The Memoirs of Victor Hugo, Victor Hugo [nice books to read txt] 📗

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November 25.—Mlle. Lia Felix came to rehearse Sacer Esto, which she will recite to the people on Monday.

M. Tony R�villon, who is to make a speech, came to see me with the Gens de Lettres committee.

A deputation of Americans from the United States came to express their indignation with the Government of the American Republic and with President Grant for abandoning France—“To which the American Republic owes so much!” said I. “Owes everything,” declared one of the Americans present.

A good deal of cannonading has been heard for several days. To-day it redoubled.

Mme. Meurice wants some fowls and rabbits in order to provide against the coming famine. She is having a hutch made for them in my little garden. The carpenter who is constructing it entered my chamber a little while ago and said: “I would like to touch your hand.” I pressed both his hands in mine.

 

November 27.—The Academy has given a sign of life. I have received official notice that in future it will hold an extraordinary session every Tuesday.

P�t�s of rat are being made. They are said to be very good.

An onion costs a sou. A potato costs a sou.

They have given up asking my authorisation to recite my works which are being recited everywhere without my permission. They are right. What I write is not my own. I am a public thing.

 

November 28.—Noel Parfait came to ask my help for Ch�teaudun. Certainly; with all my heart!

Les Ch�timents was recited gratis at the Opera. An immense crowd. A gilt wreath was thrown on the stage. I gave it to Georges and Jeanne. The collection made in Prussian helmets by the actresses produced 1,521 francs 35 centimes in coppers.

Emile Allix brought us a leg of antelope from the Jardin des Plantes. It is excellent.

Tonight the sortie is to be made.

 

November 29.—All night long I heard the cannon.

The fowls were installed in my garden to-day.

The sortie is being delayed. The bridge thrown across the Marne by Ducros has been carried away, the Prussians having blown open the locks.

 

November 30.—All night long the cannon thundered. The battle continues.

At midnight last night as I was returning home through the Rue de Richelieu from the Pavilion de Rohan, I saw just beyond the National Library, the street being deserted and dark at the time, a window open on the sixth floor of a very high house and a very bright light, which appeared to be that of a petroleum lamp, appear and disappear several times; then the window closed and the street became dark again. Was it a signal?

The cannon can be heard at three points round Paris, to the east, west and south. This is because a triple attack is being made on the ring the Prussians have drawn round us. The attack is being made at Saint Denis by Laronci�re, at Courbevoie by Vinoy, and on the Marne by Ducros. Laronci�re is said to have swept the peninsula of Gennevilliers and compelled a Saxon regiment to lay down its arms, and Vinoy is said to have destroyed the Prussian works beyond Bougival. As to Ducros, he has crossed the Marne, taken and retaken Mont�dy, and almost holds Villiers-sur-Marne. What one experiences on hearing the cannon is a great desire to be there.

This evening Pelletan sent his son, Camille Pelletan, to inform me on behalf of the Government that tomorrow’s operations will be decisive.

 

December 1.—It appears that Louise Michel has been arrested. I will do all that is necessary to have her released immediately. Mme. Meurice is occupying herself about it. She went out this morning for that purpose.

D’Alton-Sh�e came to see me.

We ate bear for dinner.

I have written to the Prefect of Police to have Louise Michel released.

There was no fighting to-day. The positions taken were fortified.

 

December 2.—Louise Michel has been released. She came to thank me.

Last evening M. Coquelin called to recite several pieces from Les Ch�timents.

It is freezing. The basin of the Pigalle fountain is frozen over.

The cannonade recommenced at daybreak.

11.30 A.M.—The cannonade increases.

Flourens wrote to me yesterday and Rochefort to-day. They are coming round to me again.

Dorian, Minister of Public Works, and Pelletan came to dine with me.

Excellent news tonight! The Army of the Loire is at Montargis. The Army of Paris has driven back the Prussians from the Avron plateau. The despatches announcing these successes are read aloud at the doors of the mairies.

Victory! The Second of December has been wiped out!

 

December 3.—General Renault, who was wounded in the foot by a splinter from a shell, is dead.

I told Schoelcher that I want to go out with my sons if the batteries of the National Guard to which they belong are sent to the front. The batteries drew lots. Four are to go. One of them is the 10th Battery, of which Victor is a member. I will go out with that battery. Charles does not belong to it, which is a good job; he will stay behind, he has two children. I will order him to stay. Vacquerie and Meurice are members of the 10th Battery. We shall be together in the combat. I will have a cape with a hood made for me. What I fear is the cold at night.

I made some shadows on the wall for Georges and Jeanne. Jeanne laughed delightedly at the shadow and the grimaces of the profile; but when she saw that the shadow was me she cried and screamed. She seemed to say: “I don’t want you to be a phantom!” Poor, sweet angel! Perhaps she has a presentiment of the coming battle.

Yesterday we ate some stag; the day before we partook of bear; and the two days previous we fared on antelope. These were presents from the Jardin des Plantes.

Tonight at 11 o’clock, cannonading. Violent and brief.

