Chapter M (3)

ROBINEAU, “second hand” in the silk department at “The Ladies’ Paradise.” As the result of a conspiracy among his subordinates, he was dismissed, and soon afterwards bought the business of M. Vincard, a silk merchant, with money belonging to his wife. His capital was inadequate, but M. Gaujean, a silk manufacturer who had quarrelled with Octave Mouret, promised to give him unlimited credit. Robineau’s intention was to break up the monopoly of the cheaper class of silks which Mouret had secured, but he soon found that each reduction in price which he made was met by a still larger one. As he had no other departments out of which to average his profits, ruin inevitably followed, and he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself under an omnibus; his injuries were not serious, however, and he ultimately recovered. Au Bonheur des Dames.

ROBINEAU (MADAME), wife of the preceding. “Daughter of an overseer in the Department of Highways, entirely ignorant of business matters, she still retained the charming awkwardness of a girl educated in a Blois convent.” Her small fortune enabled her husband to buy the silk business of M. Vincard, and she assisted him in carrying it on. Their subsequent ruin affected her less than the attempted suicide of her husband, to whom she was devoted. Au Bonheur des Dames.

ROBINE, a regular attender at the revolutionary meetings in Lebigre’s wine-shop. He sat for hours listening to arguments but never made any remarks. He escaped arrest. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROBINE (MADAME), wife of the preceding, lived with her husband in Rue Saint-Denis. No one ever entered their house, and even her personal appearance was unknown to her husband’s friends. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROBINOT (MADAME), an acquaintance of the Deberles. Une Page d’Amour.

ROBIQUET, farmer of La Chamade. Being near the end of his lease, he ceased to manure the land, allowing it to go to ruin. He was eventually turned out as he did not pay his rent. La Terre.

ROCHART (MONSEIGNEUR), Bishop of Faverolles. He upheld the Sisters of the Holy Family in the matter of the succession to Chevassu’s estate, but was beaten by Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State, who supported the claim of the Charbonnels. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROCHAS, lieutenant in the 106th Regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel de Vineuil. The son of a journeyman mason from Limousin, he was born in Paris, and not caring for his father’s calling, enlisted when he was only eighteen. He gained a corporal’s stripes in Algeria, rose to the rank of sergeant at Sebastopol, and was promoted to a lieutenancy after Solferino. Fifteen years of hardship and heroic bravery was the price he had paid to be an officer, but his education was so defective that he could never be made a captain. He held the old traditions that a defeat of the French army was impossible, and all through the campaign against Germany in 1870 he refused to believe in the repeated catastrophes. In the fierce attack by the Prussians on the Hermitage, he fought desperately against an overwhelming force, and up to the end encouraged his men by shouting that the victory was theirs. In the end he fell, mowed down by a hail of bullets. La Debacle.

ROCHEFONTAINE, proprietor of a large factory at Chateaudun. He was desirous of serving as a Deputy, but did not secure the support of the Government, and, standing as an independent candidate, was defeated. Later, in consequence of the disgrace of M. de Chedeville, he became the official candidate, and in spite of a brusqueness of manner which made him unpopular, he was elected. La Terre.

RODRIGUEZ, a distant relative of the Empress, who made a claim upon the State for a large sum, which he said had been due since 1808. Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State, gave great offence to the Empress by opposing the claim. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROGNES-BOUQUEVAL (LES), an ancient and noble family whose estate, already much reduced by enforced sales, was declared national property in 1793, and was purchased piece by piece by Isidore Hourdequin. La Terre.

ROIVILLE (LES), members of Parisian society at whose house Baroness Sandorff occasionally met Gundermann. L’Argent.

ROSALIE, an old chair-mender at Rognes. The poor woman lived all alone, sick and without a copper. Abbe Godard came to her assistance. La Terre.

ROSE, a waitress in Lebigre’s wine-shop. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROSE, servant in the household of Francois Mouret, was an old woman of crabbed nature and uncertain temper. She fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas, and encouraged her mistress in the religious observances which led to the neglect of her family. Later, when Madame Mouret’s health became impaired, and she became subject to fits, it was chiefly Rose who threw suspicion on her master, encouraging the belief that he was insane and had inflicted injuries on his wife. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROSE, a peasant girl at Artaud; sister of Lisa. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

ROSE, maid-servant to Madame Hennebeau. She was not alarmed by the violence of the strikers, as, belonging to that district, she knew the miners, and believed them not to be wicked. Germinal.

ROSE, daughter of the concierge at the sub-prefecture at Sedan. She was a worker in Delaherche’s factory, and he applied to her for information regarding the course of the battle, as she was in a position to hear the gossip of the officers and officials. When Napoleon III decided to request an armistice from the Prussians, it was Rose who furnished a tablecloth to be used as a white flag. La Debacle.

