VANDIERES (General, Comte de), old, feeble and childish, when, with his wife and a large number of soldiers, November 29, 1812, he started on a raft to cross the Beresina.  When the boat struck the other bank the shock threw the count into the river.  His head was severed from his body by a cake of ice, and went down the river like a cannon-ball. [Farewell.]

VANDIERES (Comtesse Stephanie de), wife of the preceding, niece of the alienist Doctor Fanjat; mistress of Major de Sucy, who afterwards was a general.  In 1812, during the campaign in Russia, she shared with her husband all the dangers, and managed to cross the Beresina with her lover’s aid, although she was unable to rejoin him.  She wandered for a long time in northern or eastern Europe.  Having become insane, she could say nothing but the word “Farewell”!  She was found later at Strasbourg by the grenadier, Fleuriot.  Having been taken to the Bons-Hommes near the Isle-Adam, she was attended by Fanjat.  She there had as a companion an idiot by the name of Genevieve.  In September, 1819, Stephanie again saw Philippe de Sucy, but did not recognize him.  She died not far from Saint-Germain-en-Laye, January, 1820, soon after the reproduction of the scene on the Beresina, arranged by her lover.  Her sudden return of reason killed her. [Farewell.]

VANIERE, gardener to Raphael de Valentin; obtained from the well, into which his frightened employer had thrown it, the wonderful piece of shagreen, which no weight, no reagent, and no pounding could either stretch or injure, and which none of the best known scientists could explain. [The Magic Skin.]

VANNEAULX (Monsieur and Madame des), small renters at Limoges, living with their two children on rue des Cloches towards the end of Charles X.’s reign.  They inherited in the neighborhood of a hundred thousand francs from Pingret, of whom Madame des Vanneaulx was the only niece.  This was after their uncle’s murderer, J.-F.  Tascheron, having been urged by the Cure Bonnet, restored a large portion of the money stolen in Faubourg Saint-Etienne.  M. and Madame des Vanneaulx, who had accused the murderer of “indelicacy,” changed their opinion entirely when he made this restitution. [The Country Parson.]

VANNI (Elisa), a Corsican woman who, according to one Giacomo, rescued a child, Luigi Porta, from the fearful vendetta of Bartolomeo di Piombo. [The Vendetta.]

VANNIER, patriot, conscript of Fougeres, Bretagne, during the autumn of 1799 received an order to convey marching orders to the National Guard of his city—­a body of men who were destined to aid the Seventy-second demi-brigade in its engagements with the Chouans. [The Chouans.]