Maître Cornélius (English "Master Cornelius") is a short story by Honoré de Balzac.

He is an elderly miser who lives with his sister in a big house and is originally from Ghent.

He is given a room in Cornelius' home, and during the night escapes next door for a rendezvous with Marie.

When Marie learns of the arrest of her lover, she immediately arranges to see her father, the King.

The King's doctor, then tells them that the explanation is that Cornelius is a sleep walker, and almost certainly has been robbing and hiding his own valuables.

Balzac was motivated to write this story to give a more favourable portrayal of Louis XI than that given by Walter Scott in Quentin Durward.

He wrote "In spite of the singular fancy which possessed the author of “Quentin Durward” to place the royal castle of Plessis-lez-Tours upon a height, we must content ourselves by leaving it where it really was, namely on low land, protected on either side by the Cher and the Loire..."[3] The story was adapted into the opéra comique, Le shérif (The Sheriff) composed by Fromental Halévy to a libretto by Eugène Scribe.