RABIER, a tanner of Beaumont. He was a brother of Madame Franchomme, and after her death she left the child Angelique in the care of him and his wife. They treated the girl with such cruelty that she ultimately ran away, finding shelter with the Huberts. Le Reve.

RACHAEL, the maid-servant in Auguste Vabre’s household. As Octave Mouret and Madame Vabre did not bribe her sufficiently, she revealed their intrigue to Vabre. She acted as his housekeeper for some time, but had to leave after the reconciliation between him and his wife. Pot-Bouille.

RAMBAUD (M.), half-brother of Abbe Jouve, had a large business in the Rue de Rambuteau, where he sold oil and other southern produce. Along with Abbe Jouve he showed much kindness to Helene Grandjean after the death of her husband, and was a constant visitor at her house. Later on, the Abbe tried to arrange a marriage between Rambaud and Helene, but at her request the decision was delayed. Meantime the love episode with Doctor Deberle intervened, followed by the death of Jeanne. Two years afterwards the marriage took place, Rambaud having previously sold his Paris business and removed to Marseilles. Une Page d’Amour.

He retired from business and went to live at Marseilles. Having by his marriage become a cousin of Madame Lisa Quenu, he was appointed a member of the family council which nominally had charge of her daughter’s fortune. La Joie de Vivre.

Rambaud led a happy life with his wife, whom he adored. Le Docteur Pascal.

RAMBAUD (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Helene Mouret.

RAMOND (DR.), a pupil and fellow-practitioner of Dr. Pascal. He wished to marry Clotilde Rougon, but she refused him, and he subsequently married Mademoiselle Leveque. When Doctor Pascal was seized with an affection of the heart, Ramond diagnosed the nature of the illness, and subsequently attended him with unremitting care until his death. Le Docteur Pascal.

RAMOND (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Mademoiselle Leveque. Le Docteur Pascal.

RANVIER (ABBE), succeeded Abbe Jouve as cure at Montsou. He was of socialistic tendencies, and blamed the middle classes, who he said robbed the Church, for all the horrors produced by the strike at Montsou. Upon the troops who had been called on to fire upon the strikers, he called down the anger of God, predicting an hour of justice in which fire would descend from heaven to exterminate the bourgeoisie. He was finally removed by the Bishop as too compromising. Germinal.

RASSENEUR kept a tavern with the sign A l’Avantage between the settlement of the Deux-Cent-Quarante and the Voreux pit. He was formerly a good workman, but as he was an excellent speaker, and placed himself at the head of every strike, he was dismissed by the Mining Company. His wife already held a licence, and when he was thrown out of work he became an innkeeper himself. It was in his house that Etienne Lantier found lodgings when he first came to Montsou, and Souvarine also lodged there. Rasseneur’s readiness of speech gave him great influence with the miners, but a rivalry arose between him and Lantier, whose new theories caught the popular ear. This jealousy caused him to take a side against the strike, solely because it had been proposed by Lantier, and this attitude made him very unpopular. But after the failure of the strike, which he had all along predicted, the inconstancy of the crowd turned in his favour and he soon regained his old popularity. Germinal.

RASSENEUR (MADAME), wife of the preceding. At the time her husband was dismissed from the pit, she already held a licence, and they subsequently worked together to extend the business, in which they had considerable success. She was much more radical in politics than her husband, but during the strike trouble was careful to show extreme politeness to everyone. Germinal.

RASTOIL, a neighbour of Francois Mouret. He was a rich man about sixty years of age, who had been president of the civil tribunal of Plassans for over twenty years. He was a Legitimist, and his house was used as a convenient meeting-place for the party. For some time he refused to compromise his political position with Abbe Faujas, who had all along concealed his opinions. Ultimately, however, he supported the candidate for the representation of Plassans proposed by Faujas, for which he was rewarded by an appointment for his son. La Conquete de Plassans.

RASTOIL (MADAME), wife of the preceding, was a listless and somewhat prudish woman whose old entanglement with M. Delangre was still remembered with amusement in the cafes. She was consulted by Madame Mouret regarding the Home for Girls proposed by Abbe Faujas, and ultimately agreed to act on the committee. La Conquete de Plassans.

RASTOIL (ANGELINE), elder daughter of M. Rastoil, the president of the civil tribunal of Plassans. Though twenty-six years old, and now very yellow and shrewish-looking, she still adopted the role of a young girl, and had hopes of securing a husband. La Conquete de Plassans.

RASTOIL (AURELIE), second daughter of M. Rastoil. Like her sister Angeline, she was plain-looking, and posed as a girl fresh from school, in the uncertain hope of gaining a husband. La Conquete de Plassans.

RASTOIL (SEVERIN), son of M. Rastoil, the president of the civil tribunal of Plassans. “He was a tall young man of five and twenty, with a badly shaped skull and a dull brain, who had been just called to the Bar, thanks to the position which his father held. The latter was anxiously dreaming of making him a substitute, despairing of his ever succeeding in winning any practice for himself.” On the suggestion of Abbe Faujas he took a share in starting the Club for Young Men at Plassans. After the election of M. Delangre as representative of Plassans, Rastoil received the appointment of assistant public procurator at Faverolles. La Conquete de Plassans.

