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 nuns who had escaped from the Abbey of Chelles, and were, with Abbe de Marolles, taking refuge under his roof. (An Episode under the Terror)

SECHARD (Jerome-Nicolas), born in 1743. After having been a workman in a printer's shop of Angouleme situated on the Place du Murier, though very illiterate, he became its owner at the beginning of the Revolution; was acquainted at that time with the Marquis de Maucombe, married a woman that was provided with a certain competency, but soon lost her, after having by her a son, David. In the reign of Louis XVIII., fearing the competition of Cointet, J.-N. Sechard retired from active life, selling his business to his son, whom he intentionally deceived in the trade, and moved to Marsac, near Angouleme, where he raised grapes, and drank to excess. During all the latter part of his life, Sechard mercilessly aggravated the commercial difficulties which his son David was struggling against. The old miser died about 1829, leaving property of some value. (Lost Illusions)

SECHARD (David), only son of the preceding, school-mate and friend of Lucien de Rubempre, learned the art of printing from the Didots of Paris. On one occasion, upon his return to his native soil, he gave many evidences of his kindness and delicacy; having purchased his father's printing shop, he allowed himself to be deliberately cheated and duped by him; employed as proof-reader Lucien de Rubempre, whose sister, Eve Chardon, he adored with a passion that was fully reciprocated; he married her in spite of the poverty of both parties, for his business was on the decline. The expense involved, the competition of the Cointets, and especially his experiments as inventor in the hope of finding the secret of a particular way of making paper, reduced him to very straitened circumstances. Indeed, everything combined to destroy Sechard; the cunning and power of the Cointet house, the spying of the ungrateful Cerizet, formerly his apprentice, the disorderly life of Lucien de Rubempre, and the jealous greed of his father. A victim of the wiles of