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 Brothers of Consolation, who boarded with Madame de la Chanterie. (The Seamy Side of History)

MERKSTUS, banker at Douai, under the Restoration had a bill of exchange for ten thousand francs signed by Balthazar Claes, and, in 1819, presented it to the latter for collection. (The Quest of the Absolute)

MERLE, captain in the Seventy-second demi-brigade; jolly and careless. Killed at La Vivetiere in December, 1799, by Pille-Miche (Cibot). (The Chouans)

MERLIN, of Douai, belonged to the convention, of which he was, for two years, one of the five directors; attorney-general in the court of appeal; in September, 1805, rejected the appeal of the Simeuses, of the Hauteserres, and of Michu, men who had been condemned for kidnapping Senator Malin. (The Gondreville Mystery)

MERLIN (Hector), came to Paris from Limoges, expecting to become a journalist; a Royalist; during the two years in which Lucien de Rubempre made his literary and political beginning, Merlin was especially noted. At that time he was Suzanne du Val-Noble's lover, and a polemical writer for a paper of the Right-Centre; he also brought honor to Andoche Finot's little gazette by his contributions. As a journalist he was dangerous, and could, if necessary, fill the chair of the editor-in-chief. In March, 1822, with Theodore Gaillard, he established the "Reveil," another kind of "Drapeau Blanc." Merlin had an unattractive face, lighted by two pale-blue eyes, which were fearfully sharp; his voice had in it something of the mewing of a cat, something of the hyena's asthmatic gasping. (A Distinguished Provincial at Paris)

MERLIN DE LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle), of a noble family of Tours (1826); Francois Birotteau's friend. (The Vicar of Tours)

MERRET (De), gentleman of Picardie, proprietor of the Grande Breteche, near Vendome, under the Empire; had the room walled up, where he knew the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia, lover of his wife, was in hiding. He died in