BONFONS (Cruchot de), nephew of Cruchot the notary and Abbe Cruchot; born in 1786; president of the Court of First Instance of Saumur in 1819. The Cruchot trio backed by a goodly number of cousins and allied to twenty families in the city, formed a party similar to that of the olden-time Medicis at Florence; and also, like the Medicis, the Cruchots had their Pazzis in the persons of the Grassins. The prize contested for between the Cruchots and the Grassins was the hand of the rich heiress, Eugenie Grandet. In 1827, after nine years of suing, the President Cruchot de Bonfons married the young woman, now left an orphan. Previous to this he had been commissioned by her to settle in full, both principal and interest, with the creditors of Charles Grandet's father. Six months after his marriage, Bonfons was elected councillor to the Royal Court of Angers. Then after some years signalized by devoted service he became first president. Finally chosen deputy for Saumur in 1832, he died within a week, leaving his widow in possession of an immense fortune, still further augmented by the bequests of the Abbe and the notary Cruchot. Bonfons was the name of an estate of the magistrate. He married Eugenie only through cupidity. He looked like "a big, rusty nail." [Eugenie Grandet.] BONFONS (Eugenie Cruchot de), only daughter of M. and Mme. Felix Grandet; born at Saumur in 1796. Strictly reared by a mother gentle and devout, and by a father hard and avaricious. The single bright ray across her life was an absolutely platonic love for her cousin Charles Grandet. But, once away from her, this young man was forgetful of her; and, on his return from the Indies in 1827, a rich man, he married the young daughter of a nobleman. Upon this occurrence, Eugenie Grandet, now an orphan, settled in full with the creditors of Charles' father, and then bestowed her hand upon the President Cruchot de Bonfons, who had paid her court for nine years. At the age of thirty-six she was left a widow without having ceased to be a virgin, following her expressed wish. Sadly she secluded herself in the gloomy home of her childhood at Saumur, where she devoted the rest of her life to works of benevolence and charity. After her father's death, Eugenie was often alluded to, by the Cruchot faction, as Mlle. de Froidfond, from the name of one of her holdings. In 1832 an effort was made to induce Mme. de Bonfons to wed with Marquis de Froidfond, a bankrupt widower of fifty odd years and possessed of numerous progeny. [Eugenie Grandet.]