Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/530

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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;[1] 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)

VERGNIAUD (Louis), who made the Egyptian campaign

  1. 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.)