In 1856 she interested herself in a lawsuit raised by M. Charbonnel,
a retired oil-merchant of Plassans, and requested her son Eugene, the
President of the Council of State, to use his influence on behalf of her
friend. Son Excellence Eugene Rougon.
After the disasters of the war, Plassans escaped from her dominion, and
she had to content herself with the role of dethroned queen of the old
regime. Her ruling passion was the defence of the glory of the Rougons,
and the obliteration of everything tending to reflect on the family
name. In this connection she welcomed the death of Adelaide Fouque, the
common ancestress of the Rougons and the Macquarts, and she did nothing
to save her old accomplice Antoine Macquart from the terrible fate which
overtook him. After these events, her only remaining trouble was the
work on family heredity which had for years occupied her son Pascal.
Assisted by his servant Martine, she eventually succeeded in burning the
whole manuscript to which Pascal had devoted his life. Her triumph was
then secure, and in order to raise a monument to the glory of the family
she devoted a large part of her fortune to the erection of an asylum for
the aged, to be known as the Rougon Asylum.
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