ROSE, niece of Aristide Saccard’s hairdresser. She was a pretty girl of about eighteen, whom Saccard sent to his son Maxime under the pretext of nursing him, but in reality with a view to hastening the course of a nervous disease from which the young man suffered. Aristide agreed to pay her a percentage on the fortune which he hoped to acquire at his son’s death. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUBAUD, assistant station-master at Havre. Born in the south of France, at Plassans, he had a carter for father. He had quitted the army with the stripes of a sergeant-major, and for a long time had been general porter at the station at Nantes. He had been promoted head porter at Barentin, and it was there that he first saw Severine Aubry, the god-daughter of President Grandmorin, whom he married. This was the sole romance of his existence, and it was coupled with fortune, for apart from Severine and her marriage portion of ten thousand francs, the President, now a director of the Western Railway Company, got him appointed assistant station-master at Havre. He proved an excellent official, and the only thing against him was a suspicion that he was affected by republican principles. For three years Roubaud’s married life was a happy one, until a chance lie of his wife’s gave him a clue to her former relations with Grandmorin. Driven frantic by jealousy, he forced her to reveal the truth, afterwards compelling her to become his accomplice in the murder of the President in the Havre express. The Roubauds established an alibi, though slight suspicion attached to them, and Denizet, the examining magistrate, endeavoured to fasten the crime on Cabuche. For political reasons it was not considered desirable that Grandmorin’s character should be publicly discussed, and the inquiry regarding the murder was dropped. Roubaud was aware, however, that Jacques Lantier had strong suspicions, and tried to secure his silence by making him a friend; a friendship which soon developed into a liaison between Lantier and Severine. With the murder of Grandmorin, the disintegration of Roubaud’s character began; he gradually became a confirmed gambler, and having lost all his own money began to use that which he had taken from the body of his victim in order to establish a false motive for the crime. The relations between him and his wife became more and more strained, until they reached such a pitch that Lantier and she planned his murder. The homicidal frenzy of Lantier, to which Severine fell a victim, ended the plot, but Roubaud and Cabuche, who arrived on the scene immediately after the murder, were arrested under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances, and, after trial, were sentenced to penal servitude for a crime which they did not commit. La Bete Humaine.

ROUBAUD (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Severine Aubry. La Bete Humaine.

ROUDIER, a regular attender at the political meetings held in the Rougons’ yellow drawing-room. La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGE D’AUNEAU (LE), lieutenant of Beau-Francois, leader of the band of brigands. He wrote a complaint while in prison. La Terre.

ROUGETTE, a cow bought by the sisters Mouche at the market of Cloyes. La Terre.

ROUGON, a young gardener who worked for the Fouque family, and afterwards married Adelaide. Fifteen months afterwards he died from sunstroke, leaving a son named Pierre. La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGON, alias SACCARD (ARISTIDE), born 1815, youngest son of Pierre Rougon, was educated, like his brothers, at Plassans and Paris, but failed to pass his examinations. His character was a combination of covetousness and slyness: his greatest desire was the acquisition of rapid fortune, gained without work. In 1836 he married Angele Sicardot, who brought him a dowry of ten thousand francs. As Aristide did no work, and lived extravagantly, the money was soon consumed, and he and his wife were in such poverty that he was at last compelled to seek a situation. He procured a place at the Sub-Prefecture, where he remained nearly ten years, and only reached a salary of eighteen hundred francs. During that time “he longed, with ever-increasing malevolence and rancour, for those enjoyments of which he was deprived” by his lowly position. In 1848, when his brother Eugene left for Paris, he had a faint idea of following him, but remained in the hope of something turning up. In opposition to his father, he expressed Republican principles, and edited a newspaper called the _Independant_. At the time of the _Coup d’Etat_, he became alarmed at the course of events, and pretended that an accident to his hand prevented him from writing. His mother having given him private information as to the success of the Bonapartist cause, he changed the politics of his paper, and became reconciled to his parents. La Fortune des Rougon.

Early in 1852 he went to Paris, taking with him his wife and daughter Clotilde, then a child of four; his son Maxime he left at Plassans. Through the influence of his brother Eugene, he got an appointment as assistant surveying clerk at the _Hotel de Ville_, with a salary of two thousand four hundred francs. Before entering on his duties, however, he changed his name to Saccard on the suggestion of his brother, who feared that he might be compromised by him. In 1853, Aristide was appointed a surveying commissioner of roads, with an increased salary. At this period great schemes of city improvement were under discussion, and Aristide by spying and other shady means got early information as to the position of the proposed new streets. Great chances of fortune were arising, but he had no capital. The death of his wife enabled him to enter into a plan proposed by his sister Sidonie, who had heard of a family willing to make a considerable sacrifice to find a not too inquisitive husband for their daughter. He accordingly married Renee Beraud du Chatel, and gained control of a considerable sum of ready money, in addition to the fortune settled on his wife. By means of a cleverly contrived swindle, in which he was assisted by his friend Larsonneau, he got a fabulous price for some property acquired by him, and the foundation of his fortune was laid. From this time, he lived a life of the wildest extravagance, and, though his gains were frequently enormous, his expenses were so great that it was only with difficulty that he was able to prevent a catastrophe. La Curee.

He as appointed by Pauline Quenu’s family council to be her “surrogate guardian.” La Joie de Vivre.

After a last and disastrous land speculation, Saccard was obliged to leave his great house in the Parc Monceau, which he abandoned to his creditors. At first undecided as to his movements, he took a flat in the mansion in Rue Saint-Lazare, which belonged to Princess d’Orviedo. There he met Hamelin, the engineer, and his sister Caroline, with whom he soon became on intimate terms. Hamelin having spent much time in the East, had formed many schemes for great financial ventures, and Saccard was so impressed with these that he formed a syndicate for the purpose of carrying some of them out. With this view the Universal Bank was formed, and was at first very successful. By persistent advertising, and other means, the shares of the Bank were forced to an undue price, and then Saccard began to speculate in them on behalf of the Bank itself. The great financier Gundermann, with whom Saccard had quarrelled, then began a persistent attack on the Bank, selling its shares steadily day after day. Saccard continued to buy as long as he was able; but the end came, the price broke, and he, as well as the Bank, which was now one of its own largest shareholders, was ruined. Since his previous failure, Saccard had not been on friendly terms with his brother Eugene Rougon, and, some time before the collapse of the Bank, had made violent attacks upon him in his newspaper. Consequently Rougon did nothing to assist him in the criminal proceedings which followed the final catastrophe; he did not, however, wish to have a brother in jail, and arranged matters so that an appeal was allowed. Next day Saccard escaped to Belgium. L’Argent.

