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 THE MOTHER OP VICTOR HUGO. 229 to leave the building. Within the walls of the Hotel de Yille the ceremony was performed, and within its walls they began their married life. Pierre Foucher soon followed their example, and he and his wife established themselves beneath the same roof. At the marriage dinner of his friend, Major Hugo, who was in buoyant spirits, cried out gayly, as he filled a glass : " Have a daughter ; I will have a son ; and they shall marry each other. I drink to the health of their house- hold!" This merry wish was fulfilled. Victor Hugo married Adele Foucher, and it was she who preserved the anecdote. Within a year of her wedding, Madame Hugo gave birth to a son who was christened Abel ; a year later she gave Abel a brother, named Eugene. In 1802, while living in the interesting old city of BesanQon, where her husband and his brigade were then stationed, she anxiously awaited the arrival of a third child, which both parents, satisfied with the two boys they already had, earnestly desired might be a girl. Colonel Hugo had already found a suitable godmother for the infant in Madame Delelee, the wife of a young aide-de-camp of his acquaintance. The godfather remained to be selected, and it was at length decided to invite General Lahorie, his old and dear friend, to accept the office. Madame Hugo therefore wrote to him, conveying the request. " Citizen General," the letter runs, " you have always shown so much kindness to Hugo, bestowed so many caresses upon my children, that I have much regretted that you could not have given your name to the last. On the eve of being the mother of a third child, it would be very agreeable to me that you should be the godfather of the one that is coming. ... In case we shall be deprived of the pleasure of having you, the citizen Delete, our common friend, would doubtless have the kindness to