ROBERT, a Paris restaurant-keeper, near Frascati. Early in 1822 he furnished a banquet lasting nine hours, at the time of the founding of the Royalist journal, the "Reveil." Theodore Gaillard and Hector Merlin, founders of the paper, Nathan and Lucien de Rubempre, Martainville, Auger, Destains and many authors who "were responsible for monarchy and religion," were present. "We have enjoyed an excellent monarchical and religious feast!" said one of the best known romanticists as he stood on the threshold. This sentence became famous and appeared the next morning in the "Miroir." Its repetition was wrongly attributed to Rubempre, although it had been reported by a book-seller who had been invited to the repast. [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.]
ROCHEFIDE (Marquis Arthur de), one of the later nobility; married through his father's instrumentality, in 1828, Beatrix de Casteran, a descendant of the more ancient nobility. His father thought that by doing this his son would obtain an appointment to the peerage, an honor which he himself had vainly sought. The Comtesse de Montcornet was interested in this marriage. Arthur de Rochefide served in the Royal Guards. He was a handsome man, but not especially worthy. He spent much of his time at his toilet, and it was known that he wore a corset. He was everybody's friend, as he joined in with the opinions and extravagances of everybody. His favorite amusement was horse-racing, and he supported a journal devoted to the subject of horses.
Having been deserted by his wife, he mourned without becoming the object of ridicule, and passed for a "jolly, good fellow." Made rich by the death of his father and of his elder sister, who was the wife of D'Ajuda-Pinto, he inherited, among other things, a splendid mansion on rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honore. He slept and ate there only occasionally and was very happy at not having the marital obligations and expense customary with married men. At heart he was so well satisfied at having been deserted by his wife, that he said to his friends, "I was born lucky." For a long time he supported Madame Schontz, and then they lived together maritally. She reared his legitimate son as carefully as though he were her own child. After 1840 she married Du Ronceret, and Arthur de Rochefide was rejoined by his wife. He soon communicated to her a peculiar disease, which Madame Schontz, angered at having been abandoned, had given to him, as well as to Baron Calyste du Guenic. [Beatrix.] In 1838, Rochefide was present at the house-warming given by Josepha in her mansion on rue de la Ville-l'Eveque. [Cousin Betty.]
ROCHEFIDE (Marquise de), wife of the preceding, younger daughter of the Marquis de Casteran; born Beatrix-Maximilienne-Rose de Casteran, about 1808, in the Casteran Castle, department of Orne. After being reared there she became the wife of the Marquis of Rochefide in 1828.
She was fair of skin, but a flighty vain coquette, without heart or brains--a second Madame d'Espard, except for her lack of intelligence.
About 1832 she left her husband to flee into Italy with the musician, Gennaro Conti, whom she took from her friend, Mademoiselle des Touches. Finally she allowed Calyste du Guenic to pay her court. She had met him also at her friend's house, and at first resisted the young man. Afterwards, when he was married, she abandoned herself to him. This liaison filled Madame du Guenic with despair, but was ended after 1840 by the crafty manoeuvres of the Abbe Brossette. Madame de Rochefide then rejoined her husband in the elegant mansion on rue d'Anjou-Saint-Honore, but not until she had retired with him to Nogent-sur-Marne, to care for her health which had been injured during the resumption of marital relations. Before this reconciliation she lived in Paris on rue de Chartres-du-Roule, near Monceau Park. The Marquise de Rochefide had, by her husband, a son, who was for some time under the care of Madame Schontz. [Beatrix. The Secrets of a Princess.] In 1834, in the presence of Madame Felix de Vandenesse, then in love with the poet Nathan, the Marquise Charles de Vandenesse, sister-in-law of Madame Felix, Lady Dudley, Mademoiselle des Touches, the Marquise d'Espard, Madame Moina de Saint Hereen and Madame de Rochefide expressed their ideas on love and marriage. "Love is heaven," said Lady Dudley. "It is hell!" cried Mademoiselle des Touches. "But it is a hell where there is love," replied Madame de Rochefide. "There is often more pleasure in suffering than in happiness; remember the martyrs!" [A Daughter of Eve.] The history of Sarrasine was told her about 1830. The marquise was acquainted with the Lantys, and at their house saw the strange Zambinella.
[Sarrasine.] One afternon, in the year 1836 or 1837, in her house on rue des Chartres, Madame de Rochefide heard the story of the "Prince of Bohemia" told by Nathan. After this narrative she became wild over La Palferine. [A Prince of Bohemia.]
ROCHEGUDE (Marquis de), an old man in 1821, possessing an income of six hundred thousand francs, offered a brougham at this time to Coralie, who was proud of having refused it, being "an artist, and not a prostitute." [A Distinguished Provincial at Paris.] This Rochegude was apparently a Rochefide. The change of names and confusion of families was corrected eventually by law.
RODOLPHE, natural son of an intelligent and charming Parisian and of a Barbancon gentleman who died before he was able to arrange satisfactorily for his sweetheart. Rodolphe was a fictitious character in "L'Ambitieux par Amour," by Albert Savarus in the "Revue de l'Est" in 1834, where, under this assumed name, he recounted his own adventures. [Albert Savarus.]
