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
MICHU (Marthe), wife of the preceding, daughter of a Troyes tanner,
"the village apostle of the Revolution," who, as a follower of
Baboeuf, a believer in racial and social equality, was put to death. A
blonde with blue eyes, and of perfect build, in accordance with her
father's desire, despite her modest innocence, posed before a public
assembly as the Goddess of Liberty. Marthe Michu adored her husband,
by whom she had a son, Francois, but being ignorant for a long time of
his secret, she lived in a manner separated from him, under her
mother's wing. When she did learn of her husband's Royalist actions,
and that he was devoted to the Cinq-Cygnes, she assisted him, but
falling into a skilfuly contrived plot, she innocently brought about
her husband's execution. A forged letter having attracted her to
Malin's hiding-place, Madame Michu furnished all the necessary
evidence to make the charge of kidnapping seem plausible. She also was
cast into prison and was awaiting trial when death claimed her,
November, 1806. [The Gondreville Mystery.]
MICHU (Francois), son of the preceding couple, born in 1793. In 1803,
while in the service of the house of Cinq-Cygne, he ferreted out the
police-system that Giguet represented. The tragic death of his parents
(a picture of one of them hung on the wall at Cinq-Cygne) caused his
adoption in some way or other by the Marquise Laurence, whose efforts
afterwards paved the way for his career as a lawyer from 1817 to 1819,
an occupation which he left, only to become a magistrate. In 1824 he
was associate judge of the Alencon court. Then he was appointed
attorney of the king and received the cross of the Legion of Honor,
after the suit against Victurnien d'Esgrignon by M. du Bosquier and
the Liberals. Three years later he performed similar duties at the
Arcis court, over which he presided in 1839. Already wealthy, and
receiving an income of twelve thousand francs granted him in 1814 by
Madame de Cinq-Cygne, Francois Michu married a native of Champagne,
Mademoiselle Girel, a Troyes heiress. In Arcis he attended only the
social affairs given by the Cinq-Cygnes, then become allies of the
Cadignans, and in fact never visited any others. [The Gondreville
Mystery. Jealousies of a Country Town. The Member for Arcis.]
MICHU (Madame Francois), wife of the preceding, born Girel. Like her
husband, she rather looked with scorn upon Arcis society, in 1839, and
departed little from the circle made up of government officers'
families and the Cinq-Cygnes. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for
Arcis.]
MIGEON, in 1836, porter in the rue des Martyrs house in which Etienne
Lousteau lived for three years; he was commissioned for nine hundred
francs by Mme. de la Baudraye, who then lived with the writer, to
carry her jewelry to the pawn-broker. [The Muse of the Department.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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