MIGNON DE LA BASTIE (Charles), born in 1773 in the district of Var, "last member of the family to which Paris is indebted for the street and the house built by Cardinal Mignon"; went to war under the Republic; was closely associated with Anne Dumay. At the beginning of the Empire, as the result of mutual affection, his marriage with Bettina Wallenrod only daughter of a Frankfort banker took place. Shortly before the return of the Bourbons, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel, and became commander of the Legion of Honor. Under the Restoration Charles Mignon de la Bastie lived at Havre with his wife, and acquired forthwith, by means of banking, a large fortune, which he shortly lost. After absenting himself from the country, he returned, during the last year of Charles X.'s reign, from the Orient, having become a multi-millionaire. Of his four children, he lost three, two having died in early childhood, while Bettina Caroline, the third, died in 1827, after being misled and finally deserted by M. d'Estourny. Marie-Modeste was the only child remaining, and she was confided during her father's journeys to the care of the Dumays, who were under obligations to the Mignons; she married Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere (also called La Briere-la Bastie). The brilliant career of Charles Mignon was the means of his reassuming the title, Comte de la Bastie. [Modeste Mignon.]
MIGNON (Madame Charles), wife of the preceding, born Bettina Wallenrod-Tustall-Bartenstild, indulged daughter of a banker in Frankfort-on-the-Main. She became blind soon after her elder daughter, Bettina-Caroline's troubles and early death, and had a presentiment of the romance connected with her younger daughter, Marie-Modeste, who became Madame Ernest de la Bastie-La Briere. Towards the close of the Restoration, Madame Charles Mignon, as the result of an operation by Desplein, recovered her sight and was a witness of Marie-Modeste's happiness. [Modeste Mignon.]
MIGNON (Bettina-Caroline), elder daughter of the preceding couple; born in 1805, the very image of her father; a typical Southern girl; was favored by her mother over her younger sister, Marie-Modeste, a kind of "Gretchen," who was similar in appearance to Madame Mignon. Bettina-Caroline was seduced, taken away and finally deserted by a "gentleman of fortune," named D'Estourny, and shortly sank at Havre under the load of her sins and suffering, surrounded by nearly all of her family. Since 1827 there has been inscribed on her tomb in the little Ingouville cemetery the following inscription: "Bettina Caroline Mignon, died when twenty-two years of age. Pray for her!" [Modeste Mignon.]
MIGNON (Marie-Modeste). (See La Bastie-La Briere, Madame Ernest de.)
MIGNONNET, born in 1782, graduate of the military schools, was an artillery captain in the Imperial Guard, but resigned under the Restoration and lived at Issoudun. Short and thin, but of dignified bearing; much occupied with science; friend of the cavalry officer Carpentier, with whom he joined the citizens against Maxence Gilet. Gilet's military partisans, Commandant Potel and Captain Renard, lived in the Faubourg of Rome, Belleville of the corporation of Berry. [A Bachelor's Establishment.]
MILAUD, handsome representative of the self-enriched plebeian branch of Milauds; relative of Jean-Athanase-Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, in whose marriage he put no confidence, and from whom he expected to receive an inheritance. Under the favor of Marchangy, he undertook the career of a public prosecutor. Under Louis XVIII. he was a deputy at Angouleme, a position to which he was succeeded by maitre Petit-Claud. Milaud eventually performed the same duties at Nevers, which was probably his native country. [Lost Illusions. The Muse of the Department.]
MILAUD DE LA BAUDRAYE. (See La Baudraye.)
MILLET, Parisian grocer, on rue Chanoinesse, in 1836 attended to the renting of a small unfurnished room in Madame de la Chanterie's house; gave Godefroid information, after having submitted him to a rigid examination. [The Seamy Side of History.]