RAVAUD, a captain of the 106th Regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel de Vineuil. A young soldier in his company was the first of the wounded to be taken to the ambulance in Delaherche’s house on 1st September, 1870. In March, 1871, captain Ravaud was at Paris, in a regiment of recent formation, the 124th of the line. Jean Macquart was corporal in his company in this regiment. La Debacle.

READING (LORD), proprietor of a racing stable. Bramah, one of his horses, once gained the Grand Prix de Paris. Nana.

REBUFAT, a farmer whose land adjoined that inherited by Adelaide Fouque. He purchased the Fouque property when it was sold by Pierre Rougon. After the death of his wife Rebufat and his son Justin treated her niece Miette Chantegreil very harshly. La Fortune des Rougon.

REBUFAT (MADAME EULALIE), wife of the preceding; “a big, dark, stubborn shrew.” She was a sister of Chantegreil, and was therefore the aunt of Miette, who lived with her after her father’s conviction. La Fortune des Rougon.

REBUFAT (JUSTIN), son of Rebufat. “A youth about twenty years old, a sickly, squint-eyed creature, who cherished an implacable hatred against his cousin Miette.” La Fortune des Rougon.

REMANJOU (MADEMOISELLE), an old lady who lived in the same tenement house in Rue de la Goutte d’Or as the Coupeaus and the Lorilleux, where she made a scanty livelihood by dressing dolls. She was one of the guests at the Coupeaus’ wedding party. L’Assommoir.

RENAUDIN, a notary at Paris, who adjusted the Contract of Marriage between Auguste Vabre and Berthe Josserand. He acted in concert with Duveyrier in selling some heritable property to the loss of other members of the family. Pot-Bouille.

RENAUDIN, a medical man at Grenelle. Josephine Dejoie was at one time cook in his house. L’Argent.

RENGADE, a gendarme whose eye was accidentally destroyed by Silvere Mouret during a struggle for possession of a carbine after the entry of the insurgents into Plassans. La Fortune des Rougon.

REUTHLINGUER (BARON DE), a banker, and possessor of one of the largest fortunes in Europe. He was a friend of Clorinde Balbi, and from her received valuable information on political subjects. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

RHADAMANTE, the sobriquet of a professor at the college of Plassans. He was supposed never to have laughed. L’Oeuvre.

RICHOMME, one of the captains of the Voreux pit. He tried in vain to prevent a collision between the strikers and the troops, and even when bricks were being thrown he went between two parties, imploring one and advising the other, careless of danger. He was one of the first to fall when the troops ultimately fired. Germinal.

RIVOIRE, a member of the firm of Piot and Rivoire. Au Bonheur des Dames.

ROBERT (MADAME), a regular customer at the restaurant Laure Piedefer. She was jealous of Nana’s relations with Satin, and revenged herself by writing anonymous letters to Muffat and to other lovers of her enemy. Nana.

ROBIN-CHAGOT (VISCOUNT DE), vice-chairman of the board of directors of the Universal Bank. He was selected for the position in the belief that he would sign anything put before him without making too many inquiries. L’Argent.

ROBINEAU, “second hand” in the silk department at “The Ladies’ Paradise.” As the result of a conspiracy among his subordinates, he was dismissed, and soon afterwards bought the business of M. Vincard, a silk merchant, with money belonging to his wife. His capital was inadequate, but M. Gaujean, a silk manufacturer who had quarrelled with Octave Mouret, promised to give him unlimited credit. Robineau’s intention was to break up the monopoly of the cheaper class of silks which Mouret had secured, but he soon found that each reduction in price which he made was met by a still larger one. As he had no other departments out of which to average his profits, ruin inevitably followed, and he attempted to commit suicide by throwing himself under an omnibus; his injuries were not serious, however, and he ultimately recovered. Au Bonheur des Dames.

ROBINEAU (MADAME), wife of the preceding. “Daughter of an overseer in the Department of Highways, entirely ignorant of business matters, she still retained the charming awkwardness of a girl educated in a Blois convent.” Her small fortune enabled her husband to buy the silk business of M. Vincard, and she assisted him in carrying it on. Their subsequent ruin affected her less than the attempted suicide of her husband, to whom she was devoted. Au Bonheur des Dames.

ROBINE, a regular attender at the revolutionary meetings in Lebigre’s wine-shop. He sat for hours listening to arguments but never made any remarks. He escaped arrest. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROBINE (MADAME), wife of the preceding, lived with her husband in Rue Saint-Denis. No one ever entered their house, and even her personal appearance was unknown to her husband’s friends. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROBINOT (MADAME), an acquaintance of the Deberles. Une Page d’Amour.

ROBIQUET, farmer of La Chamade. Being near the end of his lease, he ceased to manure the land, allowing it to go to ruin. He was eventually turned out as he did not pay his rent. La Terre.