After the fall of the Second Empire, he returned to Paris, despite the sentence he had incurred. Some complicated intrigue must have been at work, for not only did he obtain a pardon, but once more took part in promoting large undertakings, with a finger in every pie and a share of every bribe. In 1872 he was actively engaged in journalism, having been appointed Director of the _Epoque_, a Republican journal which made a great success by publishing the papers found in the Tuileries. Covetous of his son’s fortune, he hastened a disease from which Maxime suffered, by encouraging him in vicious courses, and in the end got possession of the whole estate. By a singular irony, Aristide, now returned to his original Republicanism, was in a position to protect his brother Eugene, whom in earlier days he had so often compromised. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME ANGELE), first wife of the preceding, was a daughter of commander Sicardot. She brought her husband a dowry of ten thousand francs. La Fortune des Rougon.

Along with her daughter Clotilde, she accompanied her husband to Paris in 1852, and being an amiable woman without ambition she was quite satisfied with the modest position he at first secured. She died in 1854 of inflammation of the lungs. La Curee.

ROUGON, alias SACCARD (MADAME RENEE), the second wife of Aristide Rougon, alias Saccard, was the elder daughter of M. Beraud du Chatel, the last representative of an old middle-class family. Having become seriously compromised, she was hurriedly married to Saccard through the agency of his sister Madame Sidonie, and a considerable sum of money as well as land was settled upon her. Wholly given over to pleasure and extravagance, she soon got deeply into debt, and her husband took advantage of this from time to time by inducing her to make over to him her property, in order that he might speculate with it. She engaged in a shameful liaison with her husband’s son Maxime, which ultimately brought her great unhappiness, and she died of acute meningitis at an early age. La Curee.

ROUGON (CHARLES), born 1857, son of Maxime Rougon, alias Saccard, and of Justine Megot, a maid-servant of Madame Renee Saccard. The child and his mother were sent to the country with a little annuity of twelve hundred francs. La Curee.

At fifteen years of age he lived at Plassans with his mother, who had married a saddler named Anselme Thomas. Charles was a degenerate who reproduced at a distance of three generations his great-great-grandmother, Adelaide Fouque. He did not look more than twelve years old, and his intelligence was that of a child of five. There was in him a relaxation of tissues, due to degeneracy, and the slightest exertion produced hemorrhage. Charles was not kindly treated by his stepfather, and generally lived with his great-grandmother Felicite Rougon. He was frequently taken to visit the aged Adelaide Fouque in the asylum at Les Tulettes, and on one occasion, in 1873, when he chanced to be left alone with her he was seized with bleeding at the nose, and, under the fixed eyes of his ancestress, he slowly bled to death. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (CLOTILDE), born 1847, daughter of Aristide Rougon, accompanied her father and mother to Paris in 1852. After the death of her mother in 1854, she was sent to live with Dr. Pascal Rougon, her uncle, who had frequently offered to take her to enliven his silent scientific home. La Curee.

At Plassans Clotilde lived a quiet healthy life, much of it spent in the open air. She was not highly educated, but having considerable artistic talent was able to assist Doctor Pascal by making illustrations for his great work on heredity. At one period she developed strong religious tendencies under the influence of Martine, the doctor’s old servant, who took her to church, and imbued the girl with her own bigoted ideas regarding the salvation of Pascal. Her grandmother, Felicite Rougon, who wished, for family reasons, to destroy Pascal’s manuscripts on the subject of heredity, played on Clotilde’s feelings, and induced her to assist in a search for the hated work. Rougon surprised them in the act, and subsequently laid bare to Clotilde the whole facts of the terrible family history. In time the mysticism of the Church gave place to passionate love between Clotilde and Pascal. The doctor felt, however, that she was sacrificing her youth for him, and sent her to Paris to live with her brother Maxime. Soon afterwards, Pascal became ill, and died before she was able to return. A child was born some months later. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (EUGENE), born 1811, eldest son of Pierre Rougon, was educated at Plassans and Paris, and was called to the Bar. He practised in the local Court for a number of years, but with little success. Though of lethargic appearance, he was a man of ability, who “cherished lofty ambitions, possessed domineering instincts, and showed a singular contempt for trifling expedients and small fortunes.” With the Revolution of February, 1848, Eugene felt that his opportunity had come, and he left for Paris with scarcely five hundred francs in his pocket. He was able to give his parents early information of the designs of the Bonapartes, and so prepared the way for the events of the _Coup d’Etat_ of 1851, when the family fortunes were made. La Fortune des Rougon.

