If Madame de Berny is Madame de Mortsauf in /Le Lys dans la Vallee/, Madame d'Abrantes has some traits of Lady Dudley, of whom Madame de Mortsauf was jealous. The Duchess gave him encouragement and confidence, and Balzac might have been thinking of her when he made the beautiful Lady Dudley say: "I alone have divined all that you were worth." After Balzac's affection for Madame de Berny was rekindled, Madame d'Abrantes, who was jealous of her, had a falling out with him. It was probably Madame Junot who related to Balzac the story of the necklace of Madame Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely, to which allusion is made in his /Physiologie du Mariage/, also an anecdote which is told in the same book abut General Rapp, who had been an intimate friend of General Junot. At this time Balzac knew few women of the Empire; he did not frequent the home of the Countess Merlin until later. While Madame d'Abrantes was not a duchess by birth, Madame Gay was not a duchess at all, and Madame Hamelin still further removed from nobility. It is doubtless to Madame d'Abrantes that he owes the subject of /El Verdugo/, which he places in the period of the war with Spain; to her also was due the information about the capture of Senator Clement de Ris, from which he writes /Une tenebreuse Affaire/. M. Rene Martineau, in proving that Balzac got his ideas for /Une tenebreuse Affaire/ from Madame d'Abrantes, states that this is all the more remarkable, since the personage of the senator is the only one which Balzac has kept just as he was, without changing his physiognomy in the novel. The senator was still living at the time Madame d'Abrantes wrote her account of the affair, his death not having occurred until 1827. In her /Memoires/, Madame d'Abrantes refers frequently to the kindness of the great Emperor, and it is doubtless to please her that Balzac, in the /denouement/ of /Une tenebreuse Affaire/, has Napoleon pardon two out of the three condemned persons. Although the novelist may have heard of this affair during his sojourns in Touraine, it is evident that the origin of the lawsuit and the causes of the conduct of Fouche were revealed to him by Madame Junot. Who better than Madame d'Abrantes could have given Balzac the background for the scene of Corsican hatred so vividly portrayed in /La Vendetta/? Balzac's preference for General Junot is noticeable when he wishes to mention some hero of the army of the Republic or of the Empire; the Duc and Duchesse d'Abrantes are included among the noted lodgers in /Autre Etude de Femme/. It is doubtless to please the Duchess that Balzac mentions also the Comte de Narbonne (/Le Medecin de Campagne/).