ROCHART (MONSEIGNEUR), Bishop of Faverolles. He upheld the Sisters of the Holy Family in the matter of the succession to Chevassu’s estate, but was beaten by Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State, who supported the claim of the Charbonnels. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROCHAS, lieutenant in the 106th Regiment of the line, commanded by Colonel de Vineuil. The son of a journeyman mason from Limousin, he was born in Paris, and not caring for his father’s calling, enlisted when he was only eighteen. He gained a corporal’s stripes in Algeria, rose to the rank of sergeant at Sebastopol, and was promoted to a lieutenancy after Solferino. Fifteen years of hardship and heroic bravery was the price he had paid to be an officer, but his education was so defective that he could never be made a captain. He held the old traditions that a defeat of the French army was impossible, and all through the campaign against Germany in 1870 he refused to believe in the repeated catastrophes. In the fierce attack by the Prussians on the Hermitage, he fought desperately against an overwhelming force, and up to the end encouraged his men by shouting that the victory was theirs. In the end he fell, mowed down by a hail of bullets. La Debacle.

ROCHEFONTAINE, proprietor of a large factory at Chateaudun. He was desirous of serving as a Deputy, but did not secure the support of the Government, and, standing as an independent candidate, was defeated. Later, in consequence of the disgrace of M. de Chedeville, he became the official candidate, and in spite of a brusqueness of manner which made him unpopular, he was elected. La Terre.

RODRIGUEZ, a distant relative of the Empress, who made a claim upon the State for a large sum, which he said had been due since 1808. Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State, gave great offence to the Empress by opposing the claim. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROGNES-BOUQUEVAL (LES), an ancient and noble family whose estate, already much reduced by enforced sales, was declared national property in 1793, and was purchased piece by piece by Isidore Hourdequin. La Terre.

ROIVILLE (LES), members of Parisian society at whose house Baroness Sandorff occasionally met Gundermann. L’Argent.

ROSALIE, an old chair-mender at Rognes. The poor woman lived all alone, sick and without a copper. Abbe Godard came to her assistance. La Terre.

ROSE, a waitress in Lebigre’s wine-shop. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROSE, servant in the household of Francois Mouret, was an old woman of crabbed nature and uncertain temper. She fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas, and encouraged her mistress in the religious observances which led to the neglect of her family. Later, when Madame Mouret’s health became impaired, and she became subject to fits, it was chiefly Rose who threw suspicion on her master, encouraging the belief that he was insane and had inflicted injuries on his wife. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROSE, a peasant girl at Artaud; sister of Lisa. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

ROSE, maid-servant to Madame Hennebeau. She was not alarmed by the violence of the strikers, as, belonging to that district, she knew the miners, and believed them not to be wicked. Germinal.

ROSE, daughter of the concierge at the sub-prefecture at Sedan. She was a worker in Delaherche’s factory, and he applied to her for information regarding the course of the battle, as she was in a position to hear the gossip of the officers and officials. When Napoleon III decided to request an armistice from the Prussians, it was Rose who furnished a tablecloth to be used as a white flag. La Debacle.

ROSE, niece of Aristide Saccard’s hairdresser. She was a pretty girl of about eighteen, whom Saccard sent to his son Maxime under the pretext of nursing him, but in reality with a view to hastening the course of a nervous disease from which the young man suffered. Aristide agreed to pay her a percentage on the fortune which he hoped to acquire at his son’s death. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUBAUD, assistant station-master at Havre. Born in the south of France, at Plassans, he had a carter for father. He had quitted the army with the stripes of a sergeant-major, and for a long time had been general porter at the station at Nantes. He had been promoted head porter at Barentin, and it was there that he first saw Severine Aubry, the god-daughter of President Grandmorin, whom he married. This was the sole romance of his existence, and it was coupled with fortune, for apart from Severine and her marriage portion of ten thousand francs, the President, now a director of the Western Railway Company, got him appointed assistant station-master at Havre. He proved an excellent official, and the only thing against him was a suspicion that he was affected by republican principles. For three years Roubaud’s married life was a happy one, until a chance lie of his wife’s gave him a clue to her former relations with Grandmorin. Driven frantic by jealousy, he forced her to reveal the truth, afterwards compelling her to become his accomplice in the murder of the President in the Havre express. The Roubauds established an alibi, though slight suspicion attached to them, and Denizet, the examining magistrate, endeavoured to fasten the crime on Cabuche. For political reasons it was not considered desirable that Grandmorin’s character should be publicly discussed, and the inquiry regarding the murder was dropped. Roubaud was aware, however, that Jacques Lantier had strong suspicions, and tried to secure his silence by making him a friend; a friendship which soon developed into a liaison between Lantier and Severine. With the murder of Grandmorin, the disintegration of Roubaud’s character began; he gradually became a confirmed gambler, and having lost all his own money began to use that which he had taken from the body of his victim in order to establish a false motive for the crime. The relations between him and his wife became more and more strained, until they reached such a pitch that Lantier and she planned his murder. The homicidal frenzy of Lantier, to which Severine fell a victim, ended the plot, but Roubaud and Cabuche, who arrived on the scene immediately after the murder, were arrested under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances, and, after trial, were sentenced to penal servitude for a crime which they did not commit. La Bete Humaine.

ROUBAUD (MADAME), wife of the preceding. See Severine Aubry. La Bete Humaine.

ROUDIER, a regular attender at the political meetings held in the Rougons’ yellow drawing-room. La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGE D’AUNEAU (LE), lieutenant of Beau-Francois, leader of the band of brigands. He wrote a complaint while in prison. La Terre.

ROUGETTE, a cow bought by the sisters Mouche at the market of Cloyes. La Terre.

