Source note

CASTANIER (Rodolphe), retired chief of squadron in the dragoons, under the Empire. Cashier of Baron de Nucingen during the Restoration. Wore the decoration of the Legion of Honor. He maintained Mme. de la Garde—Aquilina—and on her account, in 1821, he counterfeited the banker's name on a letter of credit for a considerable amount. John Melmoth, an Englishman, got him out of this scrape by exchanging his own individuality for that of the old officer. Castanier was thus all-powerful, but becoming promptly at outs with the proceeding, he adopted the same tactics of exchange, transferring his power to a financier named Claparon. Castanier was a Southerner. He had seen service from sixteen till nearly forty. [Melmoth Reconciled.]