During his early days in Paris Rougon resided at the Hotel Vanneau, kept by Madame Correur, and while there he made the acquaintance of Gilquin and Du Poizet, both of whom assisted him in spreading the Bonapartist propaganda. By his exertions in this cause he established a claim for reward, and he was appointed a member of the State Council, ultimately becoming its President. He fell into disfavour, however, with the Court on account of his opposition to a claim for two million francs by a distant relative of the Empress Eugenie. Finding that his position was insecure, he tendered his resignation to the Emperor, who accepted it. About this time he met Clorinde Balbi, an Italian adventuress, who endeavoured to induce him to marry her. Carried away for the time being, Rougon made overtures to her which she resented, and he was on the point of offering her marriage. Reflection on her somewhat equivocal position in society induced him to think better of this, and he offered to arrange a marriage between her and his friend Delestang. The offer was accepted, and the marriage took place. Soon after, Rougon married Veronique Beulin-d’Orchere. During his retirement Rougon was surrounded by a band of followers, the Charbonnels, Du Poizet, Kahn, and others, who in the hope of profiting by his return to office lost no chance of establishing a claim upon him. After the Orsini plot against the life of the Emperor, of which Rougon had prior information through Gilquin, the need for a strong man arose, and he was again called to office, being appointed Minister of the Interior. His harshness in carrying out reprisals against the Republican party, and even more, his recklessness in finding appointments for his friends, led to a public outcry, and his position again became undermined. Clorinde, who had never forgiven him for not marrying her, did much to foment the disaffection, and even his own band of followers turned against him. Always quick to act, Rougon again placed his resignation in the hands of the Emperor, who to his surprise accepted it. Three years later he was once more a member of the Corps Legislatif, and having brought his principles into accordance with the more liberal views then professed by the Emperor, he gave his strong support to the measures giving effect to them. In consequence, he was appointed by the Emperor as a Minister without department, and commissioned to defend the new Policy. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

When his brother Aristide came to Paris, Eugene found a situation for him, but, fearing to be compromised by him, suggested that he should change his name to Saccard which he did. There was no intimacy between the brothers, but Eugene occasionally visited Aristide at the great house built by him in the Parc Monceau. La Curee.

After Saccard’s bankruptcy, Eugene refused to have any further connection with him, though he tacitly approved of the foundation of the Universal Bank. The Bank having failed, however, he did nothing to stay legal proceedings against his brother; but, after a sentence of imprisonment had been passed, he connived at his escape from the country while the sentence was under appeal. L’Argent.

He continued to take a lively interest in Plassans, and it was by him that Abbe Faujas was sent there to counteract the clerical influence, which at that time was strongly Legitimist. He kept up a correspondence with his mother, whom he advised as to each step she should take in political matters. La Conquete de Plassans.

After the fall of the Empire, Eugene became a simple Deputy, and in the Assembly remained to defend the old order of things which the downfall had swept away. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME EUGENE), wife of the preceding. See Veronique Beulin-d’Orchere. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROUGON (MARTHE), born 1820, daughter of Pierre Rougon; married in 1840 her cousin Francois Rougon; had three children. La Fortune des Rougon.

She accompanied her husband to Marseilles, where by close attention to business they accumulated a fortune in fifteen years, returning to Plassans at the end of that period and settling down there. Her life at Plassans was a happy one until the household fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas. From the first she was in love with the priest, and as he gave her no encouragement in this, she devoted herself to church services to the entire neglect of her household and family. As time went on, her passion for the Abbe grew more extreme, and her health became undermined to a serious extent. She became subject to fits of an epileptic nature, and having injured herself in some of these, she allowed the injuries to be attributed to her husband, whom she had now grown to regard as an encumbrance. Though she was aware that he was not insane, she allowed him to be removed to an asylum, where confinement soon completed the work begun by her own conduct. The Abbe Faujas having resolutely resisted her advances, her health became still worse, and she died in her mother’s house on the same night that her husband escaped from the asylum and burned down their old home. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROUGON (MAXIME), born 1840, son of Aristide Rougon. La Fortune des Rougon.

When his father went to Paris in 1852, Maxime remained at school at Plassans, not going to Paris till after his father’s second marriage. From early youth he was of vicious character, and the idleness and extravagance of the life in his father’s house only completed the training begun at Plassans. After carrying on a disgraceful liaison with his father’s second wife, he married Louise de Mareuil, through whom he got a considerable dowry. La Curee.

After the death of his wife, six months after their marriage, he returned to Paris, where he lived quietly upon the dowry brought to him by her. He refused to join in any of his father’s schemes, or to assist him in any way, and was consequently not affected by the failure of the Universal Bank. L’Argent.

After the war he re-established himself in his mansion in Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, where he lived on the fortune left by his wife. “He had become prudent, however, with the enforced restraint of a man whose marrow is diseased, and who seeks by artifice to ward off the paralysis which threatened him.” In the fear of this impending illness, he induced his sister Clotilde to leave Doctor Pascal, and go to live with him in Paris, but in his constant fear of being taken advantage of he soon began to be suspicious of her, as he did of every one who served him. His father, who wished to hasten his own inheritance, encouraged him in a renewal of his vicious courses, and he died of _locomotor ataxy_ at the age of thirty-three. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME MAXIME). See Louise de Mareuil.

ROUGON (PASCAL), born 1813, second son of Pierre Rougon, “had an uprightness of spirit, a love of study, a retiring modesty which contrasted strangely with the feverish ambitions and unscrupulous intrigues of his family.” Having acquitted himself admirably in his medical studies at Paris, he returned to Plassans, where he lived a life of quiet study and work. He had few patients, but devoted himself to research, particularly on the subject of heredity, with special reference to its results on his own family. In the hope of alleviating suffering, he followed the Republican insurgents in their march from Plassans in December, 1851. La Fortune des Rougon.

In 1854 his niece Clotilde, daughter of his brother Aristide, went to live with him. He had frequently offered to take her, but nothing was arranged till after the death of her mother, at which time she was about seven years old. La Curee.