ROUGON, a young gardener who worked for the Fouque family, and afterwards married Adelaide. Fifteen months afterwards he died from sunstroke, leaving a son named Pierre. La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGON, alias SACCARD (ARISTIDE), born 1815, youngest son of Pierre Rougon, was educated, like his brothers, at Plassans and Paris, but failed to pass his examinations. His character was a combination of covetousness and slyness: his greatest desire was the acquisition of rapid fortune, gained without work. In 1836 he married Angele Sicardot, who brought him a dowry of ten thousand francs. As Aristide did no work, and lived extravagantly, the money was soon consumed, and he and his wife were in such poverty that he was at last compelled to seek a situation. He procured a place at the Sub-Prefecture, where he remained nearly ten years, and only reached a salary of eighteen hundred francs. During that time “he longed, with ever-increasing malevolence and rancour, for those enjoyments of which he was deprived” by his lowly position. In 1848, when his brother Eugene left for Paris, he had a faint idea of following him, but remained in the hope of something turning up. In opposition to his father, he expressed Republican principles, and edited a newspaper called the Independant. At the time of the Coup d’Etat, he became alarmed at the course of events, and pretended that an accident to his hand prevented him from writing. His mother having given him private information as to the success of the Bonapartist cause, he changed the politics of his paper, and became reconciled to his parents. La Fortune des Rougon.

Early in 1852 he went to Paris, taking with him his wife and daughter Clotilde, then a child of four; his son Maxime he left at Plassans. Through the influence of his brother Eugene, he got an appointment as assistant surveying clerk at the Hotel de Ville, with a salary of two thousand four hundred francs. Before entering on his duties, however, he changed his name to Saccard on the suggestion of his brother, who feared that he might be compromised by him. In 1853, Aristide was appointed a surveying commissioner of roads, with an increased salary. At this period great schemes of city improvement were under discussion, and Aristide by spying and other shady means got early information as to the position of the proposed new streets. Great chances of fortune were arising, but he had no capital. The death of his wife enabled him to enter into a plan proposed by his sister Sidonie, who had heard of a family willing to make a considerable sacrifice to find a not too inquisitive husband for their daughter. He accordingly married Renee Beraud du Chatel, and gained control of a considerable sum of ready money, in addition to the fortune settled on his wife. By means of a cleverly contrived swindle, in which he was assisted by his friend Larsonneau, he got a fabulous price for some property acquired by him, and the foundation of his fortune was laid. From this time, he lived a life of the wildest extravagance, and, though his gains were frequently enormous, his expenses were so great that it was only with difficulty that he was able to prevent a catastrophe. La Curee.

He as appointed by Pauline Quenu’s family council to be her “surrogate guardian.” La Joie de Vivre.

After a last and disastrous land speculation, Saccard was obliged to leave his great house in the Parc Monceau, which he abandoned to his creditors. At first undecided as to his movements, he took a flat in the mansion in Rue Saint-Lazare, which belonged to Princess d’Orviedo. There he met Hamelin, the engineer, and his sister Caroline, with whom he soon became on intimate terms. Hamelin having spent much time in the East, had formed many schemes for great financial ventures, and Saccard was so impressed with these that he formed a syndicate for the purpose of carrying some of them out. With this view the Universal Bank was formed, and was at first very successful. By persistent advertising, and other means, the shares of the Bank were forced to an undue price, and then Saccard began to speculate in them on behalf of the Bank itself. The great financier Gundermann, with whom Saccard had quarrelled, then began a persistent attack on the Bank, selling its shares steadily day after day. Saccard continued to buy as long as he was able; but the end came, the price broke, and he, as well as the Bank, which was now one of its own largest shareholders, was ruined. Since his previous failure, Saccard had not been on friendly terms with his brother Eugene Rougon, and, some time before the collapse of the Bank, had made violent attacks upon him in his newspaper. Consequently Rougon did nothing to assist him in the criminal proceedings which followed the final catastrophe; he did not, however, wish to have a brother in jail, and arranged matters so that an appeal was allowed. Next day Saccard escaped to Belgium. L’Argent.

After the fall of the Second Empire, he returned to Paris, despite the sentence he had incurred. Some complicated intrigue must have been at work, for not only did he obtain a pardon, but once more took part in promoting large undertakings, with a finger in every pie and a share of every bribe. In 1872 he was actively engaged in journalism, having been appointed Director of the Epoque, a Republican journal which made a great success by publishing the papers found in the Tuileries. Covetous of his son’s fortune, he hastened a disease from which Maxime suffered, by encouraging him in vicious courses, and in the end got possession of the whole estate. By a singular irony, Aristide, now returned to his original Republicanism, was in a position to protect his brother Eugene, whom in earlier days he had so often compromised. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME ANGELE), first wife of the preceding, was a daughter of commander Sicardot. She brought her husband a dowry of ten thousand francs. La Fortune des Rougon.

Along with her daughter Clotilde, she accompanied her husband to Paris in 1852, and being an amiable woman without ambition she was quite satisfied with the modest position he at first secured. She died in 1854 of inflammation of the lungs. La Curee.

