VERNAL (Abbe), one of the four Vendean leaders, in 1799, when Montauran was opposing Hulot, the other three being Chatillon, Suzannet, and the Comte de Fontaine. [The Chouans.]

VERNET (Joseph), born in 1714, died in 1789, a famous French artist; patronized the Cat and Racket, a drapery establishment on the rue Saint-Denis, of which M. Guillaume, father-in-law of Sommervieux, was proprietor. [At the Sign of the Cat and Racket.]

VERNEUIL (Marquis de), member of a historic family, and probably an ancestor of the Verneuils of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In 1591, he was on intimate terms, with the Norman Comte d'Herouville, ancestor of the keeper of Josepha Mirah, star of the Royal Academy of Music, about 1838. The relations between the two families continued unbroken through the centuries. [The Hated Son.]

VERNEUIL (Victor-Amedee, Duc de), probably descended from the preceding, died before the Revolution; by Mademoiselle Blanche de Casteran, he had a daughter, Marie-Nathalie--afterwards Madame Alphonse de Montauran. He acknowledged his natural daughter at the close of his life, and almost disinherited his legitimate son in her favor. [The Chouans.]

VERNEUIL (Mademoiselle de), probably a relative of the preceding; sister of the Prince de Loudon, the Vendean cavalry general; she went to Mans to save her brother, and died on the scaffold in 1793, after the Savenay affair. [The Chouans.]

VERNEUIL (Duc de), son of the Duc Victor-Amedee de Verneuil, and brother of Madame Alphonse de Montauran, with whom he had a lawsuit over the inheritance left by their father; during the Restoration he lived in the town of Alencon and was on intimate terms with the D'Esgrignons of that place. He took Victurnien d'Esgrignon under his protection, and introduced him to Louis XVIII. [The Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.]

VERNEUIL (Duc de), of the family of the preceding, was present at the entertainment given by Josepha Mirah, the mistress of the Duc d'Herouville, when she opened her sumptuous suite of apartments on the rue de la Ville-l'Eveque, Paris, in Louis Philippe's reign. [Cousin Betty.]

VERNEUIL (Duc de), a good-natured great nobleman, son-in-law of a wealthy first president of a royal court, who died in 1800; he was the father of four children, among them being Mademoiselle Laure and the Prince Gaspard de Loudon; owned the historic chateau of Rosembray, in the vicinity of Havre, and close by the forest of Brotonne; there he received, one day in October, 1829, the Mignon de la Basties, accompanied by the Herouvilles, Canalis, and Ernest de la Briere, all of whom were at that time desirous to marry Modeste Mignon, soon to become Madame de la Briere de la Bastie. [Modeste Mignon.]