CHARDON, retired surgeon of the army of the Republic; established as a druggist at Angouleme during the Empire.  He was engrossed in trying to cure the gout, and he also dreamed of replacing rag-paper with paper made from vegetable fibre, after the manner of the Chinese.  He died at the beginning of the Restoration at Paris, where he had come to solicit the sanction of the Academy of Science, in despair at the lack of result, leaving a wife and two children poverty-stricken. [Lost Illusions.]

CHARDON (Madame), nee Rubempre, wife of the preceding.  The final branch of an illustrious family.  Saved from the scaffold in 1793 by the army surgeon Chardon who declared her enceinte by him and who married her despite their mutual poverty.  Reduced to suffering by the sudden death of her husband, she concealed her misfortunes under the name of Mme. Charlotte.  She adored her two children, Eve and Lucien.  Mme. Chardon died in 1827. [Lost Illusions.  Scenes from a Courtesan’s Life.]

CHARDON (Lucien). (See Rubempre, Chardon de).

CHARDON (Eve). (See Sechard, Madame David.)

CHARELS (The), worthy farmers in the outskirts of Alencon; the father and mother of Olympe Charel who became the wife of Michaud, the head-keeper of General de Montcornet’s estate. [The Peasantry.]

CHARGEBOEUF (Marquis de), a Champagne gentleman, born in 1739, head of the house of Chargeboeuf in the time of the Consulate and the Empire.  His lands reached from the department of Seine-et-Marne into that of the Aube.  A relative of the Hauteserres and the Simeuses whom he sought to erase from the emigrant list in 1804, and whom he assisted in the lawsuit in which they were implicated after the abduction of Senator Malin.  He was also related to Laurence de Cinq-Cygne.  The Chargeboeufs and the Cinq-Cygnes had the same origin, the Frankish name of Duineff being their joint property.  Cinq-Cygne became the name of the junior branch of the Chargeboeufs.  The Marquis de Chargeboeuf was acquainted with Talleyrand, at whose instance he was enabled to transmit a petition to First-Consul Bonaparte.  M. de Chargeboeuf was apparently reconciled to the new order of things springing out of the year ’89; at any rate he displayed much politic prudence.  His family reckoned their ancient titles from the Crusades; his name arose from an equerry’s exploit with Saint Louis in Egypt. [The Gondreville Mystery.]

CHARGEBOEUF (Madame de), mother of Bathilde de Chargeboeuf who married Denis Rogron.  She lived at Troyes with her daughter during the Restoration.  She was poor but haughty. [Pierrette.]

CHARGEBOEUF (Bathilde de), daughter of the preceding; married Denis Rogron. (See Rogron, Madame.)

CHARGEBOEUF (Melchior-Rene, Vicomte de), of the poor branch of the Chargeboeufs.  Made sub-prefect of Arcis-sur-Aube in 1815, through the influence of his kinswoman, Mme. de Cinq-Cygne.  It was there that he met Mme. Severine Beauvisage.  A mutual attachment resulted, and a daughter called Cecile-Renee was born of their intimacy. [The Member for Arcis.] In 1820 the Vicomte de Chargeboeuf removed to Sancerre where he knew Mme. de la Baudraye.  She would probably have favored him, had he not been made prefect and left the city. [The Muse of the Department.]