Page:The life and writings of Alexandre Dumas (1802-1870) (IA lifewritingsofal00spurrich).pdf/38

 former career, under the new monarchy of Louis XVIII., were frankly pointed out to him.

Other indications of the nature of "the child," who was to be "father of the man," were not wanting. A certain M. Oblet, one of those who strove vainly to teach the volatile Alexandre mathematics, gave his pupil an accomplishment invaluable to him throughout his life—a beautiful writing-hand.

The first indication of the boy's future career, the first promptings towards it, were afforded by the visit to Villers-Cotterets of the son of a neighbour, a youth named Auguste Lafarge, who was a clerk in Paris. This city-mouse stirred the deep but slumbering ambitions of his poor "country cousin," and when, on his departure, the young visitor left behind him an epigram, levelled against a cruel inamorata of the neighbourhood, Dumas was fired with a desire to write French verse also. However, his tutor gave him some "bout-rimés" to complete, which, for the moment, effectually quenched the student's ardour.

Then came the thrilling drama of the "Hundred Days." Dumas had the good fortune to see the Emperor pass through the little town of Villers-Cotterets on his way to Waterloo, and on his return from that fatal field, and his description of the two episodes is most vivid. His passionate admiration for will-power and genius made him then, as he