MAURIAC (BARON DE), starter at the racecourse of Longchamp.  Nana.

MAURIN, a hatter of Plassans, who was selected by the Republicans of that town as their candidate.  At the election he only received about fifteen hundred votes against the rival candidate.  M. Delangre.  La Conquete de Plassans.

MAURIN, a notary at Tulettes, who was also Mayor of the Commune.  It was he who drew up the certificate of death of Antoine Macquart from spontaneous combustion.

MAZAUD, a broker on the Paris Bourse, who succeeded on the death of his uncle to one of the largest businesses in the city.  He was young and pleasant-looking, with such remarkable activity and intuition that he soon came into the first rank.  He was also assisted by the fact that he did business with all the great bankers, and was reputed to have a second cousin employed at the Havas News Agency.  After the foundation of the Universal Bank, he became the official broker of that institution, and the great gamble in its shares resolved itself into a duel between him and Jacoby, the one buying for Saccard and the other selling for Gundermann.  Mazaud did not speculate on his own account, but the failure of the bank led to so many of his clients being unable to meet their differences that he was ruined.  After putting his affairs in order so far as possible, he committed suicide.  L’Argent.

MAZAUD (MADAME), wife of the preceding.  She married for love, and brought to her husband a considerable fortune.  She had two children, a girl and a boy.  The suicide of her husband completely overwhelmed her with grief.  L’Argent.

MAZEL, a famous master at the School of Arts, and the last rampart of elegant conventionality.  The first year that the Hanging Committee of the Salon was elected by the artists themselves, Mazel was chosen president.  In the selection of pictures he was susceptible to influence, and was guided more by the name of the artist than by the quality of the work.  L’Oeuvre.

MECHAIN, proprietor of a racing-stable.  Hazard, one of his horses, ran in the Grand Prix de Paris.  Nana.

MECHAIN (MADAME), a woman in the employment of Busch, the money-lender and debt collector.  She assisted him in tracing debtors, and in the purchase of securities of bankrupt companies.  She was a cousin of Rosalie Chavaille, mother of Victor Saccard, on whose death she was left with the boy to bring up.  On discovering the paternity of Victor some years later, she and Busch attempted to blackmail Saccard, but without success, though they had previously got a considerable sum from Caroline Hamelin, who wished to save Saccard from annoyance.  L’Argent.

MEGOT (JUSTINE), a young maid-servant of Renee Saccard.  She had a son to Maxime Rougon in 1857, and was sent to live in the country with the child on a small annuity.  La Curee.

Three years later she married Anselme Thomas, a harness-maker at Plassans.  They had two children, and would have lived happily but for the husband’s dislike to her eldest child, Charles Rougon.  Her conduct after marriage was exemplary in every way.  Le Docteur Pascal.