Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — ZCerfberr, Anatole
General
Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z
Cerfberr, Anatole
Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Comédie humaine
HULOT D'ERVY (Baron Hector), born about 1775; brother of the
preceding; took the name of Hulot d'Ervy early in life in order to
make a distinction between himself and his brother to whom he owed the
brilliant beginning of a civil and military career. Hulot d'Ervy
became ordonnance commissary during the Republic. The Empire made him
a baron. During one of these periods he married Adeline Fischer, by
whom he had two children. The succeeding governments, at least that of
July, also favored Hector Hulot, and he became in turn,
intendant-general, director of the War Department, councillor of state,
and grand officer of the Legion of Honor. His private misbehavior dated
from these periods and gathered force while he lived in Paris. Each of
his successive mistresses--Jenny Cadine, Josepha Mirah, Valerie
Marneffe, Olympe Bijou, Elodie Chardin, Atala Judici, Agathe Piquetard
--precipitated his dishonor and ruin. He hid under various names, as
Thoul, Thorec and Vyder, anagrams of Hulot, Hector and d'Ervy. Neither
the persecutions of the money-lender Samanon nor the influence of his
family could reform him. After his wife's death he married, February
1, 1846, Agathe Piquetard, his kitchen-girl and the lowest of his
servants. [Cousin Betty.]
HULOT D'ERVY (Baronne Hector), wife of the preceding; born Adeline
Fischer, about 1790, in the village of Vosges; remarkable for her
beauty; was married for mutual love, despite her inferior birth, and
for some time lived caressed and adored by her husband and venerated
by her brother-in-law. At the end of the Empire probably commenced her
sorrows and the faithlessness of Hector, notwithstanding the two
children born of their union, Victorin and Hortense. Had it not been
for her maternal solicitude the baroness could have condoned the
gradual degradation of her husband. The honor of the name and the
future of her daughter gave her concern. No sacrifice was too great
for her. She vainly offered herself to Celestin Crevel, whom she had
formerly scorned, and underwent the parvenu's insults; she besought
Josepha Mirah's aid, and rescued the baron from Atala Judici. The
closing years of her life were not quite so miserable. She devoted
herself to charitable offices, and lived on rue Louis-le-Grand with
her married children and their reclaimed father. The intervention of
Victorin, and the deaths of the Comte de Forzheim, of Lisbeth Fischer
and of M. and Mme. Crevel, induced comfort and security that was often
menaced. But the conduct of Hector with Agathe Piquetard broke the
thread of Mme. Hulot d'Ervy's life; for some time she had had a
nervous trouble. She died aged about fifty-six. [Cousin Betty.]
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