SOUVARINE, an engine-man at the Voreux pit, who lodged with the Rasteneurs.  He was a Russian of noble family, who had at first studied medicine, until, carried away by social enthusiasm, he learned a trade in order that he might mix with the people.  It was by this trade that he now lived, after having fled in consequence of an unsuccessful attempt against the Czar’s life, an attempt which resulted in his mistress, Annouchka, and many of his friends, being hanged.  His principles were those of the most violent anarchy, and he would have nothing to do with the strike at Montsou, which he considered a merely childish affair.  Disgusted at the return of the miners to their work, he resolved to bring about the destruction of the Voreux pit, by weakening the timbers which kept out a vast accumulation of water.  He accomplished that work of madness in a fury of destruction in which he twenty times risked his life.  And when the torrent had invaded the mine, imprisoning the unfortunate workers, Souvarine went calmly away into the unknown without a glance behind.  Germinal.

SPIRIT, an English horse which ran in the Grand Prix de Paris.  Nana.

SPONTINI, a master at the College of Plassans.  He came originally from Corsica, and used to show his knife, rusty with the blood of three cousins.  L’Oeuvre.

SQUELETTE-EXTERNE (LE).  See Mimi-la-Mort.  L’Oeuvre.

STADERINO (SIGNOR), a Venetian political refugee, and a friend of
Comtesse Balbi.  Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.

STEINBERG (GOLIATH), a Prussian spy who was engaged in 1867 as a farm servant by Fouchard at Remilly.  He became the lover of Silvine Morange, promising her marriage, but disappearing before the ceremony.  It was said that he served also on other farms in the neighbourhood of Beaumont and Raucourt.  During the war he was able to give important information to the German forces.  In trying to regain his former influence over Silvine, he threatened to remove their child to Germany, and, to prevent his doing so, she betrayed him to Guillaume Sambuc and the francs-tireurs of his band, who killed him in the house of Fouchard, in the presence of Silvine, by cutting his throat, and bleeding him in the same manner as a pig.  La Debacle.

STEINER, a banker in Paris.  He was a German Jew, through whose hands had passed millions.  He spent vast sums upon Rose Mignon and Nana.  Nana.

STERNICH (DUCHESSE DE), a celebrated leader of society in the Second Empire.  She dominated all her friends on the ground of a former intimacy with the Emperor.  La Curee.

STEWARD (LUCY), was the daughter of an engine-cleaner of English origin who was employed at the Gare du Nord.  She was not beautiful, but had such a charm of manner that she was considered the smartest of the demi-mondaines in Paris.  Among her lovers had been a prince of the royal blood.  She had a son, Ollivier, before whom she posed as an actress.  Nana.