Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/230

 Columbian corsair whose captain, the Parisian, ordered him cast overboard. (A Woman of Thirty)

GONDRAND (Abbe), confessor, under the Restoration, at Paris, of the Duchesse Antoinette de Langeais, whose excellent dinners and petty sins he dealt with at his ease in her salon where Montriveau often found him. (The Thirteen)

GONDREVILLE (Malin, his real name; more frequently known as the Comte de), born in 1763, probably at Arcis-sur-Aube. Short and stout; grandson of a mason employed by Marquis de Simeuse in the building of the Gondreville chateau; only son of the owner of a house at Arcis where dwelt his friend Grevin in 1839. On the recommendation of Danton, he entered the office of the attorney at the chatelet, Paris, in 1787. Head clerk for Maitre Bordin in the same city, the same year. Returned to the country two years later to become a lawyer at Troyes. Became an obscure and cowardly member of the Convention. Acquired the friendship of Talleyrand and Fouche, in June, 1800, under singular and opportune circumstances. Successively and rapidly became tribune, councillor of state, count of the Empire&mdash;created Comte de Gondreville&mdash;and finally senator. As councillor of state, Gondreville devoted his attention to the preparation of the code. He cut a dash at Paris. He had purchased one of the finest mansions in Faubourg Saint-Germain and married the only daughter of Sibuelle, a wealthy contractor of "shady" character whom Gondreville made co-receiver of Aube, with Marion. The marriage was celebrated during the Directory or the Consulate. Three children were the result of this union: Charles de Gondreville, Marechale de Carigliano, Mme. Francois Keller. In his own interest, Malin attached himself to Bonaparte. Later, in the presence of the Emperor and of Dubois, the prefect of police, Gondreville selfishly simulated a false generosity and asked that the Hauteserres and Simeuses be striken from the list of the proscribed. Afterwards they were falsely accused of kidnapping him. As senator in 1809, Malin gave a grand ball at Paris, when he vainly awaited the Emperor's appearance, and when Mme. de Lansac reconciled the Soulanges family. Louis XVIII.