Part 1 (2/2)

But great and dire events were i of the year 1812 the position of French affairs generally becao decided to send his wife and the two younger children back to Paris Not many months elapsed before his prescience was justified Bonaparte's army was deci of Moscow, and the kings he had set up in the European capitals began to treo and her two sons safely reached Paris after a tedious journey, and once raphical ritten by the poet's wife shows that Madao had liberal ideas on the subject of education: that where religion was in question she was averse to forcing any particular persuasion on her sons, or to interfere with their natural tendencies; neither did she wish to tax their intelligence anyshe was equally liberal: the boys were allowed the greatest freedom, and read Rousseau, Voltaire, Diderot, and other authors; but the works of such writers paled in coreat fascination for the young students

Madaed that any errors her sons were likely to i would be rendered innocuous by the influence of a good example and the purity of the home life She restrained the to their lect the physical She desired therow up healthy and complete in mind and body alike

The troubles in Spain thickened apace, and King Joseph left Madrid, being followed by General Hugo The victory of the Allies at Vittoria practically settled the fate of Joseph Bonaparte and the Spanish crown

The King dismissed his retinue of officers and retired into private life, and General Hugo returned to Paris with his son Abel Madao and the other children hadherself been an invader, it was now the turn of France to be invaded

General Hugo was no favourite with the Eotten the Moreau conspiracy), but when his country was in danger he could not remain inactive So he volunteered, and went into the provinces, where he rendered conspicuous service He long held Thionville, keeping the Allies at bay, and refused to open the town until he received official despatches fro the cessation of hostilities The restoration of the Bourbons followed, and, although this was hailed with great joy by Mada deprived of his coether with all the officers who had shared in the defence of Thionville

Eugene and Victor Hugo now lost the liberty they had for so placed in the College Cordier et Decotte, in the Rue Ste Marguerite At first the removal was especially bitter to Victor, as it separated hiirl who had corow from its inception in the Rue du Cherche-Midi till the tio's affection with an ardour equal to his own

The Hugo boys were naturally the subject of a cross-fire in regard to politics Their father was devoted to the Empire, and their mother was equally devoted to the Royalists But as the influence of a o was for a season enthusiastic about royalty He could not, with his warination, be half-hearted about anything Nor need it surprise us that he yielded first to the influence of his arded the Bourbons, and then to that of his father as regarded the Bonapartes In youth it is the ies It would have surprised us o had not shown hi

His father and reat latent force of nature and character, which deeply i the career of Victor Hugo, then, with its later changes of opinion, the circureatly assisted in otten

Early in 1815 Paris was electrified by the news that Napoleon had returned froic of his name once more exercised a profound influence; and under this revival of Bonapartist prospects General Hugo was again despatched to take the command of Thionville He exhibited the same capacity and spirit as before, but all was of no avail The crowning disaster of Waterloo extinguished the hopes of the Bonapartists, and Napoleon fell, 'like Lucifer, never to rise again'

It is ret that the differences between General and Madao on the subject of politics and dynasties led to a separation between thely on these subjects to give way, and thereby stultify his or her convictions But political disagreements did not affect the deep interest of both parents in their children The boys ress at school, and also attended courses of lectures in physics, philosophy, and e Louis-le-Grand Their proficiency was especially marked in mathematics, and it obtained for both honourable mention in the examinations

Poetry, however, even thus early, was the real o

His tentative efforts in this direction were as varied as they were nus of the Muse He alternated fights at the college (he and Eugene were the kings of the school) with flights of the i caedy, elegy, etc; and he iil, Horace, and Lucan at an age when others only just begin to acquire an appreciation and understanding of those authors Nor were such writers as Martial and Ausonius unknown to him Then froramas, and impromptus; and he even wrote a comic opera

In one of these youthful pieces he deprecated the exercise of the reader's satirical rage over the effusion; and certainly the chief impression which these initial attempts at composition leave upon the reader is not a critical one founded upon their ht, but one of surprise at the exuberance of fancy and coularly displayed

There was more than sufficient in theenius which their author afterwards developed Each of these poe But of all those who perused these early poetic efforts, Madareat promise of the writer She could not but anticipateto unfold itself in the sun Yet even she could not fully foresee the s were but the first faint flutterings of the eaglet's wing

CHAPTER II

DAWNINGS OF GENIUS

Victor Hugo was not quite thirteen when he wrote his first poetical essay, which had for its subject _Roland and Chivalry_ This was followed in the same year, 1815, by an intensely Royalist poeainst the Emperor, after the disaster of Waterloo The poet had been thrown constantly into the s; not only his mother, but General Lahorie and M Foucher, her most intimate friends, were enemies of the Empire, and the youth consequently imbibed at the same time hatred of the Eedy, _Irtah professedly dealing with Egyptian the There is a usurper in it, who n chastiseitis,' said the writer, to whom at that time the restoration of the Bourbons s must not be e when the fact of writing poetry was more to him than the subject-matter of his exercises He read voluh, and to discriminate

A course of the _Theatre de Voltaire_ led hiedy, _Atheli; or, the Scandinavians_, all in draard to narrative, scenery, etc Before he had completed it, however, he turned to a comic opera, _A Quelque Chose Hasard est Bon_ Then he reverted to the drama, and wrote a play in three acts, with two interludes, entitled _Inez de Castro_ From the point of view of literary art, little is to be said of these things; but there are es in the In the year 1817 he first sought publicity for his co for the poetical prize annually offered by the French Acadees of Study in every situation of Life_, and ane, Saintine, and Loyson, who all on this occasion made their poetical debut The first prize was divided between Saintine and Lebrun, and Hugo received honourable mention; but when the poems came to be declaimed in public, the wares were considerably puzzled by Master Hugo's exercise In one place he wrote as though he had arrived at years of discretion and comparative maturity, and then demolished this idea by the lines--

'I, who have ever fled from courts and cities, Scarce three short lustres have accoes ca with thely threw doubt upon his statement that he was only fifteen years old The production of his birth certificate set this question at rest, and Victor's name now became prominent in the newspapers M Raynouard, the cultured Secretary of the Acadenors'

had not been deceived, expressed the great pleasure he had in uished o was described as 'the sublime child,' either by Chateaubriand or Sou first inthat anyone ht naturally have used the words, they expressed so decided a truth Hugo was taken by a friend to see the author of _Atala_, and the ienius found utterance in the excla'

In 1818 Victor's brother Eugene arded a prize at the floral gaer brother's a year he secured two prizes from the same Acadeins of Verdun_ The forolden amaranth It seems that just as the writer was about to set to work on the first-nao was seized with inflammation of the chest She lamented that her son would be unable to complete his poeht, and it was despatched nextin time to compete for the prize The President of the Toulouse Acade to exhibit such remarkable talents in literature