ROUGON, alias SACCARD (MADAME RENEE), the second wife of Aristide Rougon, alias Saccard, was the elder daughter of M. Beraud du Chatel, the last representative of an old middle-class family. Having become seriously compromised, she was hurriedly married to Saccard through the agency of his sister Madame Sidonie, and a considerable sum of money as well as land was settled upon her. Wholly given over to pleasure and extravagance, she soon got deeply into debt, and her husband took advantage of this from time to time by inducing her to make over to him her property, in order that he might speculate with it. She engaged in a shameful liaison with her husband’s son Maxime, which ultimately brought her great unhappiness, and she died of acute meningitis at an early age. La Curee.

ROUGON (CHARLES), born 1857, son of Maxime Rougon, alias Saccard, and of Justine Megot, a maid-servant of Madame Renee Saccard. The child and his mother were sent to the country with a little annuity of twelve hundred francs. La Curee.

At fifteen years of age he lived at Plassans with his mother, who had married a saddler named Anselme Thomas. Charles was a degenerate who reproduced at a distance of three generations his great-great-grandmother, Adelaide Fouque. He did not look more than twelve years old, and his intelligence was that of a child of five. There was in him a relaxation of tissues, due to degeneracy, and the slightest exertion produced hemorrhage. Charles was not kindly treated by his stepfather, and generally lived with his great-grandmother Felicite Rougon. He was frequently taken to visit the aged Adelaide Fouque in the asylum at Les Tulettes, and on one occasion, in 1873, when he chanced to be left alone with her he was seized with bleeding at the nose, and, under the fixed eyes of his ancestress, he slowly bled to death. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (CLOTILDE), born 1847, daughter of Aristide Rougon, accompanied her father and mother to Paris in 1852. After the death of her mother in 1854, she was sent to live with Dr. Pascal Rougon, her uncle, who had frequently offered to take her to enliven his silent scientific home. La Curee.

At Plassans Clotilde lived a quiet healthy life, much of it spent in the open air. She was not highly educated, but having considerable artistic talent was able to assist Doctor Pascal by making illustrations for his great work on heredity. At one period she developed strong religious tendencies under the influence of Martine, the doctor’s old servant, who took her to church, and imbued the girl with her own bigoted ideas regarding the salvation of Pascal. Her grandmother, Felicite Rougon, who wished, for family reasons, to destroy Pascal’s manuscripts on the subject of heredity, played on Clotilde’s feelings, and induced her to assist in a search for the hated work. Rougon surprised them in the act, and subsequently laid bare to Clotilde the whole facts of the terrible family history. In time the mysticism of the Church gave place to passionate love between Clotilde and Pascal. The doctor felt, however, that she was sacrificing her youth for him, and sent her to Paris to live with her brother Maxime. Soon afterwards, Pascal became ill, and died before she was able to return. A child was born some months later. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (EUGENE), born 1811, eldest son of Pierre Rougon, was educated at Plassans and Paris, and was called to the Bar. He practised in the local Court for a number of years, but with little success. Though of lethargic appearance, he was a man of ability, who “cherished lofty ambitions, possessed domineering instincts, and showed a singular contempt for trifling expedients and small fortunes.” With the Revolution of February, 1848, Eugene felt that his opportunity had come, and he left for Paris with scarcely five hundred francs in his pocket. He was able to give his parents early information of the designs of the Bonapartes, and so prepared the way for the events of the Coup d’Etat of 1851, when the family fortunes were made. La Fortune des Rougon.

During his early days in Paris Rougon resided at the Hotel Vanneau, kept by Madame Correur, and while there he made the acquaintance of Gilquin and Du Poizet, both of whom assisted him in spreading the Bonapartist propaganda. By his exertions in this cause he established a claim for reward, and he was appointed a member of the State Council, ultimately becoming its President. He fell into disfavour, however, with the Court on account of his opposition to a claim for two million francs by a distant relative of the Empress Eugenie. Finding that his position was insecure, he tendered his resignation to the Emperor, who accepted it. About this time he met Clorinde Balbi, an Italian adventuress, who endeavoured to induce him to marry her. Carried away for the time being, Rougon made overtures to her which she resented, and he was on the point of offering her marriage. Reflection on her somewhat equivocal position in society induced him to think better of this, and he offered to arrange a marriage between her and his friend Delestang. The offer was accepted, and the marriage took place. Soon after, Rougon married Veronique Beulin-d’Orchere. During his retirement Rougon was surrounded by a band of followers, the Charbonnels, Du Poizet, Kahn, and others, who in the hope of profiting by his return to office lost no chance of establishing a claim upon him. After the Orsini plot against the life of the Emperor, of which Rougon had prior information through Gilquin, the need for a strong man arose, and he was again called to office, being appointed Minister of the Interior. His harshness in carrying out reprisals against the Republican party, and even more, his recklessness in finding appointments for his friends, led to a public outcry, and his position again became undermined. Clorinde, who had never forgiven him for not marrying her, did much to foment the disaffection, and even his own band of followers turned against him. Always quick to act, Rougon again placed his resignation in the hands of the Emperor, who to his surprise accepted it. Three years later he was once more a member of the Corps Legislatif, and having brought his principles into accordance with the more liberal views then professed by the Emperor, he gave his strong support to the measures giving effect to them. In consequence, he was appointed by the Emperor as a Minister without department, and commissioned to defend the new Policy. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

When his brother Aristide came to Paris, Eugene found a situation for him, but, fearing to be compromised by him, suggested that he should change his name to Saccard which he did. There was no intimacy between the brothers, but Eugene occasionally visited Aristide at the great house built by him in the Parc Monceau. La Curee.