His practice as a medical man extended to Les Artaud, and he attended his nephew Abbe Serge Mouret during an attack of brain fever. On the priest’s partial recovery, he removed him to the Paradou, and left him in the care of Albine, niece of old Jeanbernat, the caretaker of that neglected demesne. Dr. Pascal was much attached to Albine, and deeply regretted the sad love affair which resulted from Mouret’s forgetfulness of his past. He had no religious beliefs himself, and he urged Mouret to return to Albine, but the voice of the Church proved too strong in the end. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

At sixty years of age Pascal was so fresh and vigorous that, though his hair and beard were white, he might have been mistaken for a young man with powdered locks. He had lived for seventeen years at La Souleiade, near Plassans, with his niece Clotilde and his old servant Martine, having amassed a little fortune, which was sufficient for his needs. He had devoted his life to the study of heredity, finding typical examples in his own family. He brought up Clotilde without imposing on her his own philosophic creed, even allowing Martine to take her to church regularly. But this tolerance brought about a serious misunderstanding between them, for the girl fell under the influence of religious mysticism, and came to look with horror on the savant’s scientific pursuits. Discovered by him in an attempt to destroy his documents, he explained to Clotilde fully and frankly the bearing of their terrible family history on his theory of heredity, with the result that her outlook on life was entirely changed; he had opposed the force of human truth against the shadows of mysticism. The struggle between Pascal and Clotilde brought them to a knowledge of mutual love, and an illicit relationship was established between them. He would have married her (this being legal in France), but having lost most of his money he was unwilling to sacrifice what he believed to be her interests, and persuaded her to go to Paris to live with her brother Maxime. Soon after her departure he was seized with an affection of the heart, and, after some weeks of suffering, died only an hour before her return. Immediately after his death his mother, Madame Felicite Rougon, took possession of his papers, and in an immense _auto-da-fe_ destroyed in an hour the records of a lifetime of work. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (PIERRE), born 1787, legitimate son of Adelaide Fouque, was a thrifty, selfish lad who saw that his mother by her improvident conduct was squandering the estate to which he considered himself sole heir. His aim was to induce his mother and her two illegitimate children to remove from the house and land, and in this he was ultimately successful. Having sold the property for fifty thousand francs, he induced his mother, who by this time was of weak intellect, to sign a receipt for that sum, and was so able to defraud his half-brother and sister of the shares to which they would have been entitled. Soon thereafter he married Felicite Puech, the daughter of an oil dealer in Plassans. The firm of Puech and Lacamp was not prosperous, but the money brought by Pierre Rougon retrieved the situation, and after a few years the two original partners retired. Fortune, however, soon changed, and for thirty years there was a continual struggle to make ends meet. Three sons and two daughters were born, and their education was a heavy drain upon their parents’ means. In 1845 Pierre and his wife retired from business with forty thousand francs at the most. Instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant, they went in for politics, and soon regular meetings of the reactionary party came to be held in their “yellow drawing-room.” Advised, however, by their son Eugene, they resolved to support the cause of the Bonapartes, and at the time of the _Coup d’Etat_ of 1851 Pierre was the leader of that party in Plassans. Having concealed himself when the Republican insurgents entered Plassans, he avoided capture, and after they retired he led the band of citizens which recaptured the town hall. This bloodless victory having been somewhat minimized by the townspeople, Pierre and his wife, with a view to establishing a strong claim for subsequent reward, bribed Antoine Macquart to lead the Republicans left in Plassans to an attack on the town hall. To meet this he prepared a strong ambuscade, and the Republicans were repulsed with considerable loss. As a result of this treachery, Pierre was regarded by his fellow-citizens as the saviour of the town, and the Government subsequently appointed him Receiver of Taxes, decorating him with the Cross of the Legion of Honour. La Fortune des Rougon.

He settled down quietly and took little part in public affairs, though his wife continued to hold weekly receptions at which members of the different political parties were represented. La Conquete de Plassans.

He became so corpulent that he was unable to move, and was carried off by an attack of indigestion on the night of 3rd September, 1870, a few hours after hearing of the catastrophe of Sedan. The downfall of the regime which he prided himself on having helped to establish seemed to have crushed him like a thunderbolt. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME FELICITE), wife of the preceding, and daughter of Puech, the oil-dealer. She was married in 1810, and had three sons and two daughters. A woman of strong ambitions, she hoped to better her social position by the aid of her sons, on whose education she spent large sums. Disappointed in this hope for many years, she and her husband retired from business with barely sufficient means to keep themselves in comfort. She, instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant (her putative father), urged her husband to take part in politics, and meetings of the reactionary party were regularly held in her “yellow drawing-room.” While the success of the _Coup d’Etat_ was in some doubt, she encouraged her husband in maintaining the position he had taken up; and, having ascertained that the success of the Bonapartists was assured she arranged with Antoine Macquart for the attack on the town hall, the repulse of which led to the rise of the family fortunes. La Fortune des Rougon.

After her husband’s appointment as Receiver of Taxes, she continued her weekly receptions, but endeavoured to give them a non-political character by inviting representatives of all parties. Her son Eugene, now a Minister of State, kept her advised as to the course she should pursue, and on his instructions she gave some assistance to Abbe Faujas in his political “conquest of Plassans.” La Conquete de Plassans.

