[*] On March 14, 1840, a Parisian theatre, the Porte-Saint-Martin,
presented a play in which the famous convict was a principal
character. Although Frederic Lemaitre took the leading role, the
play was presented only once. In April, 1868, however, the
Ambigu-Comique revived it, with Frederic Lemaitre again in the
leading role.
VAUVINET, born about 1817, a money-lender of Paris, was of the elegant modern type, altogether different from Chaboisseau-Gobseck; he made the Boulevard des Italiens the centre of his operations; was a creditor of the Baron Hulot, first in the sum of seventy thousand francs; and then in an additional sum of forty thousand, really lent by Nucingen. [Cousin Betty.] In 1845, Leon de Lora and J.-J. Bixiou called S.-P. Gazonal's attention to him. [The Unconscious Humorists.]
VAVASSEUR, clerk in the Treasury Department, during the Empire, in Clergeot's division. He was succeeded by E.-L.-L.-E.-Cochin. [The Government Clerks.]
VEDIE (La), born in 1756, a homely spinster, her face being pitted with small-pox; a relative of La Cognette, a distinguished cook; on the recommendation of Flore Brazier and Maxence Gilet, she was employed as cook by J.-J. Rouget, after the death of a curate, whom she had served long, and who died without leaving her anything. She was to receive a pension of three hundred livres a year, after ten years of competent, faithful and loyal service. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
VENDRAMINI (Marco), whose name is also pronounced Vendramin;[*] probably a descendant of the last Doge of Venice; brother of Bianca Sagredo, born Vendramini; a Venetian patriot; an intimate friend of Memmi-Cane, Prince of Varese. In the intoxication caused by opium, his great resource about 1820, Marco Vendramini dreamed that his dear city, then under Austrian dominion, was free and powerful once more. He talked with Memmi of the Venice of his dreams, and of the famous Procurator Florain, now in the modern Greek, now in their native tongue; sometimes as they walked together, sometimes before La Vulpato and the Cataneos, during a presentation of "Semiramide," "Il Barbiere," or "Moses," as interpreted by La Tinti and Genovese. Vendramini died from excessive use of opium, at quite an early age, during the reign of Louis XVIII., and was greatly mourned by his friends. [Facino Cane. Massimilla Doni.]
[*] The palace in Venice formerly owned by the Duchesse de Berri and
the Comte de Chambord, in which Wagner, the musician, died, is
even now called the Vendramin Palace. It is on the Grand-Canal,
quite near the Justiniani Palace (now the Hotel de-l'Europe.)
VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign with Hyacinthe Chabert and Luigi Porta, was quartermaster of hussars when he left the service. During the Restoration he was, in turn, cow-keeper on the rue du Petit-Banquier, keeper of a livery-stable, and cabman. As cow-keeper, Vergniaud, having a wife and three sons, being in debt to Grados, and giving too generously to Chabert, ended in insolvency; even then he aided Luigi Porta, again in trouble, and was his witness when that Corsican married Mademoiselle di Piombo. Louis Vergniaud, being a party to the conspiracies against Louis XVIII., was imprisoned for his share in these crimes. [Colonel Chabert. The Vendetta.]
VERMANTON, a cynic philosopher, and a habitue of Madame Schontz's salon, between 1835 and 1840, when she was keeping house with Arthur de Rochefide. [Beatrix.]
VERMICHEL, common nick-name of Vert (Michel-Jean-Jerome.)
VERMUT, a druggist of Soulanges, in Bourgogne, during the Restoration; brother-in-law of Sarcus, the Soulanges justice of the peace, who had married his eldest sister. Though quite a distinguished chemist, Vermut was the object of the pleasantries and contemptuous remarks of the Soudry salon, especially at the hands of the Gourdons. Despite the slight esteem "of the first society of Soulanges," Vermut gave evidence of ability, when he disturbed Madame Pigeron by finding traces of poison in the body of her dead husband. [The Peasantry.]