FICHET (Mademoiselle), the richest heiress of Issoudun during the Restoration. Godet, junior, one of the "Knights of Idlesse" paid court to her mother in the hope of obtaining, as a reward for his devotion, the hand of the young girl. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
FINOT (Andoche), managing-editor of journals and reviews, times of the Restoration and Louis Philippe. Son of a hatter of rue du Coq (now rue Marengo). Finot was abandoned by his father, a hard trader, and made a poor beginning. He wrote a bombastic announcement for Popinot's "Cephalic Oil." His first work was attending to announcements and personals in the papers. He was invited to the Birotteau ball. Finot was acquainted with Felix Gaudissart, who introduced him to little Anselme, as a great promoter. He was previously on the editorial staff of the "Courrier des Spectacles," and he had a piece performed at the Gaite. [Cesar Birotteau.] In 1820 he ran a little theatrical paper whose office was located on rue du Sentier. He was nephew of Giroudeau, a captain of dragoons; was witness of the marriage of J.-J. Rouget. [A Bachelor's Establishment.] in 1821 Finot's paper was on rue Saint-Fiacre. Etienne Lousteau, Hector Merlin, Felicien Vernou, Nathan, F. du Bruel and Blondet all contributed to it. Then it was that Lucien de Rubempre made his reputation by a remarkable report of "L'Alcade dans l'embarras," a three act drama performed at the Panorama-Dramatique. Finot then lived on rue Feydeau. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] In 1824 he was at the Opera ball in a group of dandies and litterateurs, which surrounded Lucien de Rubempre, who was flirting with Esther Gobseck. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] In this year Finot was guest at an entertainment at the home of Rabourdin, the chief of bureau, when he allowed himself to be won over to that official's cause by his friend Chardin des Lupeaulx, who had asked him to exert the voice of the press against Baudoyer, the rival of Rabourdin. [The Government Clerks.] In 1825 he was present at a breakfast given at the Rocher de Cancale, by Frederic Marest in celebration of his entrance to the law office of Desroches; he was also at the orgy which followed at the home of Florine. [A Start in Life.] In 1831 Gaudissart said that his friend Finot had an income of thirty thousand francs, that he would be councillor of state, and was booked for a peer of France. He aspired to end up as his "shareholder." [Gaudissart the Great.] In 1836 Finot was dining with Blondet, his fellow-editor, and with Couture, a man about town, in a private room of a well-known restaurant, when he heard the story of the financial trickeries of Nucingen, wittily related by Bixiou. [The Firm of Nucingen.] Finot concealed "a brutal nature under a mild exterior," and his "impertinent stupidity was flecked with wit as the bread of a laborer is flecked with garlic." [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
FIRMIANI, a respectable quadragenarian who in 1813 married the lady who afterwards became Mme. Octave de Camps. He was unable, so it was said, to offer her more than his name and his fortune. He was formerly receiver-general in the department of Montenotte. He died in Greece in 1823. [Madame Firmiani.]
FIRMIANI (Madame). (See Camps, Mme. de.)
FISCHER, the name of three brothers, laborers in a village situated on the extreme frontiers of Lorraine, at the foot of the Vosges. They set out to join the army of the Rhine by reason of Republican conscriptions. The first, Pierre, father of Lisbeth—or "Cousin Betty" —was killed in 1815 in the Francstireurs. The second, Andre, father of Adeline who became the wife of Baron Hulot, died at Treves in 1820. The third, Johann, having committed some acts of peculation, at the instigation of his nephew Hulot, while a commissary contractor in Algiers, province of Oran, committed suicide in 1841. He was over seventy when he killed himself. [Cousin Betty.]
FISCHER (Adeline). (See Hulot, d'Ervy, Baronne Hector.)
FISCHER (Lisbeth), known as "Cousin Betty"; born in 1796; brought up a peasant. In her childhood she had to give way to her first cousin, the pretty Adeline, who was pampered by the whole family. In 1809 she was called to Paris by Adeline's husband and placed as an apprentice with the well-known Pons Brothers, embroiderers to the Imperial Court. She became a skilled workwoman and was about to set up for herself when the Empire was overthrown. Lisbeth was a Republican, of restive temperament, capricious, independent and unaccountably savage. She habitually declined to wed. She refused in succession a clerk of the minister of war, a major, an army-contractor, a retired captain and a wealthy lace-maker. Baron Hulot nick-named her the "Nanny-Goat." A resident of rue du Doyenne (which ended at the Louvre and was obliterated about 1855), where she worked for Rivet, a successor of Pons, she made the acquaintance of her neighbor, Wenceslas Steinbock, a Livonian exile, whom she saved from poverty and suicide, but whom she watched with a jealous strictness. Hortense Hulot sought out and succeeded in seeing the Pole; a wedding followed between the young people which caused Cousin Betty a deep resentment, cunningly concealed, but terrific in its effects. Through her Wenceslas was introduced to the irresistible Mme. Marneffe, and the happiness of a young household was quickly demolished. The same thing happened to Baron Hulot whose misconduct Lisbeth secretly abetted. Lisbeth died in 1844 of a pulmonary phthisis, principally caused by chagrin at seeing the Hulot family reunited. The relatives of the old maid never found out her evil actions. They surrounded her bedside, caring for her and lamenting the loss of "the angel of the family." Mlle. Fischer died on rue Louis-le-Grand, Paris, after having dwelt in turn on rues du Doyenne, Vaneau, Plumet (now Oudinot) and du Montparnasse, where she managed the household of Marshal Hulot, through whom she dreamed of wearing the countess' coronet, and for whom she donned mourning. [Cousin Betty.]
FITZ-WILLIAM (Miss Margaret), daughter of a rich and noble Irishman who was the maternal uncle of Calyste du Guenic; hence the first cousin of that young man. Mme. de Guenic, the mother, was desirous of mating her son with Miss Margaret. [Beatrix.]
FLAMET. (See la Billardiere, Flamet de.)
FLEURANT (Mother), ran a cafe at Croisic which Jacques Cambremer visited. [A Seaside Tragedy.]