a false motive for the crime.  The relations between him and his wife became more and more strained, until they reached such a pitch that Lantier and she planned his murder.  The homicidal frenzy of Lantier, to which Severine fell a victim, ended the plot, but Roubaud and Cabuche, who arrived on the scene immediately after the murder, were arrested under what appeared to be suspicious circumstances, and, after trial, were sentenced to penal servitude for a crime which they did not commit.  La Bete Humaine.

ROUBAUD (MADAME), wife of the preceding.  See Severine Aubry.  La Bete Humaine.

ROUDIER, a regular attender at the political meetings held in the Rougons’ yellow drawing-room.  La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGE D’AUNEAU (LE), lieutenant of Beau-Francois, leader of the band of brigands.  He wrote a complaint while in prison.  La Terre.

ROUGETTE, a cow bought by the sisters Mouche at the market of Cloyes.  La Terre.

ROUGON, a young gardener who worked for the Fouque family, and afterwards married Adelaide.  Fifteen months afterwards he died from sunstroke, leaving a son named Pierre.  La Fortune des Rougon.

ROUGON, alias SACCARD (ARISTIDE), born 1815, youngest son of Pierre Rougon, was educated, like his brothers, at Plassans and Paris, but failed to pass his examinations.  His character was a combination of covetousness and slyness:  his greatest desire was the acquisition of rapid fortune, gained without work.  In 1836 he married Angele Sicardot, who brought him a dowry of ten thousand francs.  As Aristide did no work, and lived extravagantly, the money was soon consumed, and he and his wife were in such poverty that he was at last compelled to seek a situation.  He procured a place at the Sub-Prefecture, where he remained nearly ten years, and only reached a salary of eighteen hundred francs.  During that time “he longed, with ever-increasing malevolence and rancour, for those enjoyments of which he was deprived” by his lowly position.  In 1848, when his brother Eugene left for Paris, he had a faint idea of following him, but remained in the hope of something turning up.  In opposition to his father, he expressed Republican principles, and edited a newspaper called the Independant.  At the time of the Coup d’Etat, he became alarmed at the course of events, and pretended that an accident to his hand prevented him from writing.  His mother having given him private information as to the success of the Bonapartist cause, he changed the politics of his paper, and became reconciled to his parents.  La Fortune des Rougon.