PORTA (Madame Luigi), wife of the preceding, born Ginevra di Piombo about 1790; shared, in Corsica as in Paris, the stormy life of her father and mother, whose adored child she was.  In Servin’s, the painter’s studio, where with her talent she shone above the whole class, Ginevra knew Mesdames Tiphaine and Camusot de Marville, at that time Mesdemoiselles Roguin and Thirion.  Defended by Laure alone, she endured the cruelly planned persecution of Amelie Thirion, a Royalist, and an envious woman, especially when the favorite drawing pupil discovered and aided Luigi Porta, whom she married shortly afterwards, against the will of Bartolomeo di Piombo.  Madame Porta lived most wretchedly; she resorted to Magus to dispose of copies of paintings at a meagre price; brought a son into the world, Barthelemy; could not nurse him, lost him, and died of grief and exhaustion in the year 1820. [The Vendetta.]

PORTAIL (Du), name assumed by Corentin, when as “prefect of secret police of diplomacy and political affairs,” he lived on the rue Honore-Chevalier, in the reign of Louis Philippe. [The Government Clerks.]

PORTENDUERE (Comte Luc-Savinien de), grandson of Admiral de Portenduere, born about 1788, represented the elder branch of the Portendueres, of whom Madame de Portenduere and her son Savinien represented the younger branch.  Under the Restoration, being the husband of a rich wife, the father of three children and member for Isere, he lived, according to the season of the year, in the chateau of Portenduere or the Portenduere mansion, which were situated, the one in Dauphine, and the other in Paris, and extended no aid to the Vicomte Savinien, though he was harassed by his creditors. [Ursule Mirouet.]

PORTENDUERE (Madame de,) born Kergarouet, a Breton, proud of her noble descent and of her race.  She married a post-captain, nephew of the famous Admiral de Portenduere, the rival of the Suffrens, the Kergarouets, and the Simeuses; bore him a son, Savinien; she survived her husband; was on intimate terms with the Rouvres, her country neighbors; for, having but little means, she lived, during the Restoration, in the little village of Nemours, on the rue des Bourgeois, where Denis Minoret was domiciled.  Savinien’s prodigal dissipation and the long opposition to his marriage to Ursule Mirouet saddened, or at least distrubed, Madame de Portenduere’s last days. [Ursule Mirouet.]

PORTENDUERE (Vicomte Savinien de), son of preceding, born in 1806; cousin of the Comte de Portenduere, who was descended from the famous admiral of this name, and great nephew of Vice-Admiral Kergarouet.  During the Restoration he left the little town of Nemours and his mother’s society to go and try the life in Paris, where, in spite of his relationship with the Fontaines, he fell in love with Emilie de Fontaine, who did not reciprocate his love, but married first Admiral de Kergarouet, and afterwards the Marquis de Vandenesse. [The Ball at Sceaux.] Savinien also