In 1856 she interested herself in a lawsuit raised by M. Charbonnel, a retired oil-merchant of Plassans, and requested her son Eugene, the President of the Council of State, to use his influence on behalf of her friend. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

After the disasters of the war, Plassans escaped from her dominion, and she had to content herself with the role of dethroned queen of the old regime. Her ruling passion was the defence of the glory of the Rougons, and the obliteration of everything tending to reflect on the family name. In this connection she welcomed the death of Adelaide Fouque, the common ancestress of the Rougons and the Macquarts, and she did nothing to save her old accomplice Antoine Macquart from the terrible fate which overtook him. After these events, her only remaining trouble was the work on family heredity which had for years occupied her son Pascal. Assisted by his servant Martine, she eventually succeeded in burning the whole manuscript to which Pascal had devoted his life. Her triumph was then secure, and in order to raise a monument to the glory of the family she devoted a large part of her fortune to the erection of an asylum for the aged, to be known as the Rougon Asylum. At eighty-two years of age, she laid the foundation stone of the building, and in doing so conquered Plassans for the third time. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (SIDONIE), born 1818, daughter of Pierre Rougon. La Fortune des Rougon.

She married at Plassans an attorney’s clerk, named Touche, and together they went to Paris, setting up business in the Rue Saint-Honore, as dealers in fruit from the south of France. The venture was unsuccessful, and the husband soon disappeared. At the rise of the Second Empire, Sidonie was thirty-five; but she dressed herself with so little care and had so little of the woman in her manner that she looked much older. She carried on business in lace and pianos, but did not confine herself to these trades; when she had sold ten francs worth of lace she would insinuate herself into her customer’s good graces and become her man of business, attending attorneys, advocates, and judges on her behalf. The confidences she everywhere received put her on the track of good strokes of business, often of a nature more than equivocal, and it was she who arranged the second marriage of her brother Aristide. She was a true Rougon, who had inherited the hunger for money, the longing for intrigue, which was the characteristic of the family. La Curee.

In 1851 she had a daughter by an unknown father. The child, who was named Angelique Marie, was at once sent to the Foundling Hospital by her mother, who never made any inquiry about her afterwards. Le Reve.

She attended the funeral of her cousin, Claude Lantier, the artist. Arrived at his house, “she went upstairs, turned round the studio, sniffed at all its bare wretchedness, and then walked down again with a hard mouth, irritated at having taken the trouble to come.” L’Oeuvre.

“After a long disappearance from the scene, Sidonie, weary of the shady callings she had plied, and now of a nunlike austerity, retired to the gloomy shelter of a conventual kind of establishment, holding the purse-strings of the Oeuvre du Sacrament, an institution founded with the object of assisting seduced girls, who had become mothers, to secure husbands.” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (VICTOR), son of Aristide Saccard and Rosaline Chavaille. Brought up in the gutter, he was from the first incorrigibly lazy and vicious. La Mechain, his mother’s cousin, after discovering his paternity, told the facts to Caroline Hamelin, who, to save Saccard annoyance, paid over a considerable sum and removed the boy to _L’Oeuvre du Travail_, one of the institutions founded by the Princess d’Orviedo. Here every effort was made to reclaim him, but without success; vice and cunning had become his nature. In the end he made a murderous attack upon Alice du Beauvilliers, who was visiting the hospital, and having stolen her purse, made his escape. Subsequent search proved fruitless; he had disappeared in the under-world of crime. L’Argent.

“In 1873, Victor had altogether vanished, living, no doubt, in the shady haunts of crime--since he was in no penitentiary--let loose upon the world like some brute foaming with the hereditary virus, whose every bite would enlarge that existing evil--free to work out his own future, his unknown destiny, which was perchance the scaffold.” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (-----), the child of Doctor Pascal Rougon and of Clotilde Rougon, born some months after his father’s death. Pascal a few minutes before he died, drew towards him the genealogical tree of the Rougon-Macquart family, over which he had spent so many years, and in a vacant space wrote the words: “The unknown child, to be born in 1874. What will it be?” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUSSE (LA), a peasant girl of Les Artaud, who assisted to decorate the church for the festival of the Virgin. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

ROUSSEAU, one of the auditors of the Universal Bank, an office which he shared with Lavigniere, under whose influence he was to a great extent. L’Argent.

ROUSSELOT (MONSEIGNEUR), Bishop of Plassans, an amiable but weak man, who was entirely under the influence of Abbe Fenil. Having got into disfavour with the Government over the election of a Legitimist as Deputy, he was anxious to retrieve his position, and with this object agreed to appoint Abbe Faujas vicar of Saint-Saturnin’s church. This led to a quarrel with Abbe Fenil, who, of course, resented the appointment. The Bishop being still in some doubt as to the standing of Abbe Faujas with the Government, went to Paris, where he interviewed Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State. Satisfied with the information which he received, he threw himself heartily into the political struggle then proceeding at Plassans, giving Faujas every assistance in carrying out his schemes on behalf of the Bonapartist candidate. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROUSSIE (LA), a woman who had formerly worked as a putter in the Voreux pit. Germinal.

ROUSTAN (ABBE), one of the clergy of Sainte-Eustache church. Madame Lisa Quenu consulted him as to her proposed course of action regarding Florent. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROUVET, an old peasant who lived in the same village as Zephyrin Lacour and Rosalie Pichon. One of her pleasures consisted in calling to mind the sayings of the old man. Une Page d’Amour.

ROZAN (DUC DE), was a young man of dissolute life, who, after getting the control of his fortune, soon went through the greater part of it. He was the lover of Renee Saccard for a time. La Curee.

ROZAN (DUCHESSE DE), mother of the preceding. She kept her son so short of money that, till he was thirty-five, he seldom had more than a dozen louis at a time. Her death was largely occasioned by the knowledge of the enormous amount of debts her son had incurred. La Curee.