After Saccard’s bankruptcy, Eugene refused to have any further connection with him, though he tacitly approved of the foundation of the Universal Bank. The Bank having failed, however, he did nothing to stay legal proceedings against his brother; but, after a sentence of imprisonment had been passed, he connived at his escape from the country while the sentence was under appeal. L’Argent.

He continued to take a lively interest in Plassans, and it was by him that Abbe Faujas was sent there to counteract the clerical influence, which at that time was strongly Legitimist. He kept up a correspondence with his mother, whom he advised as to each step she should take in political matters. La Conquete de Plassans.

After the fall of the Empire, Eugene became a simple Deputy, and in the Assembly remained to defend the old order of things which the downfall had swept away. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME EUGENE), wife of the preceding. See Veronique Beulin-d’Orchere. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

ROUGON (MARTHE), born 1820, daughter of Pierre Rougon; married in 1840 her cousin Francois Rougon; had three children. La Fortune des Rougon.

She accompanied her husband to Marseilles, where by close attention to business they accumulated a fortune in fifteen years, returning to Plassans at the end of that period and settling down there. Her life at Plassans was a happy one until the household fell under the influence of Abbe Faujas. From the first she was in love with the priest, and as he gave her no encouragement in this, she devoted herself to church services to the entire neglect of her household and family. As time went on, her passion for the Abbe grew more extreme, and her health became undermined to a serious extent. She became subject to fits of an epileptic nature, and having injured herself in some of these, she allowed the injuries to be attributed to her husband, whom she had now grown to regard as an encumbrance. Though she was aware that he was not insane, she allowed him to be removed to an asylum, where confinement soon completed the work begun by her own conduct. The Abbe Faujas having resolutely resisted her advances, her health became still worse, and she died in her mother’s house on the same night that her husband escaped from the asylum and burned down their old home. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROUGON (MAXIME), born 1840, son of Aristide Rougon. La Fortune des Rougon.

When his father went to Paris in 1852, Maxime remained at school at Plassans, not going to Paris till after his father’s second marriage. From early youth he was of vicious character, and the idleness and extravagance of the life in his father’s house only completed the training begun at Plassans. After carrying on a disgraceful liaison with his father’s second wife, he married Louise de Mareuil, through whom he got a considerable dowry. La Curee.

After the death of his wife, six months after their marriage, he returned to Paris, where he lived quietly upon the dowry brought to him by her. He refused to join in any of his father’s schemes, or to assist him in any way, and was consequently not affected by the failure of the Universal Bank. L’Argent.

After the war he re-established himself in his mansion in Avenue du Bois-de-Boulogne, where he lived on the fortune left by his wife. “He had become prudent, however, with the enforced restraint of a man whose marrow is diseased, and who seeks by artifice to ward off the paralysis which threatened him.” In the fear of this impending illness, he induced his sister Clotilde to leave Doctor Pascal, and go to live with him in Paris, but in his constant fear of being taken advantage of he soon began to be suspicious of her, as he did of every one who served him. His father, who wished to hasten his own inheritance, encouraged him in a renewal of his vicious courses, and he died of locomotor ataxy at the age of thirty-three. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME MAXIME). See Louise de Mareuil.

ROUGON (PASCAL), born 1813, second son of Pierre Rougon, “had an uprightness of spirit, a love of study, a retiring modesty which contrasted strangely with the feverish ambitions and unscrupulous intrigues of his family.” Having acquitted himself admirably in his medical studies at Paris, he returned to Plassans, where he lived a life of quiet study and work. He had few patients, but devoted himself to research, particularly on the subject of heredity, with special reference to its results on his own family. In the hope of alleviating suffering, he followed the Republican insurgents in their march from Plassans in December, 1851. La Fortune des Rougon.

In 1854 his niece Clotilde, daughter of his brother Aristide, went to live with him. He had frequently offered to take her, but nothing was arranged till after the death of her mother, at which time she was about seven years old. La Curee.

His practice as a medical man extended to Les Artaud, and he attended his nephew Abbe Serge Mouret during an attack of brain fever. On the priest’s partial recovery, he removed him to the Paradou, and left him in the care of Albine, niece of old Jeanbernat, the caretaker of that neglected demesne. Dr. Pascal was much attached to Albine, and deeply regretted the sad love affair which resulted from Mouret’s forgetfulness of his past. He had no religious beliefs himself, and he urged Mouret to return to Albine, but the voice of the Church proved too strong in the end. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

