sailed for America, and became rich through a large patrimony left him
by Silas Piedefer--1836-42. At that time he owned in Paris a stately
mansion, on rue de l'Arcade, and upon winning back his wife, who had
left him, he placed her in it as mistress. He now became count,
commander of the Legion of Honor, and peer of France. Frederic de
Nucingen received him as such and served him as sponsor, when, in the
summer of 1842, the death of Ferdinand d'Orleans necessitated the
presence of M. de la Baudraye at Luxembourg. [The Muse of the
Department.]

[*] The motto on the Baudraye coat-of-arms was: "Deo patet sic fides
et hominibus."

LA BAUDRAYE (Madame Polydore Milaud de), wife of the preceding, born
Dinah Piedefer in 1807 or 1808 in Berry; daughter of the Calvinist,
Moise Piedefer; niece of Silas Piedefer, from whom she inherited a
fortune. She was brilliantly educated at Bourges, in the Chamarolles
boarding-school, with Anna de Fontaine, born Grosstete--1819. Five
years later, through personal ambition, she gave up Protestantism,
that she might gain the protection of the Cardinal-Archbishop of
Bourges, and a short time after her conversion she was married, about
1823. For thirteen consecutive years, at least, Madame de la Baudraye
reigned in the city of Sancerre and in her country-house, Chateau
d'Anzy, at Saint-Satur near by. Her court was composed of a strange
mixture of people: the Abbe Duret and Messieurs Clagny, Gravier,
Gatien Boirouge. At first, only Clagny and Duret know of the literary
attempts of Jan Diaz, pseudonym of Madame de la Baudraye, who had just
bought the artistic furniture of the Rougets of Issoudun, and who
invited and received two "Parisiens de Sancerre," Horace Bianchon and
Etienne Lousteau, in September 1836. A liaison followed with Etienne