RUSCONI (CHEVALIER), the Sardinian Minister at Paris, a friend of Comtesse Balbi, and her daughter. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

S

SABATANI, a native of the Levant, who appeared in Paris after defaulting on some foreign Stock Exchange. He was a handsome man, and little by little gained the confidence of the Bourse “by scrupulous correctness of behaviour and an unremitting graciousness even towards the most disreputable.” He began doing business with Mazard by depositing a small sum as “cover” in the belief that the insignificance of the amount would in time be forgotten; and “he evinced great prudence, increasing the orders in a stealthy gradual fashion, pending the day when, with a heavy settlement to meet, it would be necessary for him to disappear.” When Saccard founded the Universal Bank, he selected Sabatani as the “man of straw” in whose name the shares held by the Bank itself were to be taken up. Sabatani soon increased his speculations to an enormous extent, gaining large sums, but after the collapse of the Universal Bank he disappeared without paying his “differences,” thereby contributing largely to the ruin of Mazard. L’Argent.

SABOT, a vine-grower of Brinqueville. He was a renowned joker, who entered into a competition with Hyacinthe Fouan, but was beaten by him. La Terre.

SACCARD, the name assumed by Aristide Rougon, on the suggestion of his brother Eugene. See Rougon (Aristide). La Curee.

SACCARD (VICTOR). See Victor Rougon.

SAFFRE (DE), secretary to Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State. La Curee.

SAGET (MADEMOISELLE), an old lady who had lived in the Rue Pirouette for forty years. She never spoke about herself, but she spent her life in getting information about her neighbours, carrying her prying curiosity so far as to listen behind their doors and open their letters. She went about all day pretending she was marketing, but in reality merely spreading scandal and getting information. By bullying little Pauline Quenu, she got a hint of Florent’s past history, which she promptly spread through the markets, even going the length of writing an anonymous letter to the Prefect of Police. Le Ventre de Paris.

SAINT-FIRMIN (OSCAR DE), a character in _La Petite Duchesse_, a play by Fauchery. The part was played by Prulliere. Nana.

SAINT-GERMAIN (MADEMOISELLE DE), was the owner of a princely house in Rue Saint-Lazare, which after her death became the property of Princess d’Orviedo. L’Argent.

SAINTS-ANGES (LA MERE DES), superior of the Convent of the Visitation at Clermont. She saved from the cloister Christine Hallegrain, who had not a religious vocation, and obtained for her a situation to Madame de Vanzade. L’Oeuvre.

SALMON, a speculator on the Paris Bourse who passed for a man of extraordinary acumen by listening to everyone and saying nothing. He answered only by smiles, and one could never tell in what he was speculating or whether he was speculating at all. L’Argent.

SALNEUVE (DE), a man of considerable importance in the Second Empire, whose influence was secured for Eugene Rougon by Clorinde Balbi. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

SAMBUC (GUILLAUME), one of the francs-tireurs who carried on a guerilla warfare against the Germans in 1870. He was the worthy son of a family of scoundrels, and lived by theft and rapine. He furnished most valuable information to the French generals regarding the movement of the Prussians to surprise Beaumont, but his information was disregarded till too late. The francs-tireurs had a particular hatred against Goliath Steinberg, the German spy, and, instigated by Silvine Morange, Sambuc arranged for his capture, afterwards killing him by cutting his throat. La Debacle.

SAMBUC (PROSPER), brother of the preceding. Of a nature docile and hard-working, he hated the life of the woods, and would have liked to be a farm labourer. He entered the army and became one of the Chasseurs d’Afrique. Sent to France to take part in the war against Germany, he shared in many weary marches, but saw no fighting, till the battle of Sedan, when his horse, Zephir, which he loved like a brother, was killed under him. He made his escape after the battle, and having been able to change his uniform for the clothes of a countryman, he returned to Remilly and got employment on the farm of Fouchard. La Debacle.

SANDORFF, a member of the Austrian Embassy at Paris. He married Mlle. de Ladricourt, who was much younger than he. He was very niggardly. L’Argent.

SANDORFF (BARONESS), wife of the Councillor to the Austrian Embassy, who was thirty-five years older than herself. She was an inveterate speculator, and, as her husband refused to assist her, she found it necessary to have recourse to her lovers when her losses were greater than usual. She stopped at nothing to gain information, and at one time was on intimate terms with Saccard. Having quarrelled with him, she hastened the downfall of the Universal Bank, by giving information to Gundermann which caused him to continue his attack on the Bank. L’Argent.

SANDOZ (PERE), a Spaniard who took refuge in France in consequence of a political disturbance in which he was involved. He started near Plassans a paper mill with new machinery of his own invention. When he died, almost heart-broken by the petty local jealousy that had sought to hamper him in every way, his widow found herself in a position so involved, and burdened with so many tangled lawsuits, that the whole of her remaining means were swallowed up. L’Oeuvre.

SANDOZ MERE (MADAME), wife of the preceding, was a native of Burgundy. Yielding to her hatred of the Provencals, whom she blamed for the death of her husband, and even for the slow paralysis from which she herself was suffering, she migrated to Paris, with her son Pierre, who then supported her out of a clerk’s small salary. In Rue d’Enfer she occupied a single room on the same flat as her son, and there, disabled by paralysis, lived in morose and voluntary solitude, surrounded by his tender care. Later, Pierre, who was now married, and was making a considerable income, took a house in Rue Nollet, and there Madame Sandoz passed her remaining years. L’Oeuvre.

