wars as a captain under the name of Nantais, and as negotiator played
a singular part at Quiberon. The Restoration rewarded the services of
this unintelligent member of the petty nobility, whose Catholicism was
more lukewarm than his love of monarchy. He became mayor of the second
district of Paris, and division-chief in the Bureau of Finances,
thanks to his kinship with a deputy on the Right. He was one of the
guests at the famous ball given by his deputy, Cesar Birotteau, whom
he had known for twenty years. On his death-bed, at the close of
December, 1824, he had designated, although without avail, as his
successor, Xavier Rabourdin, one of the division-chiefs and real
director of the bureau of which La Billiardiere was the nominal head.
The newspapers published obituaries of the deceased. The short notice
prepared jointly by Chardin des Lupeaulx, J.-J. Bixiou and F. du
Bruel, enumerated the many titles and decorations of Flamet de la
Billardiere, gentleman of the king's bedchamber, etc., etc. [The
Chouans. Cesar Birotteau. The Government Clerks.]

LA BILLARDIERE (Benjamin, Chevalier de), son of the preceding, born in
1802. He was a companion of the young Vicomte de Portenduere in 1824,
being at the time a rich supernumerary in the office of Isidore
Baudoyer under the division of his father, Flamet de la Billardiere.
His insolence and foppishness gave little cause for regret when he
left the Bureau of Finances for the Department of Seals in the latter
part of the same year, 1824, that marked the expected and unlamented
death of Baron Flamet de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.]

LA BLOTTIERE (Mademoiselle Merlin de), under the Restoration, a kind
of dowager and canoness at Tours; in company with Mesdames Pauline
Salomon de Villenoix and de Listomere, upheld, received and welcomed
Francois Birotteau. [The Vicar of Tours.]