duties and ranks, was master of petitions in the Council of State, secretary-general to the minister of finance, colonel in the National Guard, government commissioner in a joint-stock company; also provided with an inspectorship in the king’s house, he became Chevalier de Saint-Louis and officer of the Legion of Honor.  An open follower of Voltaire, but an attendant at mass, at all times a Bertrand in pursuit of a Raton, egotistic and vain, a glutton and a libertine, this man of intellect, sought after in all social circles, a kind of minister’s “household drudge,” openly lived, until 1825, a life of pleasure and anxiety, striving for political success and love conquests.  As mistresses he is known to have had Esther van Gobseck, Flavie Colleville; perhaps, even, the Marquise d’Espard.  He was seen at the Opera ball in the winter of 1824, at which Lucien de Rubempre reappeared.  The close of this year brought about considerable change in the Secretary-General’s affairs.  Crippled by debt, and in the power of Gobseck, Bidault and Mitral, he was forced to give up one of the treasury departments to Isidore Baudoyer, despite his personal liking for Rabourdin.  He gained as a result of this stroke a coronet and a deputyship.  He had ambitions for a peerage, the title of gentleman of the king’s chamber, a membership in the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-lettres, and the commander’s cross. [The Muse of the Department.  Eugenie Grandet.  A Bachelor’s Establishment.  A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.  The Government Clerks.  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.  Ursule Mirouet.]

LUPEAULX (Des), nephew of the preceding, and, thanks to him, appointed sub-prefect of Ville-aux-Fayes, Bourgogne, in 1821, in the department presided over successively by Martial de la Roche-Hugon and Casteran.  As Gaubertin’s prospective son-in-law, M. des Lupeaulx, espousing the cause of his fiancee’s family, was instrumental in disgusting Montcornet, owner of Aigues, with his property. [The Peasantry.]

LUPIN, born in 1778, son of the last steward of the Soulanges in Bourgogne; in time he became manager of the domain, notary and deputy mayor of the city of Soulanges.  Although married and a man of family, M. Lupin, still in excellent physical condition, was, in 1823, a brilliant figure in Madame Soudry’s reception-room, where he was known for his tenor voice and his extreme gallantries—­the latter characteristic being proved by two liaisons carried on with two middle-class women, Madame Sarcus, wife of Sarcus the Rich, and Euphemie Plissoud. [The Peasantry.]

LUPIN (Madame), wife of the preceding, called “Bebelle;” only daughter of a salt-merchant enriched by the Revolution; had a platonic affection for the chief clerk, Bonnac.  Madame Lupin was fat, awkward, of very ordinary appearance, and weak intellectually.  On account of these characteristics Lupin and the Soudry adherents neglected her. [The Peasantry.]