SANDOZ (PIERRE), a famous novelist whose youth was spent at Plassans, where at school he was the inseparable companion of Claude Lantier and Dubuche. The favourite amusement of the boys was walking, and together they took long excursions, spending whole days in the country. After the death of his father Sandoz went to Paris, where he got employment at a small salary at the _Mairie_ of the fifth arrondissement, in the office for registration of births; he was chained there by the thought of his mother, whom he had to support, and to whom he was tenderly attached. Presently he published his first book: a series of mild sketches, brought with him from Plassans, among which only a few rougher notes indicated the mutineer, the lover of truth and power. He lived at this time with his mother in a little house in Rue d’Enfer, and there he received each Thursday evening his old friends from Plassans, Claude Lantier and Dubuche, and with them Fagerolles, Mahoudeau, Jory, Gagniere, now reunited at Paris, and all animated by the same passion for art. He was still obsessed by a desire for literary glory, and had thoughts of writing a poem on some vast subject, but at last he hit on a scheme which soon took form in his mind. With reference to it he said, “I am going to take a family, and I shall study its members, one by one, whence they come, whither they go, how they react upon one another--in short, humanity in a small compass, the way in which humanity grows and behaves. On the other hand, I shall set my men and women in a determined period of history, which will provide me with the necessary surroundings and circumstances, a slice of history--you understand, eh? A series of fifteen or twenty books, episodes that will cling together although having each a separate framework, a suite of novels with which I shall be able to build myself a house for my old age if they don’t crush me.” The first of the novels met with some success, and Sandoz having resigned his appointment, and put his trust entirely in literature, married a young girl named Henriette, the daughter of middle-class parents, and removed his house to Rue Nollet. In course of time his circumstances became still more comfortable, and he again removed to a large house in Rue de Londres. When Claude Lantier fell into misery and despair, a gradual separation came about between him and his friends, but Sandoz remained true to the old companionship. He was one of the few mourners who attended the funeral of the unfortunate artist. L’Oeuvre.

SANDOZ (MADAME HENRIETTE), wife of the preceding. She was an orphan, the daughter of a small shop-keeper, without a penny, but pretty and intelligent. She occupied herself much with the affairs of the kitchen, being specially proud of some of her dishes. Even later, when the family was more prosperous and had removed to a large flat in Rue de Londres, Henriette continued to take personal charge, out of affection for her husband, whose only fault was a tendency to gluttony. L’Oeuvre.

SANQUIRINO (DUCHESSE), a lady of the Italian aristocracy, who resided at Paris. She gave Eugene Rougon very unsatisfactory information regarding Comtesse Balbi and her daughter Clorinde. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

SANS-POUCE, one of the brigands of the band of Beau-Francois. La Terre.

SAPIN, sergeant in Captain Beaudoin’s company of the 106th Regiment of the line. “The son of a Lyons grocer in a small way of business, spoilt by his mother, who was dead, and unable to get on with his father, he had remained in the regiment disgusted with everything, but unwilling to be bought out.” Later he became engaged to one of his cousins, who had a small dowry, and began to take an interest in life. During the march to Sedan, however, he became impressed with the idea that he would be killed, and this belief was realized during the fighting on 1st September, 1870. La Debacle.

SAPIN (LA), a disreputable old woman at Magnolles who performed illegal operations and pretended to work magic.

SARRIET (MADAME), sister of Madame Lecoeur and of Madame Gavard; mother of La Sarriette. Le Ventre de Paris.

SARRIET, usually called La Sarriette, was the niece of Madame Lecoeur. She grew up in the markets and her sympathies were with the lower ranks of the people. At twenty she set up in business as a fruit-dealer, and took as her lover a young man named Jules, who was employed by her aunt as a porter. After the arrest of Gavard, her uncle by marriage, La Sarriette and her aunt divided his money between them. Le Ventre de Paris.

SARTEUR, a journeyman hatter at Plassans. He was afflicted with homicidal mania, and was confined for a time in the asylum at Tulettes. While there he was treated by Doctor Pascal Rougon, who affected a cure by hypodermic injections of a substance with which he had long experimented. Sarteur was released from the asylum, but the cure was not permanent, for a few months afterwards the unfortunate man became conscious of a return of his homicidal mania, and, to prevent its operation, hanged himself. Le Docteur Pascal.

SATIN, a friend of Nana from childhood, having, like her, attended the school of Mademoiselle Josse. She was a regular customer at Laure Piedefer’s restaurant, where she met Madame Robert. She lived for a time with Nana, of whom she was intensely jealous, and in time gained control of the whole household. She died in the hospital of Lariboisiere. Nana.

SAUCISSE (LA PERE), an old peasant of Rognes, who owned an acre of land which he sold to Pere Fouan for an annuity of fifteen sous a day. In order to dupe the old man, he pretended to be in bad health. Later, terrorized by Buteau, he cancelled the agreement, and repaid half the sums he had received. La Terre.

SAUVAGNAT, a friend of Pluchart. He lived at Marchiennes. Germinal.

SAUVAGNAT, chief of the depot at Havre, lived in a cottage near the engine depot, which his sister Philomene kept for him, but greatly neglected. He was an obstinate man and a strict disciplinarian, greatly esteemed by his superiors, but had met with the utmost vexation on account of his sister, even to the point of being threatened with dismissal. If the Company bore with her now on his account, he only kept her with him because of the family tie; but this did not prevent him belabouring her so severely with blows whenever he caught her at fault that he frequently left her half dead on the floor. La Bete Humaine.