Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/265

 and died at an advanced age in 1819. (The Hated Son, Modeste Mignon)

HEROUVILLE (Duc d'), son of the preceding; born in 1796, at Vienna, Austria, during the emigration, "fruit of the matrimonial autumn of the last governor of Normandy"; descendant of a Comte d'Herouville, a Norman free-lance who lived under Henri IV. and Louis XIII. He was Marquis de Saint-Sever, Duc de Nivron, Comte de Bayeux, Vicomte d'Essigny, grand equerry and peer of France, chevalier of the Order of the Spur and of the Golden Fleece, and grandee of Spain. A more modest origin, however, was ascribed to him by some. The founder of his house was supposed to have been an usher at the court of Robert of Normandy. But the coat-of-arms bore the device "Herus Villa"&mdash;House of the Chief. At any rate, the physical unattractiveness and comparative lack of means of D'Herouville, who was a kind of dwarf, contrasted with his aristocratic lineage. However, his income allowed him to keep a house on rue Saint-Thomas du Louvre, Paris, and to keep on good terms with the Chaulieus. He maintained Fanny Beaupre, who apparently cost him dear; for, about 1829, he sought the hand of the Mignon heiress. During the reign of Louis Philippe, D'Herouville, then a social leader, had acquaintance with the Hulots, was known as a celebrated art amateur, and resided on rue de Varenne, in Faubourg Saint-Germain. Later he took Josepha Mirah from Hulot, and installed her in fine style on rue Saint-Maur-du-Temple with Olympe Bijou. (The Hated Son, Jealousies of a Country Town, Modeste Mignon, Cousin Betty)

HEROUVILLE (Mademoiselle d'), aunt of the preceding; dreamed of a rich marriage for that stunted creature, who seemed a sort of reproduction of an evil Herouville of past ages. She desired Modeste Mignon for him; but her aristocratic pride revolted at the thought of Mlle. Monegod or Augusta de Nucingen. (Modeste Mignon)

HEROUVILLE (Helene d'), niece of the preceding; sister of Duc d'Herouville; accompanied her relatives to Havre in 1829; afterwards knew the Mignons. (Modeste Mignon)