At sixty years of age Pascal was so fresh and vigorous that, though his hair and beard were white, he might have been mistaken for a young man with powdered locks. He had lived for seventeen years at La Souleiade, near Plassans, with his niece Clotilde and his old servant Martine, having amassed a little fortune, which was sufficient for his needs. He had devoted his life to the study of heredity, finding typical examples in his own family. He brought up Clotilde without imposing on her his own philosophic creed, even allowing Martine to take her to church regularly. But this tolerance brought about a serious misunderstanding between them, for the girl fell under the influence of religious mysticism, and came to look with horror on the savant’s scientific pursuits. Discovered by him in an attempt to destroy his documents, he explained to Clotilde fully and frankly the bearing of their terrible family history on his theory of heredity, with the result that her outlook on life was entirely changed; he had opposed the force of human truth against the shadows of mysticism. The struggle between Pascal and Clotilde brought them to a knowledge of mutual love, and an illicit relationship was established between them. He would have married her (this being legal in France), but having lost most of his money he was unwilling to sacrifice what he believed to be her interests, and persuaded her to go to Paris to live with her brother Maxime. Soon after her departure he was seized with an affection of the heart, and, after some weeks of suffering, died only an hour before her return. Immediately after his death his mother, Madame Felicite Rougon, took possession of his papers, and in an immense auto-da-fe destroyed in an hour the records of a lifetime of work. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (PIERRE), born 1787, legitimate son of Adelaide Fouque, was a thrifty, selfish lad who saw that his mother by her improvident conduct was squandering the estate to which he considered himself sole heir. His aim was to induce his mother and her two illegitimate children to remove from the house and land, and in this he was ultimately successful. Having sold the property for fifty thousand francs, he induced his mother, who by this time was of weak intellect, to sign a receipt for that sum, and was so able to defraud his half-brother and sister of the shares to which they would have been entitled. Soon thereafter he married Felicite Puech, the daughter of an oil dealer in Plassans. The firm of Puech and Lacamp was not prosperous, but the money brought by Pierre Rougon retrieved the situation, and after a few years the two original partners retired. Fortune, however, soon changed, and for thirty years there was a continual struggle to make ends meet. Three sons and two daughters were born, and their education was a heavy drain upon their parents’ means. In 1845 Pierre and his wife retired from business with forty thousand francs at the most. Instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant, they went in for politics, and soon regular meetings of the reactionary party came to be held in their “yellow drawing-room.” Advised, however, by their son Eugene, they resolved to support the cause of the Bonapartes, and at the time of the Coup d’Etat of 1851 Pierre was the leader of that party in Plassans. Having concealed himself when the Republican insurgents entered Plassans, he avoided capture, and after they retired he led the band of citizens which recaptured the town hall. This bloodless victory having been somewhat minimized by the townspeople, Pierre and his wife, with a view to establishing a strong claim for subsequent reward, bribed Antoine Macquart to lead the Republicans left in Plassans to an attack on the town hall. To meet this he prepared a strong ambuscade, and the Republicans were repulsed with considerable loss. As a result of this treachery, Pierre was regarded by his fellow-citizens as the saviour of the town, and the Government subsequently appointed him Receiver of Taxes, decorating him with the Cross of the Legion of Honour. La Fortune des Rougon.

He settled down quietly and took little part in public affairs, though his wife continued to hold weekly receptions at which members of the different political parties were represented. La Conquete de Plassans.

He became so corpulent that he was unable to move, and was carried off by an attack of indigestion on the night of 3rd September, 1870, a few hours after hearing of the catastrophe of Sedan. The downfall of the regime which he prided himself on having helped to establish seemed to have crushed him like a thunderbolt. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME FELICITE), wife of the preceding, and daughter of Puech, the oil-dealer. She was married in 1810, and had three sons and two daughters. A woman of strong ambitions, she hoped to better her social position by the aid of her sons, on whose education she spent large sums. Disappointed in this hope for many years, she and her husband retired from business with barely sufficient means to keep themselves in comfort. She, instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant (her putative father), urged her husband to take part in politics, and meetings of the reactionary party were regularly held in her “yellow drawing-room.” While the success of the Coup d’Etat was in some doubt, she encouraged her husband in maintaining the position he had taken up; and, having ascertained that the success of the Bonapartists was assured she arranged with Antoine Macquart for the attack on the town hall, the repulse of which led to the rise of the family fortunes. La Fortune des Rougon.

After her husband’s appointment as Receiver of Taxes, she continued her weekly receptions, but endeavoured to give them a non-political character by inviting representatives of all parties. Her son Eugene, now a Minister of State, kept her advised as to the course she should pursue, and on his instructions she gave some assistance to Abbe Faujas in his political “conquest of Plassans.” La Conquete de Plassans.

In 1856 she interested herself in a lawsuit raised by M. Charbonnel, a retired oil-merchant of Plassans, and requested her son Eugene, the President of the Council of State, to use his influence on behalf of her friend. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

After the disasters of the war, Plassans escaped from her dominion, and she had to content herself with the role of dethroned queen of the old regime. Her ruling passion was the defence of the glory of the Rougons, and the obliteration of everything tending to reflect on the family name. In this connection she welcomed the death of Adelaide Fouque, the common ancestress of the Rougons and the Macquarts, and she did nothing to save her old accomplice Antoine Macquart from the terrible fate which overtook him. After these events, her only remaining trouble was the work on family heredity which had for years occupied her son Pascal. Assisted by his servant Martine, she eventually succeeded in burning the whole manuscript to which Pascal had devoted his life. Her triumph was then secure, and in order to raise a monument to the glory of the family she devoted a large part of her fortune to the erection of an asylum for the aged, to be known as the Rougon Asylum. At eighty-two years of age, she laid the foundation stone of the building, and in doing so conquered Plassans for the third time. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (SIDONIE), born 1818, daughter of Pierre Rougon. La Fortune des Rougon.

