By chance, Jacques was a momentary witness of the murder of President Grandmorin, and when suspicion fell upon the Roubauds he came to be of opinion that it was well-founded, a belief which was confirmed by a subsequent confession to him by Severine.  This avowal by Severine placed her in his mind in a different category from all other woman; she had killed, and was a person sacred and apart, a woman he could love without his lust for blood being evoked.  At the request of Severine, Jacques promised to kill Roubaud, her husband, whom she had come to hate; but, though all the preparations were made, it was Severine herself whom he killed, in an accession of that homicidal rage which he imagined he had conquered.  He escaped all suspicion, and calmly allowed Roubaud and Cabuche to be punished for the crime.  In order to see whether the murder of Severine had cured him of his blood lust, he made love to Philomene Sauvagnat, thereby arousing the jealousy of her lover, Pecqueux, who was stoker on the engine driven by Lantier.  A quarrel between the two men on the footplate of the engine resulted in both of them falling off, and being cut in pieces beneath the wheels.  La Bete Humaine.

LANTIER (JACQUES LOUIS), born 1860, was the son of Claude Lantier and Christine Hallegrain.  He was allowed to grow up wild at Bennecourt until he was two and a half years old, when his parents removed to Paris, taking him with them.  Life in the city did not agree with the child, who to make matters worse was much neglected, his mother being wholly taken up with her lover, and his father with art.  He grew up puny, serious like a little man; at five years his head had grown quite out of proportion to his height, but as his skull increased in size his intelligence diminished.  His head alone continued to grow, verging on cretinism, until, in 1869, the unfortunate child died of some obscure form of malnutrition.  L’Oeuvre.

LAPOULLE, a soldier in the 106th Regiment of the line, in the squad of Corporal Jean Macquart.  He came from the Marshes of Sologne, and was so ignorant that when he joined the regiment he asked to be shown the King.  He had great strength, and consequently all the heavy work of his company was assigned to him.  After the battle of Sedan, he was one of the prisoners on the Isle d’Iges, where driven frantic by famine, and instigated by Chouteau, he killed Pache, who had hidden some bread from his companions.  The following night he attempted to escape by swimming the Meuse, but was killed by a bullet fired by a Prussian sentinel.  La Debacle.

LAQUERRIERE (FLORENT), an unfortunate man who died of yellow fever in Dutch Guiana in the arms of Florent.  It was by the aid of his papers that Florent, who had escaped from Cayenne, was able to return to France, and to evade the notice of the police.  Le Ventre de Paris.

LA ROUQUETTE (M.), a member of the Chamber of Deputies.  His sister, Madame de Llorentz, was one of the ladies-in-waiting of the Empress Eugenie.  Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.