VALOIS (Chevalier de), born about 1758; died, as did his friend and fellow-countryman, the Marquis d'Esgrignon, with the legitimate monarchy, August, 1830. This poor man passed his youth in Paris, where he was surprised by the Revolution. He was finally a Chouan, and when the western Whites arose in arms against the Republic, he was one of the members of the Alencon royal committee. At the time of the Restoration he was living in this city very modestly, but received by the leading aristocracy of the province as a true Valois. The chevalier carried snuff in an old gold snuffbox, ornamented with the picture of the Princess Goritza, a Hungarian, celebrated for her beauty, under Louis XV. He spoke only with emotion of this woman, for whom he had battled with Lauzun. The Chevalier de Valois tried vainly to marry the wealthy heiress of Alencon, Rose-Victoire Cormon, a spinster, who had the misfortune to become the wife, platonically speaking, of M. du Bousquier, the former contractor. In his lodging at Alencon with Madame Lardot, a laundress, the chevalier had as mistress one of the working women, Cesarine, whose child was usually attributed to him. Cesarine was, as a result, the sole legatee of her lover. The chevalier also took some liberties with another employe of Madame Lardot, Suzanne, a very beautiful Norman girl, who was afterwards known at Paris as a courtesan, under the name of Val-Noble, and who still later married Theodore Gaillard. M. de Valois, although strongly attached to this girl, did not allow her to defraud him. He was intimate with Messieurs de Lenoncourt, de Navarreins, de Verneuil, de Fontaine, de la Billardiere, de Maufrigneuse and de Chaulieu. Valois made a living by gambling, but pretended to gain his modest livelihood from a Maitre Bordin, in the name of a certain M. de Pombreton. [The Chouans. Jealousies of a Country Town.]

VANDENESSE (Marquis de), a gentleman of Tours; had by his wife four children: Charles, who married Emilie de Fontaine, widow of Kergarouet; Felix, who married Marie-Angelique de Granville; and two daughters, the elder of whom was married to her cousin, the Marquis de Listomere. The Vandenesse motto was: "Ne se vend." [The Lily of the Valley.]

VANDENESSE (Marquise de), born Listomere, wife of the preceding; tall, slender, emaciated, selfish and fond of cards; "insolent, like all the Listomeres, with whom insolence always counts as a part of the dowry." She was the mother of four children, whom she reared harshly, keeping them at a distance, especially her son Felix. She had something of a weakness for her son Charles, the elder. [The Lily of the Valley.]

