TOUCHARD, father and son, ran a line of stages, during the Restoration, to Beaumont-sur-Oise. [A Start in Life.]

TOUCHES (Mademoiselle Felicite des), born at Guerande in 1791; related to the Grandlieus; not connected with the Touches family of Touraine, to which the regent's ambassador, more famous as a comic poet, belonged; became an orphan in 1793; her father, a major in the Gardes de la Porte, was killed on the steps of the Tuileries August 10, 1792, and her only brother, a younger member of the guard, was massacred at the Carmelite convent; lastly, her mother died of a broken heart a few days after this last catastrophe. Entrusted then to the care of her maternal aunt, Mademoiselle de Faucombe, a nun of Chelles,[*] she was taken by her to Faucombe, a considerable estate situated near Nantes, and soon afterwards she was put in prison along with her aunt on the charge of being an emissary of Pitt and Cobourg. The 9th Thermidor found them released; but Mademoiselle de Faucombe died of fright, and Felicite was sent to M. de Faucombe, an archaeologist of Nantes, being her maternal great-uncle and her nearest relative. She grew up by herself, "a tom-boy"; she had at her command an enormous library, which allowed her to acquire, at a very early age, a great mass of information. The literary spirit being developed in her, Mademoiselle des Touches began by assisting her aged uncle; wrote three articles that he believed were his own work, and, in 1822, made her beginning in literature with two volumes of dramatic works, after the fashion of Lope de Vega and Shakespeare, which produced a sort of artistic revolution. She then assumed as a permanent appellation, the pseudonym of Camille Maupin, and led a bright and independent life. Her income of eighty thousand livres, her castle of Les Touches, near Guerande-- Loire-Inferieure--her Parisian mansion on the rue de Mont-Blanc--now rue de la Chaussee-d'Antin,--her birth, and her connections, had their power of influence. Her irregularities were covered as with a veil, in consideration of her genius. Indeed, Mademoiselle des Touches had more than one lover: a gallant about 1817; then an original mind, a sceptic, the real creator of Camille Maupin; and next Gennaro Conti, whom she knew in Rome, and Claude Vignon, a critic of reputation. [Beatrix. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] Felicite was a patron of Joseph Bridau, the romantic painter, who was despised by the bourgeois [A Bachelor's Establishment.]; she felt a liking for Lucien de Rubempre, whom, indeed, she came near marrying; though this circumstance did not prevent her from aiding the poet's mistress, Coralie, the actress; for, at the time of their amours, Felicite des Touches was in high favor at the Gymnase. She was the anonymous collaborator of a comedy into which Leontine Volnys--the little Fay of that time--was introduced; she had intended to write another vaudeville play, in which Coralie was to have made the principal role. When the young actress took to her bed and died, which occurred under the Poirson-Cerfberr[+] management, Felicite paid the expenses of her burial, and was present at the funeral services, which were conducted at Notre-Dame de Bonne-Nouvelle. She gave dinner- parties on Wednesdays; Levasseur, Conti, Mesdames Pasta, Conti, Fodor, De Bargeton, and d'Espard, attended her receptions. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] Although a Legitimist, like the Marquise d'Espard, Felicite, after the Revolution of July, kept her salon open, where were frequently assembled her neighbor Leontine de Serizy, Lord Dudley and Lady Barimore, the Nucingens, Joseph Bridau, Mesdames de Cadignan and de Montcornet, the Comtesse de Vandenesse, Daniel d'Arthez, and Madame Rochegude, otherwise known as Rochefide. Canalis, Rastignac, Laginski, Montriveau, Bianchon, Marsay, and Blondet rivaled each other in telling piquant stories and passing caustic remarks under her roof. [Another Study of Woman.] Furthermore, Mademoiselle des Touches shortly afterwards gave advice to Marie de Vandenesse and condemned free love. [A Daughter of Eve.] In 1836, while traveling through Italy, which she was showing to Claude Vignon and Leon de Lora, the landscape painter, she was present at an entertainment given by Maurice de l'Hostal, the French consul at Genoa; on this occasion he gave an account of the ups and downs of the Bauvan family. [Honorine.] In 1837, after having appointed as her residuary legatee Calyste du Guenic, whom she adored, but to whom she refused to give herself over, Felicite des Touches retired to a convent in Nantes of the order of Saint-Francois. Among the works left by this second George Sand, we may mention "Le Nouveau Promethee," a bold attempt, standing alone among her works, and a short autobiographical romance, in which she described her betrayed passion for Conti, an admirable work, which was regarded as the counterpart of Benjamin Constant's "Adolphe." [Beatrix. The Muse of the Department.]

[*] It was perhaps at Chelles that Mademoiselle de Faucombe became acquainted with Mesdemoiselles de Beauseant and de Langeais.

[+] Delestre-Poirson, the vaudeville man, together with A. Cerfberr established the Gymnase-Dramatique, December 20, 1820; with the Cerfberr Brothers, Delestre-Poirson continued the management of it until 1844.

TOUPILLIER, born about 1750; of a wretchedly poor family consisting of three sisters and five brothers, one of whom was father of Madame Cardinal. From drum-major in the Gardes-Francaise, Toupillier became beadle in the church of Saint-Sulpice, Paris; then dispenser of holy water, having been an artist's model in the meantime. Toupillier, at the beginning of the Restoration, suspected either of being a Bonapartist, or of being unfit for his position, was discharged from the service of the church, and had only the right to stand at the threshold as a privileged beggar; however, he profited greatly by his new position, for he knew how to arouse the compassionate feelings of the faithful in every possible way, chiefly by passing as a centenarian. Having been entrusted with the diamonds that Charles Crochard had stolen from Mademoiselle Beaumesnil and which the young thief wished to get off his hands for the time being, Toupillier denied having received them and remained possessor of the stolen jewels. But Corentin, the famous police-agent, followed the pauper of Saint-Sulpice to the rue du Coeur-Volant, and surprised that new Cardillac engrossed in the contemplation of the diamonds. He, however, left them in his custody, on condition of his leaving by will all his property to Lydie Peyrade, Corentin's ward and Mademoiselle Beaumesnil's daughter. Corentin further required Toupillier to live in his house and under his surveillance on the rue Honore-Chevalier. At that time Toupillier had an income of eighteen hundred francs; he might be seen, at the church, munching wretched crusts; but, the church once closed, he went to dine at the Lathuile restaurant, situated on the Barriere de Clichy, and at night he got drunk on the excellent Rousillon wines. Notwithstanding an attack made by Madame Cardinal and Cerizet on the closet containing the diamonds, when the pauper of Saint-Sulpice died in 1840, Lydie Peyrade, now Madame Theodose de la Peyrade, inherited all that Toupillier possessed. [The Middle Classes.]

TOUPINET, a Parisian mechanic, at the time of the Restoration, being married and father of a family, he stole his wife's savings, the fruit of arduous labor; he was imprisoned, about 1828, probably for debts. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

TOUPINET (Madame), wife of the preceding; known under the name Pomponne; kept a fruit-stand; lived, in 1828, on the rue du Petit- Banquier, Paris; unhappy in her married life; obtained from the charitable J.-J. Popinot, under the name of a loan, ten francs for purchasing stock. [The Commission in Lunacy.]

TOURNAN, a hatter of the rue Saint-Martin, Paris; among his customers was young Poiret, who, on July 3, 1823, brought him his head-covering, all greased, as a result of J.-J. Bixiou's practical joking. [The Government Clerks.]