MERLIN DE LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle), of a noble family of Tours (1826); Francois Birotteau's friend. [The Vicar of Tours.]
MERRET (De), gentleman of Picardie, proprietor of the Grande Breteche, near Vendome, under the Empire; had the room walled up, where he knew the Spaniard Bagos de Feredia, lover of his wife, was in hiding. He died in 1816 at Paris as a result of excesses. [La Grande Breteche.]
MERRET (Madame Josephine de), wife of the preceding, mistress of Bagos de Feredia, whom she saw perish almost under her eyes, after she had refused to give him up to her husband. She died in the same year as Merret, at La Grande Breteche, as a result of the excitement she had undergone. The story of Madame de Merret was the subject of a vaudeville production given at the Gymnase-Dramatique under the title of "Valentine." [La Grande Breteche.]
METIVIER, paper merchant on rue Serpente in Paris, under the Restoration; correspondent of David Sechard, friend of Gobseck and of Bidault, accompanying them frequently to the cafe Themis, between rue Dauphine and the Quai des Augustins. Having two daughters, and an income of a hundred thousand francs, he withdrew from business. [Lost Illusions. The Government Clerks. The Middle Classes.]
METIVIER, nephew and successor of the preceding, one of whose daughters he married. He was interested in the book business, in connection with Morand and Barbet; took advantage of Bourlac in 1838; lived on rue Saint-Dominique d'Enfer, in the Thuillier house in 1840; engaged in usurious transactions with Jeanne-Marie-Brigitte, Cerizet, Dutocq, discounters of various kinds and titles. [The Seamy Side of History. The Middle Classes.]
MEYNARDIE (Madame), at Paris, under the Restoration, in all probability, had an establishment or shop in which Ida Gruget was employed; undoubtedly controlled a house of ill-fame, in which Esther van Gobseck was a boarder. [The Thirteen. Scenes from a Courtesan's Life.]
MEYRAUX, medical doctor; a scholarly young Parisian, with whom Louis Lambert associated, November, 1819. Until his death in 1832 Meyraux was a member of the rue des Quatre-Vents Cenacle, over which Daniel d'Arthez presided. [Louis Lambert. A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
MICHAUD (Justin), an old chief quartermaster to the cuirassiers of the Imperial Guard, chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He married one of the Montcornet maids, Olympe Charel, and became, under the Restoration, head warden of the Montcornet estates at Blangy in Bourgogne. Unknown to himself he was secretly beloved by Genevieve Niseron. His military frankness and loyal devotion succumbed before an intrigue formed against him by Sibilet, steward of Aigues, and by the Rigous, Soudrys, Gaubertins, Fourchons and Tonsards. On account of the complicity of Courtecuisse and Vaudoyer the bullet fired by Francois Tonsard, in 1823, overcame the vigilance of Michaud. [The Peasantry.]
