BEAUSEANT (Vicomtesse de), born Clair de Bourgogne, in 1792. Wife of the preceding and cousin of Eugene de Rastignac. Of a family almost royal. Deceived by her lover, Miguel d’Ajuda-Pinto, who, while continuing his intimacy with her, asked and obtained the hand of Berthe de Rochefide, the vicomtesse left Paris secretly before this wedding and on the morning following a grand ball which was given at her home where she shone in all her pride and splendor. In 1822 this “deserted woman” had lived for three years in the most rigid seclusion at Courcelles near Bayeux. Gaston de Nueil, a young man of three and twenty, who had been sent to Normandy for his health, succeeded in making her acquaintance, was immediately smitten with her and, after a long seige, became her lover. This was at Geneva, whither she had fled. Their intimacy lasted for nine years, being broken by the marriage of the young man. In 1819 the Vicomtesse de Beauseant received at Paris the most famous “high-rollers” of the day —Malincour, Ronquerolles, Maxime de Trailles, Marsay, Vandenesse, together with an intermingling of the most elegant dames, as Lady Brandon, the Duchesse de Langeais, the Comtesse de Kergarouet, Mme. de Serizy, the Duchesse Carigliano, the Comtesse Ferraud, Mme. de Lantry, the Marquise d’Aiglemont, Mme. Firmiani, the Marquise de Listomere, the Marquise d’Espard and the Duchesse de Maufrigneuse. She was equally intimate with Grandlieu, and the General de Montriveau. Rastignac, then poor at the time of his start in the world, also received cards to her receptions. [Father Goriot. The Deserted Woman. Albert Savarus.]
BEAUSSIER, a bourgeois of Issoudun under the Restoration. Upon seeing Joseph Bridau in the diligence, while the artist and his mother were on a journey in 1822, he remarked that he would not care to meet him at night in the corner of a forest—he looked so much like a highwayman. That same evening Beaussier, accompanied by his wife, came to call at Hochon’s in order to get a nearer view of the painter. [A Bachelor’s Establishment.]
BEAUSSIER the younger, known as Beaussier the Great; son of the preceding and one of the Knights of Idlesse at Issoudun, commanded by Maxence Gilet, under the Restoration. [A Bachelor’s Establishment.]
BEAUVISAGE, physician of the Convent des Carmelites at Blois, time of Louis XVIII. He was known by Louise de Chaulieu and by Renee de Maucombe, who were reared in the convent. According to Louise de Chaulieu, he certainly belied his name. [Letters of Two Brides.]
BEAUVISAGE, at one time tenant of the splendid farm of Bellache, pertaining to the Gondreville estate at Arcis-sur-Aube. The father of Phileas Beauvisage. Died about the beginning of the nineteenth century. [The Gondreville Mystery. The Member for Arcis.]
BEAUVISAGE (Madame), wife of the preceding. She survived him for quite a long period and helped her son Phileas win his success. [The Member for Arcis.]