouritism for Hyacinthe, her elder son, excited the
jealousy of Buteau, who in the course of a quarrel threw her to the
ground, when she received such injuries to body and perhaps heart, she
died a few days afterwards.
*Fouan, Marianne - see La Grande.
*Fouan, Michel - see Pere Mouche.
*Fouan, Olympe, also known as La Trouille - daughter of
Hyacinthe. Her mother, who was a tramp, ran off when the child was three
years old, leaving her to grow up as best she could. She was
passionately fond of geese, of which she had a large flock. When little
more than a child, she had as her lovers Delphin Becu and Nenesse
Delhomme.
*Fousset, Le Pere - tenant of the farm of Millouard, in the
Canton of Orgeres. He was a victim of the band of brigands commanded by
Beau-Frangois.
*Firmat - an old peasant of Rognes who was a neighbour of Mouche.
He became paralyzed.
*Firmat, La - wife of the preceding. She was well known in the
village for her knowledge of animals, and was frequently consulted when
it would otherwise have been necessary to call in a veterinary surgeon.
She worked hard to support her invalid husband, to whom she was devoted,
and wept at the thought that he was soon to die.
*Gedeon - an ass which belonged to Mouche. It was very
mischievous, and on one occasion got access to a vat of new wine, with
the result that it became extremely drunk.
*Godard, Abbe - cure of Bazoches-le-Doyen. The authorities of
Rogues, which was in his parish, refused to provide for a priest of
their own, and Abbe Godard, in order to perform Mass, had to walk each
Sunday the three kilometres which separated the two communes. He was a
short, stout man of hasty temper, who was disgusted with the
indifference and irreligion of his parishioners, and his services were
the shortest and baldest possible. In spite of his temper, he had,
however, a passion for the miserable, and to these he gave everything —
his money, his linen, almost the clothes off his back.
*Grande, La - elder daughter of Joseph Casimir Fouan, and sister
of Pere Fouan, Michel Mouche, and Laure Badeuil. Married to a neighbour,
Antoine Pechard, she brought to him seven acres of land against eighteen
which he had of his own. Early left a widow, she turned out her only
daughter, who, against her mother's will, wished to marry a poor lad
named Vincent Bouteroue. The girl and her husband died of want, leaving
two children, Palmyre and Hilarion, whom their grandmother refused to
assist. At eighty years of age, respected and feared by the Fouan
family, not for her age but for her fortune, she exacted the obedience
of all, and still directed the management of her land. She bitterly
reproached her brother Louis for dividing his property between his
children, and warned him that he need not come to her when they had
turned him into the street, a threat which she carried into effect. She
took delight in the squabbles of the Fouan family, exciting their
cupidity by promising them a share of her property at her death.
Meantime she made a will which was so complicated that she hoped it
would lead to endless lawsuits amongst her heirs.
*Grosbois - a Government surveyor who had also a small farm at
Magnoues, a little village near Rognes. Liable to be summoned from
Orgeres to Beaugency for purposes of survey, he left the management of
his own land to his wife, and in the course of these constant excursions
he acquired such a habit of drinking that he was never seen sober. That
mattered little, however ; the more drunk he was the better he seemed to
see; he never made a wrong measurement or an error in calculation.
People listened to him with respect, for he had the reputation of being
a sly, acute man.
*Guillaume - a peasant of Rognes. He owned a piece of land beside
the hovel of Hyacinthe Fouan.
*Guillaume - a young swineherd at La Borderie. He afterwards
became a soldier.
*Hardy - tax collector at Cloyes.
*Honorine - a servant in the employment of the Badeuils. When
dismissed for misconduct she became insolent.
*Hourdequin, Alexandre - born 1804, was the only son of Isidore
Hourdequin. He studied at the college of Chateaudun, but made little
progress, as his only interest was in farming, for which he had an
absolute passion. On the death of his father he became master of La
Borderie, which he cultivated on the latest principles of agriculture,
spending large sums upon it. He married a sister of Bailliehache, the
notary, who brought him a considerable sum, which also went into the
land. His wife died in a few years, leaving him with two children, a son
named Leon, who to his great disappointment became a soldier, and a
daughter who died young. In spite of these misfortunes he retained all
his passion for the land, and in it he gradually sunk all his fortune,
getting little from it in return. A liaison with Jacqueline Cognet,
followed, and she gradually acquired complete influence over him. He
died as the result of an accident brought about by Tron, one of his own
servants, who was also a lover of Jacqueline.
