ere than in any other part of France. "The man of L'Houmeau" became
little better than a pariah. Hence the deep, smothered hatred which
broke out everywhere with such ugly unanimity in the insurrection of
1830 and destroyed the elements of a durable social system in France. As
the overweening haughtiness of the Court nobles detached the provincial
_noblesse_ from the throne, so did these last alienate the _bourgeoisie_
from the royal cause by behavior that galled their vanity in every
possible way.

So "a man of L'Houmeau," a druggist's son, in Mme. de Bargeton's house
was nothing less than a little revolution. Who was responsible for it?
Lamartine and Victor Hugo, Casimir Delavigne and Canalis, Beranger and
Chateaubriand. Davrigny, Benjamin Constant and Lamennais, Cousin and
Michaud,--all the old and young illustrious names in literature in
short, Liberals and Royalists, alike must divide the blame among them.
Mme. de Bargeton loved art and letters, eccentric taste on her part,
a craze deeply deplored in Angouleme. In justice to the lady, it is
necessary to give a sketch of the previous history of a woman born to
shine, and left by unlucky circumstances in the shade, a woman whose
influence decided Lucien's career.

M. de Bargeton was the great-grandson of an alderman of Bordeaux named
Mirault, ennobled under Louis XIII. for long tenure of office. His
son, bearing the name of Mirault de Bargeton, became an officer in the
household troops of Louis XIV., and married so great a fortune that in
the reign of Louis XV. his son dropped the Mirault and was called simply
M. de Bargeton. This M. de Bargeton, the alderman's grandson, lived up
to his quality so strenuously that he ran through the family property
and checked the course of its fortunes. Two of his brothers indeed,
great-uncles of the present Bargeton, went into business again, for
which reason you will find the name of Mirault among Bordeaux merchants
at this day. The lands of Bargeton, in Angoumois in the barony of
Rochefoucauld, being entailed, and the house in Angouleme, called the
Hotel Bargeton, likewise, the grandson of M. de Bargeton the Waster came
in for these hereditaments; though the year 1789 deprived him of all
seignorial rights save to the rents paid by his tenants, which amounted
to some ten thousand francs per annum. If his grandsire had but walked
in the ways of his illustrious progenitors, Bargeton I. and Bargeton
II., Bargeton V. (who may be dubb