VAILLANT (Madame), wife of a cabinet-maker in the Faubourg Saint-
Antoine; mother of three children. In 1819 and 1820, for forty sous per month, she kept house for a young author,[*] who lived in a garret in rue Lesdiguieres. She utilized her remaining time in turning the crank for a mechanic, and received only ten sous a day for this hard work. This woman and her husband were perfectly upright. At the wedding of Madame Vaillant's sister, the young writer became acquainted with Pere Canet--Facino Cane--clarinetist at the Quinze-
Vingts--who told him his strange story. [Facino Cane.] In 1818, Madame Vaillant, already aged, kept house for Claude-Joseph Pillerault, the former Republican, on rue des Bourdonnais. The old merchant was good to his servant and did not let her shine his shoes. [Cesar Birotteau.]
[*] Honore de Balzac. He employed Madame Vaillant as a servant.
VALDES (Paquita), born in the West Indies about 1793, daughter of a slave bought in Georgia on account of her great beauty; lived in the early part of the Restoration and during the Hundred Days in Hotel San-Real, rue Saint-Lazare, Paris, with her mother and her foster-father, Christemio. In April, 1815, in the Jardin des Tuileries, she was met by Henri de Marsay, who loved her. She agreed to receive him secretly in her own home. She gave up everything for his sake, but in a transport of love, she cried out from force of habit: "O Mariquita!"
This put her lover in such a fury that he tried to kill her. Not being able to do this, he returned, accompanied by some other members of "The Thirteen," only to find Paquita murdered; for, the Marquise de San-Real, Marsay's own sister, who was very jealous of the favors granted the man by this girl, has slashed her savagely with a dagger.
Having been kept in retirement since she was twelve years old, Paquita Valdes knew neither how to read nor to write. She spoke only English and Spanish. On account of the peculiar color of her eyes she was known as "the girl with the golden eyes," by some young men, one of whom was Paul de Manerville, who had noticed her during his promenades. [The Thirteen.]
VALDEZ, a Spanish admiral, constitutional minister of King Ferdinand VII. in 1820; was obliged to flee at the time of the reaction, and embarked on an English vessel. His escape was due to the warning given him by Baron de Macumer, who told him in time. [Letters of Two Brides.]
VALENTIN (De), head of a historic house of Auvergne, which had fallen into poverty and obscurity; cousin of the Duc de Navarreins; came to Paris under the monarchy, and made for himself an excellent place at the "very heart of power." This he lost during the Revolution. Under the Empire he bought many pieces of property given by Napoleon to his generals; but the fall of Napoleon ruined him completely. He reared his only son, Raphael, with great harshness, although he expected him to restore the house to its former position. In the autumn of 1826, six months after he had paid his creditors, he died of a broken heart.
The Valentins had on their arms: an eagle of gold in a field of sable, crowned with silver, beak and talons with gules, with this device:
"The soul has not perished." [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Madame de), born Barbe-Marie O'Flaharty, wife of the preceding; heiress of a wealthy house; died young, leaving to her only son an islet in the Loire. [The Magic Skin.]
VALENTIN (Marquis Raphael de),[*] only son of the preceding couple, born in 1804, and probably in Paris, where he was reared; lost his mother when he was very young, and, after an unhappy childhood, received on the death of his father the sum of eleven hundred and twelve francs. On this he lived for nearly three years, boarding at the rate of a franc per day at the Hotel de Saint-Quintin, rue des Cordiers. He began two great works there: a comedy, which was to bring him fame in a day, and the "Theory of the Will," a long work, like that of Louis Lambert, meant to be a continuation of the books by Mesmer, Lavater, Gall and Bichat. Raphael de Valentin as a doctor of laws was destined by his father for the life of a statesman. Reduced to extreme poverty, and deprived of his last possession, the islet in the Loire, inherited from his mother, he was on the point of committing suicide, in 1830, when a strange dealer in curiosities of the Quai Voltaire, into whose shop he had entered by chance, gave him a strange piece of shagreen, the possession of which assured him the gratification of every desire, although his life would be shortened by each wish. Shortly after this he was invited to a sumptuous feast at Frederic Taillefer's. On the next morning Raphael found himself heir to six million francs. In the autumn of 1831 he died of consumption in the arms of Pauline Gaudin; they were mutual lovers. He tried in vain to possess himself of her, in a supreme effort. As a millionaire, Raphael de Valentin lived in friendship with Rastignac and Blondet, looked after by his faithful servant, Jonathas, in a house on rue de Varenne. At one time he was madly in love with a certain Comtesse Foedora. Neither the waters of Aix, nor those of Mont-Dore, both of which he tried, were able to give him back his lost health. [The Magic Skin.]
[*] During the year 1851, at the Ambigu-Comique, was performed a drama by Alphonse Arnault and Louis Judicis, in which the life of Raphael Valentin was reproduced.
VALENTINE, given name and title of the heroine of a vaudeville play[*] in two acts, by Scribe and Melesville, which was performed at the Gymnase-Dramatique, January 4, 1836. This was more than twenty years after the death of M. and Madame de Merret, whose lives and tragic adventures were more or less vividly pictured in the play. [The Muse of the Department.]
[*] Madame Eugenie Savage played the principal part.