*Hourdequin, Madame - wife of the preceding. See Mademoiselle
Baillehache.
*Hourdequin, Isidore - born 1767, was the descendant of an old
peasant family of Cloyes, which had educated and elevated itself into a
middle-class position in the sixteenth century. They had all been
employed in the administration of the salt monopoly, and Isidore, who
had early been left an orphan, was worth sixty thousand francs, when, at
twenty-six, the Revolution cost him his post. As a speculation he bought
the farm of La Borderie for a fifth of its value, but the depreciation
of real estate continued, and he was unable to resell it at the profit
of which he had dreamed. He therefore determined to farm it himself, and
about this time he married the daughter of a neighbour, who brought him
an additional hundred and twenty acres of land. He had one son,
Alexandre, and died in 1831.
*Hourdequin, Leon - son of Alexandre Hourdequin. He had an
intense hatred of the soil and became a soldier, being promoted Captain
after Solferino. He did not visit his home more than once a year, and
was much annoyed to discover the liaison between his father and
Jacqueline Cognet. He endeavored to get the latter into disgrace, but
the only effect was to make a complete breach between his father and
himself.
*Hourdequin, Mademoiselle - the second child of Alexandre
Hourdequin. She was a delicate and charming girl, tenderly loved by her
father. She died young, a short time after her mother.
*Jesus Christ - see Hyacinthe Fouan.
*Lambourdieu - a shopkeeper at Cloyes, who sold Parisian
novelties io all the villages within a radius of five or six miles.
*Lengaigne - a dealer in tobacco and tavern-keeper at Rognes. He
cultivated a small piece of land, while his wife weighed tobacco and
looked after the cellar. He also shaved and cut the hair of the village,
a trade learned by him when he was in the army. He professed strong
Republican principles, though he was afraid to express his opinions too
strongly, in case of losing his license. An old rivalry subsisted
between him and Macqueron, a neighbouring tavern-keeper, with whom he
was always on the point of blows.
*Lengaigne, Madame Flore - wife of the preceding. She was always
quarreling with Coelina Macqueron.
*Lengaigne, Suzanne - daughter of the two preceding. She was
apprenticed to a dressmaker at Chateaudun, but after six months ran off
to Paris, where she led a gay life. Her return to her native village
clad in silks caused quite a sensation, of which her parents were very
proud.
*Lengaigne, Victor - brother of Suzanne. Before he was drawn in
the conscription he was an awkward youth, but he returned a swaggering
braggart, who could hardly be recognized with his moustache and
beard.
*Lequeu - the schoolmaster at Rognes. His parents were peasants,
and he had an intense hatred of the class from which he had sprung,
looking upon them as little better than barbarians. In politics he had
advanced views, but in consequence of his position he concealed them to
a great extent. Disappointed in the hope which he had long nourished of
marrying Berthe Macqueron, he ended by preaching the doctrines of
anarchy.
*Leroi, alias Canon - a journeyman carpenter, who deserted
Paris on account of some trouble, and preferred to live in the country,
tramping from village to village, doing a week here and a week there,
and offering his services from one farm to another when his employer did
not want him. When there was a scarcity of work he begged on the
highroads, living partly on the vegetables he stole. He professed strong
revolutionary principles, which he was fond of airing in village
ale-shops. He was a friend of Hyacinthe Fouan.
*Loiseau - a municipal councilor of Rognes. He was devoted to the
Mayor, Alexandre Hourdequin, on whose farm his son worked. He was an
uncle of Macqueron.
*Lorillon, Les - peasants at Rognes, who were said to have been
cured of illness by the bone-setter Sourdeau.
*Macquart, Jean - born 1811, son of Antoine Macquart, was
apprenticed to a carpenter. A quiet, industrious lad, Jean's father took
advantage of his simple nature and made him give up his whole earnings
to assist in keeping him in idleness. Like his sister Gervaise, he ran
off soon after the death of his mother (see La Fortune des
Rougon). He entered the army, and, after seven years of soldiering
was discharged in 1859. When he had left the ranks he turned up at
Bazoches-le-Doyen with a comrade, a joiner like himself ; and he resumed
his occupation with the latter's father, a master carpenter in the
village. But his heart was no longer in his work, and having been sent
to La Borderie to make some repairs, he stayed on to assist at the
harvest, and eventually became a regular farm servant. He was not
popular, however, with the peasants, who resented his having had a trade
before he came back to the soil. He became acquainted at Rognes with
Mouche and his daughters, Lise and Francoise, and eventually married the
latter, in spite of the determined opposition of her brother-in-law,
Buteau. Notwithstanding his marriage, he remained a stranger, and, after
the death of his wife, went away, leaving everything in the hands of her
relatives. The war with Germany had just broken out, and Jean, disgusted
with his life, again enlisted in the service of his country. (see
further story in La Debacle and Le Docteur Pascal).
