VATINELLE (Madame), a pretty and rather loose woman of Mantes, courted at the same time by Maitre Fraisier and the king's attorney, Olivier Vinet; she was "kind" to the former, thereby causing his ruin; the attorney soon found a means of compelling Fraisier, who was representing both sides in a lawsuit, to sell his practice and leave town. [Cousin Pons.]
VAUCHELLES (De), maintained relations of close friendship, about 1835, at Besancon, with Amedee de Soulas, his fellow-countryman, and Chavoncourt, the younger, a former collegemate. Vauchelles was of equally high birth with Soulas, and was also equally poor. He sought the hand of Mademoiselle Victoire, Chavoncourt's eldest sister, on whom a godmother aunt had agreed to settle an estate yielding an income of seven thousand francs, and a hundred thousand francs in cash, in the marriage contract. To Rosalie de Watteville's satisfaction, he opposed Albert Savarus, the rival of the elder Chavoncourt, in his candidacy for a seat in the Chamber of Deputies. [Albert Savarus.]
VAUDOYER, a peasant of Ronquerolles, Bourgogne, appointed forest- keeper of Blangy, but discharged about 1821, in favor of Groison, by Montcornet, at that time mayor of the commune; supported G. Rigou and F. Gaubertin as against the new owner of Aigues. [The Peasantry.]
VAUDREMONT (Comtesse de), born in 1787; being a wealthy widow of twenty-two years in 1809, she was considered the most beautiful Parisian of the day, and was known as the "Queen of Fashion." In the month of November of the same year, she attended the great ball given by the Malin de Gondrevilles, who were disappointed at the Emperor's failure to appear on that occasion. Being the mistress of the Comte de Soulanges and Martial de la Roche-Hugon, Madame de Vaudremont had received from the former a ring taken from his wife's jewel-casket; she made a present of it to Martial, who happening to be wearing it on the evening of the Gondreville ball, gave it to Madame de Soulanges, without once suspecting that he was restoring it to its lawful owner. Madame de Vaudremont's death followed shortly after this incident, which brought about the reconciliation of the Soulanges couple, urged by the Duchesse de Lansac; the countess perished in the famous fire that broke out at the Austrian embassy during the party given on the occasion of the wedding of the Emperor and the Arch-duchess Marie- Louise. [Domestic Peace.] The embassy was located on the part of the rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin (at that time rue du Mont-Blanc) comprised between the rue de la Victoire and the rue Saint-Lazare.
VAUMERLAND (Baronne de), a friend of Madame de l'Ambermesnil's, boarded with one of Madame Vauquer's rivals in the Marais, and intended, as soon as her term expired, to become a patron of the establishment on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve; at least, so Madame de l'Ambermesnil declared. [Father Goriot.]
VAUQUELIN (Nicolas-Louis), a famous chemist, and a member of the Institute; born at Saint-Andre d'Hebertot, Calvadts, in 1763, died in 1829; son of a peasant; praised by Fourcroy; in turn, pharmacist in Paris, mine-inspector, professor at the School of Pharmacy, the School of Medicine, the Jardin des Plantes, and the College de France. He gave Cesar Birotteau the formula for a cosmetic for the hands, that the perfumer called "la double pate des Sultanes," and, being consulted by him on the subject of "cephalic oil," he denied the possibility of restoring a suit of hair. Nicolas Vauquelin was invited to the perfumer's great ball, given on December 17, 1818. In recognition of the good advice received from the scientist, Cesar Birotteau offered him a proof, before the time of printing, on China paper, of Muller's engraving of the Dresden Virgin, which proof had been found in Germany after two years of searching, and cost fifteen hundred francs. [Cesar Birotteau.]
VAUQUER (Madame), a widow, born Conflans about 1767. She claimed to have lost a brilliant position through a series of misfortunes, which, by the way, she never detailed specifically. For a long time she kept a bourgeois boarding-house on the rue Neuve-Sainte-Genevieve (now rue Tournefort), near the rue de l'Arbalete. In 1819-1820, Madame Vauquer, a short, stout, languid woman, but rather well preserved in spite of being a little faded, had Horace Bianchon as table-boarder, and furnished with board and lodging the following: on the first floor of her house, Madame Couture and Mademoiselle Victorine Taillefer; on the second floor, Poiret, the elder, and Jacques Collin; on the third, Christine-Michelle Michonneau--afterwards Madame Poiret,--Joachim Goriot; whom she looked upon as a possible husband for herself, and Eugene de Rastignac. She was deserted by her various boarders shortly after the arrest of Jacques Collin. [Father Goriot.]
VAUREMONT (Princesse de), one of the most prominent figures of the eighteenth century; grandmother of Madame Marie Gaston, who adored her; she died in 1817, the year of Madame de Stael's death, in a mansion belonging to the Chaulieus and situated near the Boulevard des Invalides. Madame de Vauremont, at the time of her death, was occupying a suite of apartments in which she was shortly afterwards succeeded by Louise de Chaulieu (Madame Marie Gaston). Talleyrand, an intimate friend of the princess was executor of her will. [Letters of Two Brides.]