One of the few drawing-rooms where, under the Restoration, the Archbishop of Besancon was
sometimes to be seen, was that of the Baronne de Watteville, to whom he was particularly attached on
account of her religious sentiments.
A word as to this lady, the most important lady of
Besancon.
Monsieur de Watteville, a descendant of the famous Watteville, the most successful
and illustrious of murderers and renegades-his extraordinary adventures are too much a part of history
to be related here-this nineteenth century Monsieur de Watteville was as gentle and peaceable as his
ancestor of the _Grand Siecle_ had been passionate and turbulent. After living in the _Comte_
(La Franche Comte) like a wood-louse in the crack of a wainscot, he had married the heiress of
the celebrated house of Rupt. Mademoiselle de Rupt brought twenty thousand francs a year in the
funds to add to the ten thousand francs a year in real estate of the Baron de Watteville. The
Swiss gentleman's coat-of-arms (the Wattevilles are Swiss) was then borne as an escutcheon of
pretence on the old shield of the Rupts. The marriage, arranged in 1802, was solemnized in 1815 after
the second Restoration. Within three years of the birth of a daughter all Madame de Watteville's
grandparents were dead, and their estates wound up. Monsieur de Watteville's house was then sold,
and they settled in the Rue de la Prefecture in the fine old mansion of the Rupts, with an immense
garden stretching to the Rue du Perron. Madame de Watteville, devout as a girl, became even more so
after her marriage. She is one of the queens of the saintly brotherhood which gives the upper circles
of Besancon a solemn air and prudish manners in harmony with the character of the town.
Honoré de Balzac (Author) |
