BONAPARTE (Napoleon), Emperor of the French; born at Ajaccio, August 15, 1768, or 1769, according to varying accounts; died at St. Helena May 5, 1821. As First Consul in 1800 he received at the Tuileries the Corsican, Bartholomeo di Piombo, and disentangled his countryman from the latter's implication in a vendetta. [The Vendetta.] On the evening of the battle of Jena, October 13, 1806, he was met on that ground by Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, who had come post haste from France, and to whom he accorded pardon for the Simeuses and the Hauteserres, compromised in the abduction of Senator Malin de Gondreville. [The Gondreville Mystery.] Napoleon Bonaparte was strongly concerned in the welfare of his lieutenant, Hyacinthe Chabert, during the battle of Eylau. [Colonel Chabert.] In November, 1809, he was to have attended a grand ball given by Senator Malin de Gondreville; but he was detained at the Tuileries by a scene--noised abroad that same evening--between Josephine and himself, a scene which disclosed their impending divorce. [Peace in the House.] He condoned the infamous conduct of the police officer Contenson. [The Seamy Side of History.] In April, 1813, during a dress-parade on the Place du Carrousel, Paris, Napoleon noticed Mlle. de Chatillonest, who had come with her father to see the handsome Colonel d'Aiglemont, and leaning towards Duroc he made a brief remark which made the Grand Marshal smile. [A Woman of Thirty.]
BONAPARTE (Lucien), brother of Napoleon Bonaparte; born in 1775; died in 1840. In June, 1800, he went to the house of Talleyrand, the Foreign Minister, and there announced to him and also to Fouche, Sieyes and Carnot, the victory of his brother at Montebello. [The Gondreville Mystery.] In the month of October of the same year he was encountered by his countryman, Bartholomeo di Piombo, whom he introduced to the First Consul; he also gave his purse to the Corsican and afterwards contributed towards relieving his difficulties. [The Vendetta.]
BONFALOT, or BONVALOT (Madame), an aged relative of F. du Bruel at Paris. La Palferine first met Mme. du Bruel in 1834 on the boulevard, and boldly followed her all the way to Mme. de Bonfalot's, where she was calling. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
BONFONS (Cruchot de), nephew of Cruchot the notary and Abbe Cruchot; born in 1786; president of the Court of First Instance of Saumur in 1819. The Cruchot trio backed by a goodly number of cousins and allied to twenty families in the city, formed a party similar to that of the olden-time Medicis at Florence; and also, like the Medicis, the Cruchots had their Pazzis in the persons of the Grassins. The prize contested for between the Cruchots and the Grassins was the hand of the rich heiress, Eugenie Grandet. In 1827, after nine years of suing, the President Cruchot de Bonfons married the young woman, now left an orphan. Previous to this he had been commissioned by her to settle in full, both principal and interest, with the creditors of Charles Grandet's father. Six months after his marriage, Bonfons was elected councillor to the Royal Court of Angers. Then after some years signalized by devoted service he became first president. Finally chosen deputy for Saumur in 1832, he died within a week, leaving his widow in possession of an immense fortune, still further augmented by the bequests of the Abbe and the notary Cruchot. Bonfons was the name of an estate of the magistrate. He married Eugenie only through cupidity. He looked like "a big, rusty nail." [Eugenie Grandet.]
BONFONS (Eugenie Cruchot de), only daughter of M. and Mme. Felix Grandet; born at Saumur in 1796. Strictly reared by a mother gentle and devout, and by a father hard and avaricious. The single bright ray across her life was an absolutely platonic love for her cousin Charles Grandet. But, once away from her, this young man was forgetful of her; and, on his return from the Indies in 1827, a rich man, he married the young daughter of a nobleman. Upon this occurrence, Eugenie Grandet, now an orphan, settled in full with the creditors of Charles' father, and then bestowed her hand upon the President Cruchot de Bonfons, who had paid her court for nine years. At the age of thirty-six she was left a widow without having ceased to be a virgin, following her expressed wish. Sadly she secluded herself in the gloomy home of her childhood at Saumur, where she devoted the rest of her life to works of benevolence and charity. After her father's death, Eugenie was often alluded to, by the Cruchot faction, as Mlle. de Froidfond, from the name of one of her holdings. In 1832 an effort was made to induce Mme. de Bonfons to wed with Marquis de Froidfond, a bankrupt widower of fifty odd years and possessed of numerous progeny. [Eugenie Grandet.]
BONGRAND, born in 1769; first an advocate at Melun, then justice of the peace at Nemours from 1814 to 1837. He was a friend of Doctor Mirouet's and helped educate Ursule Mirouet, protecting her to the best of his ability after the death of the old physician, and aiding in the restitution of her fortune which Minoret-Levrault had impaired by the theft of the doctor's will. M. Bongrand had wanted to make a match between Ursule Mirouet and his son, but she loved Savinien de Portenduere. The justice of the peace became president of the court at Melun, after the marriage of the young lady with Savinien. [Ursule Mirouet.]
BONGRAND (Eugene), son of Bongrand the justice of the peace. He studied law at Paris under Derville the attorney, this constituting all his course. He became public prosecutor at Melun after the Revolution of 1830, and general prosecutor in 1837. Failing in his love suit with Ursule Mirouet, he probably married the daughter of M.
Levrault, former mayor of Nemours. [Ursule Mirouet.]
BONNAC, a rather handsome young fellow, who was head clerk for the notary Lupin at Soulanges in 1823. His accomplishments were his only dowry. He was loved in platonic fashion by his employer's wife, Mme.
