The Memoirs of Victor Hugo Part 47

December 25.--Heavy cannonade all night.

An item of news of present-day Paris: A basket of oysters has just reached the city. It sold for 750 francs.

At a bazar in aid of the poor at which Alice and Mme. Meurice acted as vendors, a young turkey fetched 250 francs.

The Seine is freezing over.

December 26.--Louis Blanc called, then M. Floquet. They urge me to summon the Government to do something or resign. Again I refuse.

M. Louis Koch paid 25 francs for a copy of the _Rappel_ at the bazar in aid of the poor. The copy of _Les Chatiments_ was purchased by M.

Cernuschi for 300 francs.

December 27.--Violent cannonade this morning. The firing of this morning was an attack by the Prussians. A good sign. Waiting annoys them. Us, too. They threw nineteen sh.e.l.ls, which killed n.o.body, into the Fort of Montrouge.

Mme. Ugalde dined with us and sang "Patria." I escorted Mme. Ugalde to her home in the Rue de Chabanais, then returned to bed.

The concierge said to me:

"Monsieur, they say that bombs will fall in this neighbourhood to-night."

"That is all right," I replied. "I am expecting one."

December 29.--Heavy firing all night. The Prussians continue their attack.

Theophile Gautier has a horse. This horse was requisitioned. It was wanted for food. Gautier wrote me begging me save the animal. I asked the Minister to grant his request.

I saved the horse.

It is unfortunately true that Dumas is dead. This has been ascertained through the German newspapers. He died on December 5 at the home of his son at Puys, near Dieppe.

I am being urged more strongly than ever, to enter the Government. The Minister of Justice, M. Emmanuel Arago, called and stopped to dinner. We talked. Louis Blanc dropped in after dinner. I persist in my refusal.

Besides Emmanuel Arago and the friends who usually dine with me on Thursdays, Rochefort and Blum came. I invited them to come every Thursday if we have many more Thursdays to live. At desert I drank Rochefort's health.

The cannonade is increasing. The plateau of Avron had to be evacuated.

December 31.--D'Alton-Shee paid a visit to me this morning. It appears that General Ducros wants to see me.

Within three days the Prussians have sent us 12,000 sh.e.l.ls.

Yesterday I ate some rat, and then hiccoughed the following quatrain:

_O mesdames les hetaires Dans vos greniers, je me nourris: Moi qui mourais de vos sourires, Je vais vivre de vos souris_.

After next week there will be no more was.h.i.+ng done in Paris, because there is no more coal.

Lieutenant Farcy, commander of the gunboat, dined with me.

It is bitterly cold. For three days I have worn my cloak and hood whenever I have had to go out.

A doll for little Jeanne. A basketful of toys for Georges.

Sh.e.l.ls have begun to demolish the Fort of Rosny. The first sh.e.l.l has fallen in the city itself. The Prussians to-day fired 6,000 sh.e.l.ls at us.

In the Fort of Rosny a sailor working at the gabions was carrying a sack of earth. A sh.e.l.l knocked it off his shoulder. "Much obliged," commented the sailor, "but I wasn't tired."

Alexandre Dumas died on December 5. On looking over my notebook I see that it was on December 5 that a large hea.r.s.e with an "H" on it pa.s.sed before me in the Rue Frochot.

We have no longer even horse to eat. *Perhaps* it is dog? *Maybe* it is rat? I am beginning to suffer from pains in the stomach. We are eating the unknown!

M. Valois, representing the Societe des Gens de Lettres, came to ask me what was to be done with the 3,000 francs remaining from the proceeds of the three readings of Les Chatiments, the guns having been delivered and paid for. I told him that I wanted the whole amount turned over to Mme.

Jules Simon for the fund for the victims of the war.

January 1, 1871.--Louis Blanc has addressed to me through the newspapers a letter upon the situation.

Stupor and amazement of little Georges and little Jeanne at their basketful of New Year presents. The toys, when unpacked from the basket, covered a large table. The children touched all of them and did not know which to take. Georges was nearly furious with joy. Charles remarked: "It is the despair of joy!"

I am hungry. I am cold. So much the better. I suffer what the people are suffering.

Decidedly horse is not good for me. Yet I ate some. It gives me the gripes. I avenged myself at dessert with the following distich:

_Mon diner m'inquiete et meme me harcele, J'ai mange du cheval et je songe a la selle_.

The Prussians are bombarding Saint Denis.

January 2.--Daumier and Louis Blanc lunched with us.

Louis Koch gave to his aunt as a New Year gift a couple of cabbages and a brace of living partridges!

This morning we lunched on wine soup. The elephant at the Jardin des Plantes has been slaughtered. He wept. He will be eaten..

The Prussians continue to send us 6,000 bombs a day.