MICHU, during the progress of and after the French Revolution he played a part directly contrary to his regular political affiliations.  His lowly birth, his harsh appearance, and his marriage with the daughter of a Troyes tanner of advanced opinion, all helped to make his pronounced Republicanism seem in keeping, although beneath it he hid his Royalist faith and an active devotion to the Simeuses, the Hauteserres and the Cinq-Cygnes.  Michu controlled the Gondreville estate between 1789 and 1804, after it was snatched from its rightful owners, and under the Terror he presided over the Jacobin club at Arcis.  As a result of the assassination of the Duc d’Enghien March 21, 1804, he lost his position at Gondreville.  Michu then lived not far from there, near Laurence de Cinq-Cygne, to whom he made known his secret conduct, and, as a result, became overseer of all the estate attached to the castle.  Having publicly shown his opposition to Malin, he was thought guilty of being leader in a plot to kidnap the new Seigneur de Gondreville, and was consequently condemned to death, a sentence which was executed, despite his innocence, October, 1806. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

MICHU (Marthe), wife of the preceding, daughter of a Troyes tanner, “the village apostle of the Revolution,” who, as a follower of Baboeuf, a believer in racial and social equality, was put to death.  A blonde with blue eyes, and of perfect build, in accordance with her father’s desire, despite her modest innocence, posed before a public assembly as the Goddess of Liberty.  Marthe Michu adored her husband, by whom she had a son, Francois, but being ignorant for a long time of his secret, she lived in a manner separated from him, under her mother’s wing.  When she did learn of her husband’s Royalist actions, and that he was devoted to the Cinq-Cygnes, she assisted him, but falling into a skilfuly contrived plot, she innocently brought about her husband’s execution.  A forged letter having attracted her to Malin’s hiding-place, Madame Michu furnished all the necessary evidence to make the charge of kidnapping seem plausible.  She also was cast into prison and was awaiting trial when death claimed her, November, 1806. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

MICHU (Francois), son of the preceding couple, born in 1793.  In 1803, while in the service of the house of Cinq-Cygne, he ferreted out the police-system that Giguet represented.  The tragic death of his parents (a picture of one of them hung on the wall at Cinq-Cygne) caused his adoption in some way or other by the Marquise Laurence, whose efforts afterwards paved the way for his career as a lawyer from 1817 to 1819, an occupation which he left, only to become a magistrate.  In 1824 he was associate judge of the Alencon court.  Then he was appointed attorney of the king and received the cross of the Legion of Honor, after the suit against Victurnien d’Esgrignon by M. du Bosquier and the Liberals.  Three years later he performed similar duties at the Arcis court,