Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/33

 of the shadow that had fallen on the household. "My father," he wrote in after years, "grew very weak, went out less often, more rarely mounted his horse, kept his room for longer periods, took me more sadly on his knees."

Then the broken-hearted General, refused all redress by his old colleague the Emperor, died, suffering, and in poverty, and greatly troubling for those he left behind. The widow, in spite of her prayers and tears, in spite of her husband's brilliant services to France, in spite of the intercession of soldiers as brilliant—Dumas's own friends and colleagues—failed to obtain a pension from the Emperor. Not a sou would Napoleon grant, to keep from starvation the widow of the man who had once dared to foresee and condemn the ambitious Emperor, in the "patriot," General Bonaparte.

And now there began for both widow and son a life of cruel poverty, a time of humiliation sweetened only by the affection of the mother for the son, and the son for the mother.

The widow went back to her father's house with her children, and Alexandre began his life-education. Of these early days he has gossipped very pleasantly, telling us of the three houses which he visited, that of Madame Darcourt, where he rejoiced his heart with an illustrated copy of "Buffon," and of M. Collard, who owned two treasures, a big