Page:Repertory of the Comedie Humaine.djvu/150

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CREMIERE, tax-collector at Nemours during the Restoration. Nephew by marriage of Dr. Minoret, who had secured the position for him, furnishing his security. One of the three collateral heirs of the old physician, the two others being Minoret-Levrault, the postmaster, and Massin-Levrault, copy-clerk to the justice of the peace. In the curious branching of these four Gatinais bourgeois families—the Minorets, the Massins, the Levraults and the Cremieres—the tax collector belonged to the Cremiere-Cremiere branch. He had several children, among others a daughter named Angelique. After the Revolution of July, 1830, he became municipal councillor. (Ursule Mirouet)

CREMIERE (Madame), nee Massin-Massin, wife of the tax-collector, and niece of Dr. Minoret—that is, daughter of the old physician's sister. A stout woman with a muddy blonde complexion splotched with freckles. Passed for an educated person on account of her novel-reading. Her lapsi linguoe were maliciously spread abroad by Goupil, the notary's clerk, who labelled them, "Capsulinguettes"; indeed, Mme. Cremiere thus translated the two Latin words. (Ursule Mirouet)

CREMIERE-DIONIS, always called Dionis, which name see.

CREVEL (Celestin), born between 1786 and 1788; clerked for Cesar Birotteau the perfumer—first as second clerk, then as head-clerk when Popinot left the house to set up in business for himself. After his patron's failure in 1819, he purchased for five thousand seven hundred francs, "The Queen of Roses," making his own fortune thereby. During the reign of Louis Philippe he lived on his income. Captain, then chief of battalion in the National Guard; officer of the Legion of Honor; mayor of one of the arrondissements of Paris, he ended up by being a very great personage. He had married the daughter of a farmer of Brie; became a widower in 1833, when he gave himself over to a life of pleasure. He maintained Josepha, who was taken away from him by his friend, Baron Hulot. To avenge himself he tried to