Page:Novels of Honoré de Balzac Volume 23.djvu/47



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At Nemours, there are only three or four households of unknown gentry, prominent amongst these being that of the Portenduère. These exclusive families frequent only the nobles who own the land or the châteaux in the neighborhood, amongst whom may be singled out the d’Aiglemonts, owners of the fine estate of Saint-Lange, and the Marquis du Rouvre, for whose property, overwhelmed with mortgages, the bourgeois were on the lookout. The nobles of the town were poor. For all estate, Madame de Portenduère possessed a farm yielding four thousand seven hundred francs income, and her town house. Against this little Faubourg Saint-Germain were grouped half a score of rich men, former millers, retired merchants, in a word, a miniature bourgeoisie under whom revolved small retail dealers, working men and peasants. This bourgeoisie, like that of the Swiss cantons and several other small countries, presents the curious spectacle of the irradiation of a few aboriginal families, probably Gallic, reigning over one territory, overrunning it and making the inhabitants all cousins. Under Louis XI., epoch in which the third Estate ended by turning its nicknames into real names, several of which became mingled with those of feudalism, the bourgeoisie of Nemours consisted of Minoret, de Massin, de Levrault and de Crémière. Under Louis XIII., these