Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Part 1Cerfberr, Anatole
General
Repertory of The Comedie Humaine, Part 1
Cerfberr, Anatole
Balzac, Honoré de, 1799-1850. Comédie humaine
GUENIC (Gaudebert-Calyste-Charles, Baron du), born in 1763. Head of a
Breton house of very ancient founding, he justified throughout his
long life the device upon his coat-of-arms, which read: "Fac!" Without
hope of reward he constantly defended, in Vendee and Brittany, his God
and his king by service as private soldier and captain, with Charette,
Chatelineau, La Rochejacquelein, Elbee, Bonchamp and the Prince of
Loudon. Was one of the commanders of the campaign of 1799 when he bore
the name of "L'Intime," and was, with Bauvan, a witness to the
marriage /in extremis/ of Alphonse de Montauran and Marie de Verneuil.
Three years later he went to Ireland, where he married Miss Fanny
O'Brien, of a noble family of that country. Events of 1814 permitted
his return to Guerande, Loire-Inferieure, where his house, though
impoverished, wielded great influence. In recognition of his
unfaltering devotion to the Royalist cause, M. du Guenic received only
the Cross of Saint-Louis. Incapable of protesting, he intrepidly
defended his town against the battalions of General Travot in the
following year. The final Chouan insurrection, that of 1832, called
him to arms once again. Accompanied by Calyste, his only son, and a
servant, Gasselin, he returned to Guerande, lived there for some
years, despite his numerous wounds, and died suddenly, at the age of
seventy-four, in 1837. [The Chouans. Beatrix.]
GUENIC (Baronne du), wife of the preceding; native of Ireland; born
Fanny O'Brien, about 1793, of aristocratic lineage. Poor and
surrounded by wealthy relatives, beautiful and distinguished, she
married, in 1813, Baron du Guenic, following him the succeeding year
to Guerande and devoting her life and youth to him. She bore one son,
Calyste, to whom she was more like an elder sister. She watched
closely the two mistresses of the young man, and finally understood
Felicite des Touches; but she always was in a tremor on account of
Beatrix de Rochefide, even after the marriage of Calyste, which took
place in the year of the baron's death. [Beatrix.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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