*Macquart, Madame Jean - first wife of the preceding. See
Francoise Mouche.
*Macqueron - a grocer and tavern-keeper at Rognes. He was a
municipal councilor, and deputy Mayor. He made some money by speculating
in wines, and had since become incorrigibly lazy, spending his time in
fishing and shooting. Had his wife listened to him, they would have shut
up the shop, but she was so fiercely set on money- making that she would
not do so. There was a rivalry of long standing between the Macquerons
and the Lengaignes, which frequently broke out in open quarrels. Having
succeeded in undermining Hourdequin's position as Mayor, Macqueron
succeeded him, but his triumph was of short duration, for some official
scandal having arisen, he was obliged to resign.
*Macqueron, Madame Coelina - wife of the preceding, had a true
passion for money-making. She was continually quarreling with her
neighbour, Madame Lengaigne.
*Macqueron, Berthe - daughter of the preceding, was educated at a
boarding-school at Cloyes, and had learned to play the piano. She
tolerated the attentions of Lequeu, the schoolmaster, whom she heartily
disliked, as she felt flattered by the notice of the only man of
education whom she knew. She had a fancy for the son of a neighboring
wheelwright, whom her parents would not allow her to see, and she
ultimately compromised herself so seriously with him that they had to
consent to her marriage.
*Madeline, Abbe - was sent to Rognes, when that commune decided
to have a cure to itself. Ho came from a mountainous district, and
disheartened by the flatness of the vast plain of La Beauce, and
especially by the religious indifference of his parishloners, he soon
fell into ill-health, on one occasion fainting while he was saying Mass.
At the end of two years and a half he left Rognes in a dying state, and
returned to his native mountains.
*Massacre - one of the dogs of old Soulas, the shepherd. It
shared the hatred of its master of La Cognette.
*Mathias - an old hunchback who worked on the farm of La
Borderie.
*Mouche, Le Pere - the nickname of Michel Fouan, the third son of
Joseph Casimir Fouan, and brother of La Grande, Pere Fouan, and Laure
Badeuil. When his father's estate was divided, he received the family
dwelling house and some land, but was dissatisfied with his share and
continued to accuse his brother and sister, though forty years had
elapsed, of having robbed him when the lots were drawn. He had been long
a widower, and, a soured unlucky man, he lived alone with his two
daughters, Lise and Francoise. At sixty years of age he died of an
attack of apoplexy.
*Mouche, Francoise - youngest daughter of Michel Fouan, alias
Mouche. Her mother died early, and she was brought up by her sister
Lise, to whom she was devotedly attached. She had a passion for justice,
and when she had said " that is mine and that is yours," she would have
been prepared to go to the stake in support of her rights. This
execration of injustice gradually led to a change of feeling between the
two sisters, for after the marriage of Lise to Buteau a division of the
land should have been made. Buteau and his wife on various pretexts put
off this division, and it was only on the marriage of Francoise to Jean
Macquart that it was carried out. An entire estrangement between the two
families followed, and constant quarrels took place. After a shameful
assault by Buteau upon Francoise, his wife threw her upon a scythe which
lay upon the ground near by, and the unfortunate girl received injuries
from which she died a few hours later. A sense of loyalty to her family
induced her to conceal the cause of these injuries, which were
attributed to accident.
*Mouche, Lise - elder daughter of Pere Mouche, and sister of the
preceding. She had a son to her cousin Buteau, who, however, did not
marry her for three years afterwards, when the death of her father made
her heiress to some land. She was at first an amiable woman, but grew
hardened under the influence of her husband, and ultimately her whole
desire was to avoid the necessity of a division of her father's estate
between her sister and herself. Moved by these feelings, her love for
Francoise became transformed into a hatred so intense that she did not
hesitate to assist her husband in attempting to bring about the girl's
ruin. In the end, having assisted Buteau in a shameful assault on
Francoise, she afterwards threw her upon a scythe which was lying on the
ground near by, inflicting injuries which proved fatal. Pere Fouan,
having been a witness of the assault, was subsequently murdered by Lise
and her husband, to ensure his silence and their own safety.
*Norine - a vendor of salted provisions, who went round the
neighbourhood of Cloyes.
