Chapter M (8)

URSULE, servant employed by the Abbe Bonnet, cure of Montegnac, in 1829; a woman of canonical age. She received the Abbe de Rastignac, who had been sent by the Bishop of Limoges to bring the village curate to Jean-Francois Tascheron. It was desired that this man, although he was condemned to death, should be brought back within the "pale of the Church." Ursule learned from the Abbe de Rastignac of the reprieve that had been given the murderer, and being not only inquisitive, but also a gossip; she spread it throughout the whole village, during the time that she was buying the articles necessary for the preparation of breakfast for the Cure Bonnet and the Abbe de Rastignac. [The Village Parson.]

URSULE, from Picardie, very large; cook employed by Ragon, perfumer on rue Saint-Honore, Paris, towards the end of the eighteenth century; about 1793 she took in hand the amorous education of Cesar Birotteau, the little Tourraine peasant just employed by the Ragons as errand-boy. Ill-natured, wanton, wheedling, dishonest, selfish and given to drink, Ursule did not suit the candid Cesar, whom she abandoned, moreover, two years later, for a young Picardie rebel, who owned a few acres of land. He found concealment in Paris, and let her marry him. [Cesar Birotteau.]

UXELLES (Marquise d'), related to the Princess de Blamont-Chauvry, and to the Duc and Duchesse de Lenoncourt; god-mother of Cesar Birotteau. [Cesar Birotteau.]

UXELLES (Duchesse d'), born about 1769, mother of Diane d'Uxelles; beloved by the Duc de Maufrigneuse, and about 1814 gave him her daughter in marriage; ten years later she withdrew to her Uxelles estate, where she lived a life of piety and selfishness. [The Secrets of a Princess.]