VANDENESSE (Marquis Charles de), son of the preceding, born towards the close of the eighteenth century; shone as a diplomatist under the Bourbons; during this period was the lover of Madame Julie d'Aiglemont, wife of General d'Aiglemont; by her he had some natural children. With Desroches as his attorney, Vandenesse entered into a suit with his younger brother, Comte Felix, in regard to some financial matters. He married the wealthy widow of Kergarouet, born Emilie de Fontaine. [A Woman of Thirty. A Start in Life. A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Marquise Charles de), born Emilie de Fontaine about 1802; the youngest of the Comte de Fontaine's daughters; having been overindulged as a child, her insolent bearing, a distinctive trait of character, was made manifest at the famous ball of Cesar Birotteau, to which she accompanied her parents. [Cesar Birotteau.] She refused Paul de Manerville, and a number of other excellent offers, before marrying her mother's uncle, Admiral Comte de Kergarouet. This marriage, which she regretted later, was resolved upon during a game of cards with the Bishop of Persepolis, as a result of the anger which she felt on learning that M. Longueville, on whom she had centred her affections, was only a merchant. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Madame de Kergarouet scorned her nephew by marriage, Savinien de Portenduere, who courted her. [Ursule Mirouet.] Having become a widow, she married the Marquis de Vandenesse. A little later she endeavored to overthrow her sister- in-law, the Comtesse Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with Raoul Nathan. [A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Comte Felix de), brother-in-law of the preceding, born late in the eighteenth century, bore the title of vicomte until the death of his father; suffered much in childhood and youth, first in his home life, then as a pupil in a boarding-school at Tours and in the Oratorien college at Pontlevoy. He was unhappy also at the Lepitre school in Paris, and during his holidays spent on the Ile Saint-Louis with one of the Listomeres, a kinswoman. Felix de Vandenesse at last found happiness at Frapesle, a castle near Clochegourde. It was then that his platonic liaison with Madame de Mortsauf began--a union which occupied an important place in his life. He was, moreover, the lover of Lady Arabelle Dudley, who called him familiarly Amedee, pronounced "my dee." Madame de Mortsauf, having died, he was subjected to the secret hatred of her daughter Madeleine, later Madame de Lenoncourt- Givry-Chaulieu. About this time began his career in public life. During the "Hundred Days" Louis XVIII. entrusted to him a mission in Vendee. The King received him into favor, and finally employed him as private secretary. He was also appointed master of petitions in the State Council. Vandenesse frequently visited the Lenoncourts. He excited admiration, mingled with envy, in the mind of Lucien de Rubempre, who had recently arrived in Paris. Acting for the King, he helped Cesar Birotteau. He was acquainted with the Prince de Talleyrand, and asked of him information about Macumer, for Louise de Chaulieu. [The Lily of the Valley. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Cesar Birotteau. Letters of Two Brides.] After his father's death, Felix de Vandenesse assumed the title of count, and probably won a suit in regard to a land-sale against his brother, the marquis, who had been badly served by a rascally clerk of Maitre Desroches, Oscar Husson. [A Start in Life.] At this time, Comte Felix de Vandenesse began a very close relationship with Natalie de Manerville. She herself broke this off as a result of the detailed description that he gave her of the love which he had formerly felt for Madame de Mortsauf. [The Marriage Settlement.] The year following, he married Angelique-Marie de Granville, elder daughter of the celebrated magistrate of that name, and began to keep house on rue du Rocher, where he had a house, furnished with the best of taste. At first he was not able to gain his wife's affection, as his known profligacy and his patronizing manners filled her with fear. She did not go with him to the evening entertainment given by Madame d'Espard, where he found himself with his elder brother, and where many gossiping tongues directed their speech against Diane de Cadignan, despite the presence of her lover, Arthez. Felix de Vandenesse went with his wife to a rout at the home of Mademoiselle des Touches, where Marsay told the story of his first love. The Comte and Comtesse de Vandenesse, who, under Louis Philippe, still frequented the houses of the Cadignans and the Montcornets, came very near having serious trouble. Madame de Vandenesse, had foolishly fallen in love with Raoul Nathan, but was kept from harm by her husband's skilful management. [The Secrets of a Princess. Another Study of Woman. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]

VANDENESSE (Comtesse Felix de), wife of the preceding; born Angelique- Marie de Granville in 1808; a brunette like her father. In bearing the cruel treatment of her prejudiced mother, in the Marais house, where she spent her youth, the Comtesse Felix was consoled by the tender affection of a younger sister, Marie-Eugenie, later Madame F. du Tillet. The lessons in harmony given them by Wilhelm Schmucke afforded them some diversion. Married about 1828, and dowered handsomely, to the detriment of Marie-Eugenie, she underwent, when about twenty-five years old, a critical experience. Although mother of at least one child, becoming suddenly of a romantic turn of mind, she narrowly escaped becoming the victim of a worldly conspiracy formed against her by Lady Dudley and by Mesdames Charles de Vandenesse and de Manerville. Marie, moved by the strength of her passion for the writer, Raoul Nathan, and wishing to save him from financial trouble, appealed to the good offices of Madame de Nucingen and to the devotion of Schmucke. The proof furnished to her by her husband of the debasing relations and the extreme Bohemian life of Raoul, kept Madame Felix de Vandenesse from falling. [A Second Home. A Daughter of Eve.] Afterwards, her adventure, the dangers which she had run, and her rupture with the poet, were all recounted by M. de Clagny, in the presence of Madame de la Baudraye, Lousteau's mistress. [The Muse of the Department.]

VANDENESSE (Alfred de), son of the Marquis Charles de Vandenesse, a coxcomb who, under the reign of Louis Philippe, at the Faubourg Saint- Germain, compromised the reputation of the Comtesse de Saint-Hereen, despite the presence of her mother, Madame d'Aiglemont, the former mistress of the marquis. [A Woman of Thirty.]