MARONIS (Abbe de), a priest of great genius, who would have been another Borgia, had he worn the tiara. He was Henri de Marsay's teacher, and made of him a complete skeptic, in a period when the churches were closed. The Abbe de Maronis died a bishop in 1812. [The Thirteen.]
MARRON, under the Restoration, a physician at Marsac, Charente; nephew of the Cure Marron. He married his daughter to Postel, a pharmacist of Augouleme. He was intimate with the family of David Sechard. [Lost Illusions. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
MARSAY (De), immoral old gentleman. To oblige Lord Dudley he married one of the former's mistresses and recognized their son as his own.
For this favor he received a hundred thousand francs per year for life, money which he soon threw away in evil company. He confided the child to his old sister, Mademoiselle de Marsay, and died, as he had lived, away from his wife. [The Thirteen.]
MARSAY (Madame de). (See Vordac, Marquise de.)
MARSAY (Mademoiselle de), sister-in-law of the preceding, took care of her son, Henri, and treated him so well that she was greatly mourned by him when she died advanced in years. [The Thirteen.]
MARSAY (Henri de), born between 1792 and 1796, son of Lord Dudley and the celebrated Marquise de Vordac, who was first united in marriage to the elder De Marsay. This gentleman adopted the boy, thus becoming, according to law, his father. The young Henri was reared by Mademoiselle de Marsay and the Abbe de Maronis. He was on intimate terms, in 1815, with Paul de Manerville, and was already one of the all powerful Thirteen, with Bourignard, Montriveau and Ronquerolles.
At that time he found on rue Saint-Lazare a girl from Lesbosen, Paquita Valdes, whom he wished to make his mistress. He met at the same time his own natural sister, Madame de San-Real, of whom he became the rival for Paquita's love. At first Marsay had been the lover of the Duchesse Charlotte, then of Arabelle Dudley, whose children were his very image. He was also known to be intimate with Delphine de Nucingen up to 1819, then with Diane de Cadignan. In his position as member of the Thirteen Henri was in Montriveau's party when Antoinette de Langeais was stolen from the Carmelites. He bought Coralie for sixty thousand francs. He passed the whole of his time during the Restoration in the company of young men and women. He was the companion and counselor of Victurnien d'Esgrignon, Savinien de Portenduere and above all of Paul de Manerville, whose course he vainly tried to direct after an ill-appointed marriage, and to whom he announced, as soon as possible, his own union. Marsay aided Lucien de Rubempre and served for him, with Rastignac, as second in a duel with Michel Chrestien. The Chaulieu and Fontaine women feared or admired Henri de Marsay--a man who was slighted by M. de Canalis, the much toasted poet. The Revolution of July, 1830, made Marsay a man of no little importance. He, however, was content to tell over his old love affairs gravely in the home of Felicite des Touches. As prime minister from 1832 to 1833, he was an habitue of the Princesse de Cadignan's Legitimist salon, where he served as a screen for the last Vendean insurrection. There, indeed, Marsay brought to light the secrets, already old, of Malin's kidnapping. Marsay died in 1834, a physical wreck, having but a short time before, when Nathan was courting Marie de Vandenesse, taken part in the intrigue, although he was disgusted with the author. [The Thirteen. The Unconscious Humorists. Another Study of Woman. The Lily of the Valley. Father Goriot. Jealousies of a Country Town. Ursule Mirouet. A Marriage Settlement. Lost Illusions. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris. Letters of Two Brides. The Ball at Sceaux. Modeste Mignon. The Secrets of a Princess. The Gondreville Mystery. A Daughter of Eve.]
MARTAINVILLE (Alphonse-Louis-Dieudonne), publicist and dramatic writer, born at Cadiz, in 1776, of French parents, died August 27, 1830. He was an extreme Royalist and, as such, in 1821 and 1822, threw away his advice and support on Lucien de Rubempre, then a convert to Liberalism. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
MARTENER, well-educated old man who lived in Provins under the Restoration. He explained to the archaeologist, Desfondrilles, who consulted him, the reason why Europe, disdaining the waters of Provins, sought Spa, where the waters were less efficacious, according to French medical advice. [Pierrette.]
MARTENER, son of the preceding; physician at Provins in 1827, capable man, ****** and gentle. He married Madame Guenee's second daughter.
When consulted one day by Mademoiselle Habert, he spoke against the marriage of virgins at forty, and thus filled Sylvie Rogron with despair. He protected and cared for Pierrette Lorrain, the victim of this same old maid. [Pierrette.]
MARTENER (Madame), wife of the preceding, second daughter of Madame Guenee, and sister of Madame Auffray. Having taken pity on Pierrette Lorrain in her sickness, she gave to her, in 1828, the pleasures of music, playing the compositions of Weber, Beethoven or Herold.
[Pierrette.]
MARTENER, son of the preceding couple, protege of Vinet the elder, honest and thick-headed. He was, in 1839, examining magistrate at Arcis-sur-Aube and caucused, during the election season in the spring of this same year, with the officers, Michu, Goulard, O. Vinet and Marest. [The Member for Arcis.]
MARTHA was for a long time the faithful chambermaid of Josephine Claes; she died in old age between 1828 and 1830. [The Quest for the Absolute.]
MARTHE (Sister), a Gray sister of Auvergne; from 1809 to 1816 instructed Veronique Sauviat--Madame Graslin--in reading, writing, sacred history, the Old and the New Testaments, the Catechi**, the elements of arithmetic. [The Country Parson.]
