Page:Victor Hugo - The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (tr. Shoberl, 1833).djvu/16

viii mother and brothers to Spain, where his father, meanwhile promoted to the rank of general, commanded two provinces. He resided with them in the Macerano palace at Madrid, and was destined to he page to King Joseph. In the following year, when his patron was expelled from the Peninsula, his mother returned with him and his brother Eugene to Paris. His residence in Italy and Spain, the royalist sentiments and religious spirit of his mother, and the enthusiasm of his father for Napoleon, have given a tinge to his after-life and to every page of his works.

At the age of thirteen, young Hugo made his first poetical essay in honour of Roland and chivalry. Soon afterwards, by superior command, he was obliged to leave his mother, who had quarrelled with her husband, probably owing to the difference of their political opinions, and was sent by his father to an establishment belonging to the Gymnasium of Louis le Grand. Here, vexed at his separation from his mother, he wrote a royalist tragedy, in honour of Louis XVIII. with Egyptian names, under the title of Irtamène. From the academy of Cordien and Decote he sent a poem Sur les Avantages de l'Etude to the French Academy, on which occasion he had for competitors Lebrun, Delavigne, Saintine, and Loyson, who all made their poetical début at this time. The prize was not adjudged to Victor Hugo's performance, but it obtained honourable mention. The youthful poet concluded with this reference to himself:—

The Academicians would not believe that the author was only fifteen, and felt offended at what they considered an attempt to impose upon them; and when Hugo laid the certificate of his baptism before Raynouard, the reporter, the prize was already adjudged.

In the following year, Victor's brother Eugene gained a prize at the Jeux floraux of Toulouse. Victor's jealousy was excited; and in 1819 he obtained two prizes from the same Academy, for poems on the Statue of Henry IV. and