*Patoir - a veterinary surgeon at Cloyes.
*Pechard, Antoine - a neighbour of the Fouans. He owned eighteen
acres of land when ho married La Grande, who brought him seven acres
more. He died young, leaving one daughter.
*Pechard, Madame - wife of the preceding. See La Grande.
*Pechard, Mademoiselle - daughter of Antoine Pechard and Marianne
Fouan (Le Grande), his wife. As she insisted on marrying a poor youth
named Vincent Bouteroue, her mother cast her out. Misfortunes pursued
the young couple, both of whom died within a few years, leaving two
children in profound misery.
*Rochefontaine - proprietor of a large factory at Chateaudun. He
was desirous of serving as a Deputy, but did not secure the support of
the Government, and, standing as an independent candidate, was defeated.
Later, in consequence of the disgrace of M. de Chedeville, he became the
official candidate, and in spite of a brusqueness of manner which made
him unpopular, he was elected.
*Rognes-Bouqueval, Les - an ancient and noble family whose
estate, already much reduced by enforced sales, was declared national
property in 1793, and was purchased piece by piece by Isidore
Hourdequin.
*Rosalie - an old chair-mender at Rognes. The poor woman lived
all alone, sick and without a copper. Abbe Godard came to her
assistance.
*Rougette - a cow bought by the sisters Mouche at the market of
Cloyes.
*Sabot - a vine-grower of Brinqueville. He was a renowned joker,
who entered into a competition with Hyacinthe Fouan, but was beaten by
him.
*Sapin, La - a disreputable old woman at Magnolles who performed
illegal operations and pretended to work magic.
*Saucesse, Le Pere - an old peasant of Rognes, who owned an acre
of land which he sold to Pere Fouan for an annuity of fifteen sous a
day. In order to dupe the old man, he pretended to be in bad health.
Later, terrorized by Buteau, he cancelled the agreement, and repaid half
the sums he had received.
*Soulas - an old shepherd at La Borderie, where he had been for
half a century. At sixty-five he had saved nothing, having been eaten up
by a drunken wife, "whom at last he had the pleasure of burying." He had
few friends except his two dogs, Emperor and Massacre, and he especially
hated Jacqueline Cognet with the jealous disgust of an old servant at
her rapid advancement. He was aware of her numerous liaisons, but said
nothing until she brought about his dismissal, when he told everything
to his master, Alexandre Hourdequin.
*Sourdeau - a bone-setter at Bazoches-le-Doyen, who was supposed
to be equally good for wounds.
*Tron - a labourer in the farm of La Borderie. He was one of
Jacqueline Cognet's lovers, and exhibited jealousy amounting to insanity
regarding her. Having been dismissed by his master, he opened a
trap-door through which Hourdequin fell and was killed. When he found
that Jacqueline would not forgive him for this stupid murder, which
ruined her prospects, he set fire to the farm buildings.
*Trouille, La - the nickname of Olympe Fouan.
*Vaucogne, Hector - husband of Estelle Badeuil. At the time of
his marriage, Vaucogne was a junior officer of customs, but when his
wife's parents retired he took over their maison publique. He
left everything to the care of his wife, and after her death the
establishment ceased to be prosperous. In the end he was turned out by
his father in-law, and the business was given to his daughter Elodie,
who showed all the family capacity for management.
*Vaucogne, Madame Hector - wife of the preceding. See Estelle
Badeuil.
*Vaucogne, Slodie - daughter of the preceding, and granddaughter
of M. and Madame Charles Badeuil. She was seven years old when her
parents took over the maison publique of her grandfather, and she
was then sent to a convent at Chateaudun to be educated by the Sisters
of the Visitation. Her holidays were spent with her grandparents, and
she was supposed to be under the impression that her parents were
carrying on a large confectionery business, but Victorine, a servant who
had been dismissed for misconduct, had made her aware of the facts, and
when, at eighteen years of age, she was asked in marriage by her cousin
Ernest Delhomme, she astonished her grandparents by joining with him in
a desire to succeed to the family establishment.
*Victorine - a servant in the employment of the Badeuils after
they retired to Rognes. She was dismissed for misconduct, and in revenge
told Elodie Vaucogne the occupation of her parents.
*Vimeux - a miserable little sheriff officer, who was celebrated
in the Canton for the bad usage he got from the peasants when he was
obliged to serve summonses upon them.
*Zephyrin - a worker on the farm of La Borderie. He laughed at
the agricultural machinery introduced by Alexandre Hourdequin.