MOLLOT (Earnestine), daughter of the preceding couple, was, in 1839, a young girl of marriageable age. [The Member for Arcis.]
MONGENOD, born in 1764; son of a grand council attorney, who left him an income of five or six thousand. Becoming bankrupt during the Revolution, he became first a clerk with Frederic Alain, under Bordin, the solicitor. He was unsuccessful in several ventures: as a journalist with the "Sentinelle," started or built up by him; as a musical composer with the "Peruviens," an opera-comique given in 1798 at the Feydau theatre.[*] His marriage and the family expenses attendant rendered his financial condition more and more embarrassing. Mongenod had lent money to Frederic Alain, so that he might be present at the opening performance of the "Marriage de Figaro." He borrowed, in turn, from Alain a sum of money which he was unable to return at the time agreed. He set out thereupon for America, made a fortune, returned January, 1816, and reimbursed Alain. From this time dates the opening of the celebrated Parisian banking-house of Mongenod & Co. The firm-name changed to Mongenod & Son, and then to Mongenod Brothers. In 1819 the bankruptcy of the perfumer, Cesar Birotteau, having taken place, Mongenod became personally interested at the Bourse,[+] in the affair, negotiating with merchants and discounters. Mongenod died in 1827. [The Seamy Side of History. Cesar Birotteau.]
[*] The Feydau theatre, with its dependencies on the thoroughfare of
the same name, existed in Paris until 1826 on the site now taken
by the rue de la Bourse.
[+] The Bourse temporarily occupied a building on rue Feydau, while
the present palace was building.
MONGENOD (Madame Charlotte), wife of the preceding, in the year 1798 bore up bravely under her poverty, even selling her hair for twelve francs that her family might have bread. Wealthy, and a widow after 1827, Madame Mongenod remained the chief adviser and support of the bank, operated in Paris on rue de la Victoire, by her two sons, Frederic and Louis. [The Seamy Side of History.]
MONGENOD (Frederic), eldest of the preceding couple's three children, received from his thankful parents the given name of M. Alain and became, after 1827, the head of his father's banking-house on rue de la Victoire. His honesty is shown by the character of his patrons, among whom were the Marquis d'Espard, Charles Mignon de la Bastie, the Baronne de la Chanterie and Godefroid. [The Commission in Lunacy. The Seamy Side of History.]
MONGENOD (Louis), younger brother of the preceding, with whom he had business association on rue de la Victoire, where he was receiving the prudent advice of his mother, Madame Charlotte Mongenod, when Godefroid visited him in 1836. [The Seamy Side of History.]
MONGENOD (Mademoiselle), daughter of Frederic and Charlotte Mongenod, born in 1799; she was offered in marriage, January, 1816, to Frederic Alain, who would not accept this token of gratitude from the wealthy Mongenods. Mademoiselle Mongenod married the Vicomte de Fontaine. [The Seamy Side of History.]
MONISTROL, native of Auvergne, a Parisian broker, towards the last years of Louis Phillippe's reign, successively on rue de Lappe and the new Beaumarchais boulevard. He was one of the pioneers in the curio business, along with the Popinots, Ponses, and the Remonencqs. This kind of business afterwards developed enormously. [Cousin Pons.]
MONTAURAN (Marquis Alophonse de), was, in the closing years of the eighteenth century, connected with nearly all of the well-known Royalist intrigues in France and elsewhere. He frequently visited, along with Flamet de la Billardiere and the Comte de Fontaine, the home of Ragon, the perfumer, who was proprietor of the "Reine des Roses," from which went forth the Royalist correspondence between the West and Paris. Too young to have been at Versailles, Alphonse de Montauran had not "the courtly manners for which Lauzun, Adhemar, Coigny, and so many others were noted." His education was incomplete. Towards the autumn of 1799 he especially distinguished himself. His attractive appearance, his youth, and a mingled gallantry and authoritativeness, brought him to the notice of Louis XVIII., who appointed him governor of Bretagne, Normandie, Maine and Anjou. Under the name of Gras, having become commander of the Chouans, in September, the marquis conducted them in an attack against the Blues on the plateau of La Pelerine, which extends between Fougeres, Ille-et-Vilaine, and Ernee, Mayenne. Madame du Gua did not leave him even then. Alphonse de Montauran sought the hand of Mademoiselle d'Uxelles, after leaving this, the last mistress of Charette. Nevertheless, he fell in love with Marie de Verneuil, the spy, who had entered Bretagne with the express intention of delivering him to the Blues. He married her in Fougeres, but the Republicans murdered him and his wife a few hours after their marriage. [Cesar Birotteau. The Chouans.]