She married at Plassans an attorney’s clerk, named Touche, and together they went to Paris, setting up business in the Rue Saint-Honore, as dealers in fruit from the south of France. The venture was unsuccessful, and the husband soon disappeared. At the rise of the Second Empire, Sidonie was thirty-five; but she dressed herself with so little care and had so little of the woman in her manner that she looked much older. She carried on business in lace and pianos, but did not confine herself to these trades; when she had sold ten francs worth of lace she would insinuate herself into her customer’s good graces and become her man of business, attending attorneys, advocates, and judges on her behalf. The confidences she everywhere received put her on the track of good strokes of business, often of a nature more than equivocal, and it was she who arranged the second marriage of her brother Aristide. She was a true Rougon, who had inherited the hunger for money, the longing for intrigue, which was the characteristic of the family. La Curee.

In 1851 she had a daughter by an unknown father. The child, who was named Angelique Marie, was at once sent to the Foundling Hospital by her mother, who never made any inquiry about her afterwards. Le Reve.

She attended the funeral of her cousin, Claude Lantier, the artist. Arrived at his house, “she went upstairs, turned round the studio, sniffed at all its bare wretchedness, and then walked down again with a hard mouth, irritated at having taken the trouble to come.” L’Oeuvre.

“After a long disappearance from the scene, Sidonie, weary of the shady callings she had plied, and now of a nunlike austerity, retired to the gloomy shelter of a conventual kind of establishment, holding the purse-strings of the Oeuvre du Sacrament, an institution founded with the object of assisting seduced girls, who had become mothers, to secure husbands.” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (VICTOR), son of Aristide Saccard and Rosaline Chavaille. Brought up in the gutter, he was from the first incorrigibly lazy and vicious. La Mechain, his mother’s cousin, after discovering his paternity, told the facts to Caroline Hamelin, who, to save Saccard annoyance, paid over a considerable sum and removed the boy to L’Oeuvre du Travail, one of the institutions founded by the Princess d’Orviedo. Here every effort was made to reclaim him, but without success; vice and cunning had become his nature. In the end he made a murderous attack upon Alice du Beauvilliers, who was visiting the hospital, and having stolen her purse, made his escape. Subsequent search proved fruitless; he had disappeared in the under-world of crime. L’Argent.

“In 1873, Victor had altogether vanished, living, no doubt, in the shady haunts of crime—since he was in no penitentiary—let loose upon the world like some brute foaming with the hereditary virus, whose every bite would enlarge that existing evil—free to work out his own future, his unknown destiny, which was perchance the scaffold.” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (——-), the child of Doctor Pascal Rougon and of Clotilde Rougon, born some months after his father’s death. Pascal a few minutes before he died, drew towards him the genealogical tree of the Rougon-Macquart family, over which he had spent so many years, and in a vacant space wrote the words: “The unknown child, to be born in 1874. What will it be?” Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUSSE (LA), a peasant girl of Les Artaud, who assisted to decorate the church for the festival of the Virgin. La Faute de l’Abbe Mouret.

ROUSSEAU, one of the auditors of the Universal Bank, an office which he shared with Lavigniere, under whose influence he was to a great extent. L’Argent.

ROUSSELOT (MONSEIGNEUR), Bishop of Plassans, an amiable but weak man, who was entirely under the influence of Abbe Fenil. Having got into disfavour with the Government over the election of a Legitimist as Deputy, he was anxious to retrieve his position, and with this object agreed to appoint Abbe Faujas vicar of Saint-Saturnin’s church. This led to a quarrel with Abbe Fenil, who, of course, resented the appointment. The Bishop being still in some doubt as to the standing of Abbe Faujas with the Government, went to Paris, where he interviewed Eugene Rougon, the Minister of State. Satisfied with the information which he received, he threw himself heartily into the political struggle then proceeding at Plassans, giving Faujas every assistance in carrying out his schemes on behalf of the Bonapartist candidate. La Conquete de Plassans.

ROUSSIE (LA), a woman who had formerly worked as a putter in the Voreux pit. Germinal.

ROUSTAN (ABBE), one of the clergy of Sainte-Eustache church. Madame Lisa Quenu consulted him as to her proposed course of action regarding Florent. Le Ventre de Paris.

ROUVET, an old peasant who lived in the same village as Zephyrin Lacour and Rosalie Pichon. One of her pleasures consisted in calling to mind the sayings of the old man. Une Page d’Amour.

ROZAN (DUC DE), was a young man of dissolute life, who, after getting the control of his fortune, soon went through the greater part of it. He was the lover of Renee Saccard for a time. La Curee.

ROZAN (DUCHESSE DE), mother of the preceding. She kept her son so short of money that, till he was thirty-five, he seldom had more than a dozen louis at a time. Her death was largely occasioned by the knowledge of the enormous amount of debts her son had incurred. La Curee.

RUSCONI (CHEVALIER), the Sardinian Minister at Paris, a friend of Comtesse Balbi, and her daughter. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.