Duc de Navarreins and Polydore Milaud de la Baudraye, and attained a
kind of mightiness that Annette seemed to fear would be disastrous to
Charles Grandet. He accumulated 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.