Michel Mauvais was a thirteenth-century French alchemist and black magician in the story "The Alchemist" by H. P. Lovecraft. Michel and his son Charles le Sorcier lived in a cottage on the estates of the Comte Henri de C--. When Henri's young son Godfrey went missing, Michel was blamed due to his evil reputation and was murdered by the wrathful Henri based on nothing more than suspicion.
Michel had been killed unjustly, for Godfrey was later found by family servants, alive and wandering in an unused part of the castle. In revenge for the slaying of his father, Charles le Sorcier cursed Henri's entire family line and killed him with lethal poison thrown in his face before escaping into the forest.