Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/140

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COLLEVILLE (Flavie Minoret, Madame), born in 1798; wife of the preceding; daughter of a celebrated dancer and, supposedly, of M. du Bourguier. She made a love match and between 1816 and 1826 bore five children, each of whom resembled and may actually have had a different father: 1st. A daughter born in 1816, who favored Colleville. 2d. A son, Charles, cut out for a soldier, born during his mother's acquaintance with Charles de Gondreville, under-lieutenant of the dragoons of Saint-Chamans. 3d. A son, Francois, destined for business, born during Mme. Colleville's intimacy with Francois Keller, the banker. 4th. A daughter, Celeste born in 1821, of whom Thuillier, Colleville's best friend, was the godfather—and father in partibus. (See Phellion, Mme. Felix.) 5th. A son, Theodore, or Anatole, born at a period of religious zeal. Madame Colleville was a Parisian, piquant, winning and pretty, as well as clever and ethereal. She made her husband very happy. He owed all his advancement to her. In the interests of their ambition she granted momentary favor to Chardin des Lupeaulx, the Secretary-General. On Wednesdays she was at home to artists and distinguished people. (The Government Clerks, Cousin Betty, The Middle Classes)

COLLIN (Jacques), born in 1779. Reared by the Fathers of the Oratory. He went as far as rhetoric, at school, and was then put in a bank by his aunt, Jacqueline Collin. Accused, however, of a crime probably committed by Franchessini, he fled the country. Later he was sent to the galleys where he remained from 1810 to 1815, when he escaped and came to Paris, stopping under the name of Vautrin at the Vauquer pension. There he knew Rastignac, then a young man, became interested in him, and tried to bring about his marriage with Victorine Taillefer, for whom he procured a rich dowry by causing her brother to be slain in a duel with Franchessini. Bibi-Lupin, chief of secret police, arrested him in 1819 and returned him to the bagne,