 

December 4.—A notice has been posted on my door indicating the precautions to be taken “in case of bombardment.” That is the title of the notice.

There is a pause in the combat. Our army has recrossed the Marne.

Little Jeanne crawls very well on her bands and knees and says “papa” very prettily.

 

December 5.—I have just seen a magnificent hearse, draped with black velvet, embroidered with an “H” surrounded by silver stars, go by to fetch its burden. A Roman would not disdain to be borne in it.

Gautier came to dine with me. After dinner Banville and Copp�e called.

Bad news. Orleans has been captured from us again. No matter. Let us persist.

 

December 7.—I had Gautier, Banville and Fran�ois Copp�e to dinner. After dinner Asselineau came. I read Flor�al and L’Egout de Rome to them.

 

December 8.—The “Patrie en Danger” has ceased to appear. In the absence of readers, says Blanqui.

M. Maurice Lach�tre, publisher, came to make me an offer for my next book. He has sent me his Dictionary and The History of the Revolution by Louis Blanc. I shall present to him Napoleon the Little and Les Ch�timents.

 

December 9.—I woke up in the night and wrote some verses. At the same time I heard the cannon.

M. Bondes came to see me. The correspondent of the “Times,” who is at Versailles, has written him that the guns for the bombardment of Paris have arrived. They are Krupp guns. They are awaiting their carriages. They have been arranged in the Prussian arsenal at Versailles side by side “like bottles in a cellar,” according to this Englishman.

I copy the following from a newspaper:

 

M. Victor Hugo had manifested the intention to leave Paris unarmed, with the artillery battery of the National Guard to which his two sons belong.

The 144th Battalion of the National Guard went in a body to the poet’s residence in the Avenue Frochot. Two delegates waited upon him.

These honourable citizens went to forbid Victor Hugo to carry out his plan, which he had announced some time ago in his “Address to the Germans.”

“Everybody can fight,” the deputation told him. “But everybody cannot write Les Chatiments. Stay at home, therefore, and take care of a life that is so precious to France.

 

I do not remember the number of the battalion. It was not the 144th. Here are the terms of the address which was read to me by the major of the battalion:

The National Guard of Paris forbids Victor Hugo to go to the front, inasmuch as everybody can go to the front, whereas Victor Hugo alone can do what Victor Hugo does.

“Forbids” is touching and charming.

 

December 11.—Rostan came to see me. He has his arm in a sling. He was wounded at Cr�teil. It was at night. A German soldier rushed at him and pierced his arm with a bayonet. Rostan retaliated with a bayonet thrust in the German’s shoulder. Both fell and rolled into a ditch. Then they became good friends. Rostan speaks a little broken German.

“Who are you?”

“I am a Wurtembergian. I am twenty-two years old. My father is a clockmaker of Leipsic.”

They remained in the ditch for three hours, bleeding, numb with cold, helping each other. Rostan, wounded, brought the man who wounded him back as a prisoner. He goes to see him at the hospital. These two men adore each other. They wanted to kill each other, and now they would die for each other.

Eliminate kings from the dispute!

Visit from M. Rey. The Ledru-Rollin group is completely disorganized. No more parties; the Republic. It is well.

I presented some Dutch cheese to Mme. Paul Meurice. Sleet is falling.

 

December 12.—I arrived in Brussels nineteen years ago to-day.

 

December 13.—Since yesterday Paris has been lighted with petroleum.

Heavy cannonade tonight.

 

December 14.—Thaw. Cannonade.

Tonight we glanced over Goya’s Disasters of War (brought by Burty, the art critic). It is fine and hideous.

 

December 15.—Emmanuel Arago, Minister of Justice, came to see me and informed me that there would be fresh meat until February 15, but that in future only brown bread would be made in Paris. There will be enough of this to last for five months.

Allix brought me a medal struck to commemorate my return to France. It bears on one side a winged genius and the words: “Liberty, Equality and Fraternity,” and on the other side, round the rim: “Appeal to Universal Democracy,” and in the centre: “To Victor Hugo, From His Grateful Fatherland.’ September, 1870.”

This medal is sold in the streets and costs 5 centimes. There is a little ring in it by which it can be suspended to a chain.

 

December 16.—Pelleport* came tonight. I requested him to visit Flourens, in Mazas Prison, on my behalf, and to take him a copy of Napoleon the Little.

* One of the editors of the “Rappel.”

 

December 17.—The “Electeur Libre” calls upon Louis Blanc and me to enter the Government, and affirms that it is our duty to do so. My duty is dictated to me by my conscience.

I saw the gunboat “Estoc” pass under the Pont des Arts, going up Seine. She is a fine vessel and her big gun has a terribly grand appearance.

 

December 18.—I worked a magic lantern for little Georges and little Jeanne.

My royalty for Mme. Favart’s recitation of Stella at a performance given by the 14th Battalion amounted to 130 francs. My agent took my royalty in spite of my instructions. I have ordered him to turn the money over to the sick fund of the battalion.

M. Hetzel writes: “The closing of the printing office is imminent, as I can get no more coal to keep the presses