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VERNEUIL (Duc de), a good-natured great nobleman, son-in-law of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800; he was the father of four children, among them being Mademoiselle Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; owned the historic chateau of Rosembray, in the vicinity of Havre, and close by the forest of Brotonne; there he received, one day in October, 1829, the Mignon de la Basties, accompanied by the Herouvilles, Canalis, and Ernest de la Briere, all of whom were at that time desirous to marry Modeste Mignon, soon to become Madame de la Briere de la Bastie. (Modeste Mignon)

VERNEUIL (Duchesse Hortense de), wife of the preceding, a haughty and pious personage, daughter of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800. Of her four children, only two lived&mdash;her daughter Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; she was on very intimate terms with the Herouvilles, and especially with the elderly Mademoiselle d'Herouville, and received a visit from them, one day in October, 1829, with the Mignon de la Basties, followed by Melchior de Canalis and Ernest de la Briere. (Modeste Mignon)

VERNEUIL (Laure de), daughter of the preceding couple. At the entertainment at Rosembray in October, 1829, Eleonore de Chaulieu gave her advice on the subject of tapestry and embroidery. (Modeste Mignon)

VERNEUIL (Duchesse de), sister of the Prince de Blamont-Chauvry; an intimate friend of the Duchesse de Bourbon, sorely tried by the disasters of the Revolution; aunt and, in a way, mother by adoption of Blanche-Henriette de Mortsauf (born Lenoncourt). She belonged to a society of which Saint-Martin was the soul. The Duchesse de Verneuil, who owned the Clochegourde estate in Touraine, gave it, in her lifetime, to Madame de Mortsauf, reserving for herself only one room of the mansion. Madame de Verneuil died in the early part of the nineteenth century. (The Lily of the Valley)