ack of indigestion on the night of 3rd September, 1870, a few
hours after hearing of the catastrophe of Sedan. The downfall of the
regime which he prided himself on having helped to establish seemed to
have crushed him like a thunderbolt. Le Docteur Pascal.

ROUGON (MADAME FELICITE), wife of the preceding, and daughter of Puech,
the oil-dealer. She was married in 1810, and had three sons and two
daughters. A woman of strong ambitions, she hoped to better her social
position by the aid of her sons, on whose education she spent large
sums. Disappointed in this hope for many years, she and her husband
retired from business with barely sufficient means to keep themselves
in comfort. She, instigated by the Marquis de Carnavant (her putative
father), urged her husband to take part in politics, and meetings of
the reactionary party were regularly held in her "yellow drawing-room."
While the success of the _Coup d'Etat_ was in some doubt, she encouraged
her husband in maintaining the position he had taken up; and, having
ascertained that the success of the Bonapartists was assured she
arranged with Antoine Macquart for the attack on the town hall, the
repulse of which led to the rise of the family fortunes. La Fortune des
Rougon.

After her husband's appointment as Receiver of Taxes, she continued
her weekly receptions, but endeavoured to give them a non-political
character by inviting representatives of all parties. Her son Eugene,
now a Minister of State, kept her advised as to the course she should
pursue, and on his instructions she gave some assistance to Abbe Faujas
in his political "conquest of Plassans." La Conquete de Plassans.

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 remainin