When Balzac was living secluded from his creditors, Madame Visconti showed her friendship for him in a very material way.  The bailiff had been seeking him for three weeks, when a vindictive Ariadne, having a strong interest in seeing Balzac conducted to prison, presented herself at the home of the creditor and informed him that the novelist was residing in the Champs-Elysees, at the home of Madame Visconti.  Nothing could have been more exact than this information.  Two hours later, the home was surrounded, and Balzac, interrupted in the midst of a chapter of one of his novels, saw two bailiffs enter, armed with the traditional club; they showed him a cab waiting at the door.  A woman had betrayed him—­now a woman saved him.  Madame Visconti flung ten thousand francs in the faces of the bailiffs, and showed them the door.[*]

[*] Eugene de Mirecourt, Les Contemporains, does not give the date
    of this incident.  Keim et Lumet, H. de Balzac, state that it
    occurred in 1837, but E. E. Saltus, Balzac, states that it was
    in connection with the indebtedness to William Duckett, editor of
    the Dictionnaire de la Conversation, in 1846.  F. Lawton,
    Balzac, states that it was in connection with his indebtedness
    to Duckett on account of the Chronicle, and that Balzac was sued
    in 1837.  If the letter to Mme. de V., Memoir and Letters of
    Balzac, was addressed to Madame Visconti, he was owing her in
    1840.  M. F. Sandars, Honore de Balzac, states that about
    1846-1848, Balzac borrowed 10,000 or 15,000 francs from the
    Viscontis, giving them as guarantee shares in the Chemin de Fer
    du Nord.

During Balzac’s residence aux Jardies he was quite near Madame Visconti, as she was living in a rather insignificant house just opposite the home Balzac had built.  He enjoyed her companionship, and when she moved to Versailles he regretted not being able to see her more frequently than once a fortnight, for she was one of the few who gave him their sympathy at that time.

Several months later Balzac was disappointed in her, and referred to her bitterly as L’Anglaise, L’Angleterre, or “the lady who lived at Versailles.”  He felt that she was ungrateful and inconsiderate, and while he remained on speaking terms with her, he regarded this friendship as one of the misfortunes of his life.

After the death of Madame Visconti (April 28, 1883), a picture of Balzac which had been in her possession was placed in the museum at Tours.  This is supposed to be the portrait painted by Gerard-Seguin, exhibited in the Salon in 1842, and presented to her by Balzac at that time.