Source note

GRANDET (Victor-Ange-Guillaume), younger brother of Felix Grandet; became rich at Paris in wine-dealing. In 1815 before the battle of Waterloo, Frederic de Nucingen bought of him one hundred and fifty thousand bottles of champagne at thirty sous, and sold them at six francs; the allies drank them during the invasion—1817-19. [The Firm of Nucingen.] The beginning of the Restoration favored Guillaume. He was the husband of a charming woman, the natural daughter of a great lord, who died young after giving him a child. Was colonel of the National Guard, judge of the Court of Commerce, governor of one of the arrondissements of Paris and deputy. Saumur accused him of aspiring still higher and wishing to become the father-in-law of a petty duchess of the imperial court. The bankruptcy of Maitre Roguin was the partial cause of the ruin of Guillaume, who blew out his brains to avoid disgrace, in November, 1819. In his last requests, Guillaume implored his elder brother to care for Charles whom the suicide had rendered doubly an orphan. [Eugenie Grandet.]