ROUGON (PIERRE), born 1787, legitimate son of Adelaide Fouque, was a thrifty, selfish lad who saw that his mother by her improvident conduct was squandering the estate to which he considered himself sole heir.  His aim was to induce his mother and her two illegitimate children to remove from the house and land, and in this he was ultimately successful.  Having sold the property for fifty thousand francs, he induced his mother, who by this time was of weak intellect, to sign a receipt for that sum, and was so able to defraud his half-brother and sister of the shares to which they would have been entitled.  Soon thereafter he married Felicite Puech, the daughter of an oil dealer in Plassans.  The firm of Puech and Lacamp was not prosperous, but the money brought by Pierre Rougon retrieved the situation, and after a few years the two original partners retired.  Fortune, however, soon changed, and for thirty years there was a continual struggle to make ends meet.  Three sons and two daughters were born, and their education was a heavy drain upon their parents’ means.  In 1845 Pierre and his wife retired from business with forty thousand francs at the most.  Instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant, they went in for politics, and soon regular meetings of the reactionary party came to be held in their “yellow drawing-room.”  Advised, however, by their son Eugene, they resolved to support the cause of the Bonapartes, and at the time of the Coup d’Etat of 1851 Pierre was the leader of that party in Plassans.  Having concealed himself when the Republican insurgents entered Plassans, he avoided capture, and after they retired he led the band of citizens which recaptured the town hall.  This bloodless victory having been somewhat minimized by the townspeople, Pierre and his wife, with a view to establishing a strong claim for subsequent reward, bribed Antoine Macquart to lead the Republicans left in Plassans to an attack on the town hall.  To meet this he prepared a strong ambuscade, and the Republicans were repulsed with considerable loss.  As a result of this treachery, Pierre was regarded by his fellow-citizens as the saviour of the town, and the Government subsequently appointed him Receiver of Taxes, decorating him with the Cross of the Legion of Honour.  La Fortune des Rougon.

He settled down quietly and took little part in public affairs, though his wife continued to hold weekly receptions at which members of the different political parties were represented.  La Conquete de Plassans.

He became so corpulent that he was unable to move, and was carried off by an attack of indigestion on the night of 3rd September, 1870, a few hours after hearing of the catastrophe of Sedan.  The downfall of the regime which he prided himself on having helped to establish seemed to have crushed him like a thunderbolt.  Le Docteur Pascal.