CROCHARD, Opera dancer in the second half of the eighteenth century. Director of theatrical evolutions. He commanded a band of assailants upon the Bastile, July 14, 1789; became an officer, a colonel, dying of wounds received at Lutzen, May 2, 1813. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Madame), widow of the preceding. Before the Revolution she had sung with her husband in the chorus. In 1815 she lived wretchedly with her daughter Caroline, following the embroiderer's trade, in a house on rue du Tourniquet-Saint-Jean, which belonged to Molineux. Wishing to find a protector for her daughter, Caroline, Mme. Crochard favored the attentions of the Comte de Granville. He rewarded her with a life-annuity of three thousand francs. She died, in 1822, in a comfortable lodging on rue Saint-Louis at Marais. She constantly wore on her breast the cross of chevalier of the Legion of Honor conferred on her husband by the Emperor. The widow Crochard, watched by an eager circle, received, at her last moments, a visit from Abbe Fontanon, confessor of the Comtesse de Granville, and was greatly troubled by the prelate's proceedings. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Caroline), daughter of the proceding; born in 1797. For several years during the Restoration she was the mistress of Comte de Granville; at that time she was known as Mlle. de Bellefeuille, from the name of a small piece of property at Gatinais given to the young woman by an uncle of the comte who had taken a liking to her. Her lover installed her in an elegant apartment on rue Taitbout, where Esther Gobseck afterwards lived. Caroline Crochard abandoned M. de Granville and a good position for a needy young fellow named Solvet, who ran through with all her property. Sick and poverty-stricken in 1833, she lived in a wretched two-story house on rue Gaillon. She gave the Comte de Granville a son, Charles, and a daughter, Eugenie. [A Second Home.]
CROCHARD (Charles), illegitimate child of Comte de Granville and Caroline Crochard. In 1833 he was apprehended for a considerable theft, when he appealed to his father through the agency of Eugene de Granville, his half-brother. The comte gave the latter money enough to clear up the miserable business, if such were possible. [A Second Home.] The theft in question was committed at the home of Mlle. Beaumesnil. He carried off her diamonds. [The Middle Classes.]
CROISIER (Du). (See Bousquier, Du.)
CROIZEAU, former coachmaker to Bonaparte's Imperial court; had an income of about forty thousand francs; lived on rue Buffault; a widower without children. He was a constant visitor at Antonia Chocardelle's reading-room on rue Coquenard, time of Louis Philippe, and he offered to marry the "charming woman." [A Man of Business.]
CROTTAT (Monsieur and Madame), retired farmers; parents of the notary Crottat, assassinated by some thieves, among them being the notorious Dannepont, alias La Pouraille. The trial of this crime was called in May, 1830. [Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.] They were well-to-do folk and, according to Cesar Birotteau who knew them, old man Crottat was as "close as a snail." [Cesar Birotteau.]
CROTTAT (Alexandre), head-clerk of Maitre Roguin, and his successor in 1819, after the flight of the notary. He married the daughter of Lourdois, the painting-contractor. Cesar Birotteau thought for a time of making him his son-in-law. He called him, familiarly, "Xandrot." Alexandre Crottat was a guest at the famous ball given by the perfumer in December, 1818. He was in friendly relations with Derville, the attorney, who commissioned him with a sort of half-pay for Colonel Chabert. He was also Comtesse Ferraud's notary at this time. [Cesar Birotteau. Colonel Chabert.] In 1822 he was notary to Comte de Serizy. [A Start in Life.] He was also notary to Charles de Vandenesse; and one evening, at the home of the marquis, he made some awkward allusions which undoubtedly recalled unpleasant memories to his client and Mme. d'Aiglemont. Upon his return home he narrated the particulars to his wife, who chided him sharply. [A Woman of Thirty.] Alexandre Crottat and Leopold Hannequin signed the will dictated by Sylvain Pons on his death-bed. [Cousin Pons.]
CRUCHOT (Abbe), priest of Saumur; dignitary of the Chapter of Saint-
Martin of Tours; brother of Cruchot, the notary; uncle of President
Cruchot de Bonfons; the Talleyrand of his family; after much angling
he induced Eugenie Grandet to wed the president in 1827. [Eugenie
Grandet.]
CRUCHOT, notary at Saumur during the Restoration; brother of Abbe Cruchot; uncle of President Cruchot de Bonfons. He as well as the prelate was much concerned with making the match between his nephew and Eugenie Grandet. The young girl's father entrusted M. Cruchot with his usurious dealings and probably with all his money matters. [Eugenie Grandet.]