Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/241

 THE MOTHER OF VICTOR HUGO. 233 garden in his walks, nor saw any of the visitors who came to the house. Moreover, they did not even know hi3 name : he was called simply General. He was, in fact, General Lahorie, Victor's godfather, who after the affair of General Morean, in which he had taken part, had been condemned to death by Bonaparte. He had been driven from place to place, hiding first with one friend and then with another, until Madame Hugo, always faithful to her friends, and a hater of Napoleon besides, offered him a refuge. He remained with her in safety for a year and a half. He was then arrested and thrown into prison. A year later, after their return from Spain, Madame Hugo was walking along the street with Victor, when she observed a large white placard pasted against the column of a church. Grasping his hand more firmly, she pointed to it and said simply : " Read " He read this : "French Empire. — By sentence of the First Council of War, for the crime of conspiracy against the Empire and the Emperor, the three ex-Generals, Malet, Guidal, and Lahorie, have been shot upon the plain of Grenelle." It was thus that Victor Hugo first learned his god- father's name. We now arrive at the famous journey of Madame Hugo and her boys to Spain, so fruitful of results to the future poet and dramatist. It was a far greater event to them all than the journey to Italy had been, and it was even a greater trial to the home-loving mother. General Hugo, now Count Hugo, and Governor of two provinces, had sent for them to join him at Madrid, and in 1811, shortly after the arrest of Lahorie, they set out from Paris. It took nine days to cross France and reach Bayonne. At this city, where they remained several days, Madame Hugo purchased an immense old-fashioned carriage, the