FOEDORA (Comtesse), born about 1805. Of Russian lower class origin and wonderfully beautiful. Espoused perhaps morganatically by a great lord of the land. Left a widow she reigned over Paris in 1827. Supposed to have an income of eighty thousand francs. She received in her drawing-rooms all the notables of the period, and there "appeared all the works of fiction that were not published anywhere else." Raphael de Valentin was presented to the countess by Rastignac and fell desperately in love with her. But he left her house one day never to return, being definitely persuaded that she was "a woman without a heart." Her memory was cruel, and her address enough to drive a diplomat to despair. Although the Russian ambassador did not receive her, she had entry into the set of Mme. de Serizy; visited with Mme. de Nucingen and Mme. de Restaud; received the Duchesse de Carigliano, the haughtiest of the Bonapartist clique. She had listened to many young dandies, and to the son of a peer of France, who had offered her their names in exchange for her fortune. [The Magic Skin.]
FONTAINE (Madame), fortune teller, Paris, rue Vielle-du-Temple, time of Louis Philippe. At one time a cook. Born in 1767. Earned a considerable amount of money, but previously had lost heavily in a lottery. After the suppression of this game of chance she saved up for the benefit of a nephew. In her divinations Mme. Fontaine made use of a giant toad named Astaroth, and of a black hen with bristling feathers, called Cleopatra or Bilouche. These two animals caught Gazonal's eye in 1845, when in company with De Lora and Bixiou he visited the fortune-teller's. The Southerner, however, asked only a five-franc divination, while in the same year Mme. Cibot, who came to consult her on an important matter, had to pay a hundred francs.
According to Bixiou, "a third of the lorettes, a fourth of the statesmen and a half of the artists" consulted Mme. Fontaine. She was the Egeria of a minister, and also looked for "a tidy fortune," which Bilouche had promised her. [The Unconscious Humorists. Cousin Pons.]
FONTAINE (Comte de), one of the leaders of the Vendee, in 1799, and then known as Grand-Jacques. [The Chouans.] One of the confidential advisers of Louis XVIII. Field marshal, councillor of state, comptroller of the extraordinary domains of the realm, deputy and peer of France under Charles X.; decorated with the cross of the Legion of Honor and the Order of Saint Louis. Head of one of the oldest houses of Poitou. Had married a Mlle. de Kergarouet, who had no fortune, but who came of a very old Brittany family related to the Rohans. Was the father of three sons and three daughters. The oldest son became president of a court, married the daughter of a multi-millionaire salt merchant. The second son, a lieutenant-general, married Mlle. Monegod, a rich banker's daughter whom the aunt of Duc d'Herouville had refused to consider for her nephew. [Modeste Mignon.] The third son, director of a Paris municipality, then director-general in the Department of Finance, married the only daughter of M. Grossetete, receiver-general at Bourges. Of the three daughters, the first married M. Planat at Baudry, receiver-general; the second married Baron de Villaine, a magistrate of bourgeois origin ennobled by the king; the third, Emilie, married her old uncle, the Comte de Kergarouet, and after his death, Marquis Charles de Vandenesse. [The Ball at Sceaux.] The Comte de Fontaine and his family were present at the Birotteau ball, and after the perfumer's bankruptcy procured a situation for him. [Cesar Birotteau.] He died in 1824. [The Government Clerks.]
FONTAINE (Baronne de), born Anna Grossetete, only daughter of the receiver-general of Bourges. Attended the school of Mlles. Chamarolles with Dinah Piedefer, who became Mme. de la Baudraye. Thanks to her fortune she married the third son of the Comte de Fontaine. She removed to Paris after her marriage and kept up correspondence with her old school-mate who now lived at Sancerre. She kept her informed as to the prevailing styles. Later at the first performance of one of Nathan's dramas, about the middle of the reign of Louis Philippe, Anna de Fontaine affected not to recognize this same Mme. de la Baudraye, then the known mistress of Etienne Lousteau. [The Muse of the Department.]
FONTANIEU (Madame), friend and neighbor of Mme. Vernier at Vouvray in 1831. The jolliest gossip and greatest joker in town. She was present at the interview between the insane Margaritis and Felix Gaudissart, when the drummer was so much at sea. [Gaudissart the Great.]
FONTANON (Abbe), born about 1770. Canon of Bayeux cathedral in the beginning of the nineteenth century when he "guided the consciences" of Mme. and Mlle. Bontems. In November, 1808, he got himself enrolled with the Parisian clergy, hoping thus to obtain a curacy and eventually a bishopric. He became again the confessor of Mlle.
Bontems, now the wife of M. de Granville, and contributed to the trouble of that household by the narrowness of his provincial Catholicism and his inflexible bigotry. He finally disclosed to the magistrate's wife the relations of Granville with Caroline Crochard.
He also brought sorrow to the last moments of Mme. Crochard, the mother. [A Second Home.] In December, 1824, at Saint-Roch he pronounced the funeral oration of Baron Flamet de la Billardiere. [The Government Clerks.] Previous to 1824 Abbe Fontanon was vicar at the church of Saint Paul, rue Saint-Antoine. [Honorine.] Confessor of Mme. de Lanty in 1839, and always eager to pry into family secrets, he undertook an affair with Dorlange-Sallenauve in the interest of Mariannina de Lanty. [The Member for Arcis.]
