The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-11-08

G~ossipping Parisians Arc Taking
Over n Hugo Tale.

Nettie Hooper's Letteratodll
We of the new generation, who only saw
Victor Hug in the decline of his years,
when he had long been a widower, have an
other question We as eagerly discuss as the
Lebaudy matter. That Victor Hugo was a
law unto himself we knew; that having
married for love, and written divine STAN
zas to his bride-Date Lila his love died
out, and that Nine. Hugo. in the latter
years of her life, was a nonentity in her
husbands household, which was publicly
presided over nv another woman. the same
Nine. Drouet who lived with him till her
death, which preceded tho poets by about
two years. we also knew. but the cause OF
the present rather misty In our minds. but
To- there arises a man to enlignten us, as
NJ. Lemaitre has written a panapnlet aoout
erary man named Sainte Beuve. He was
Victor Hugo's dear and intimate friend. and,
as he had constant access TO the house, fell
madly in love with his friends handsome
wife. Nine. Hugo, who still adored her
great husband and was just finishing that
most interesting panesyric or him, entitled
Victor Hugo Related. bv a Witness of His
Life" rather snubbed -Sainte Beuve, who
was most colossally vain and nevertheless
very unattractive, being ancommonly ugly.
Anglo-Saxons. Sainte Beuve, furious at his
~repulse, proited by his intimacy with the
poet to go to his desk and purloin certain
.Juiiette Drouet and laid these documents
before the unsuspecting wife. who. mad
with jealous fury, flung herself straight at
had evidently counted. Time passed on.
and Victor Hugo. in his Olympian blindness.
was the only individual in his CIRCLE who
knew nothing of his wife's alleged love af-
fair. for Sainte Beuve trumpeted his
conquest far and wide. he wrote
quantities of poems TO Nine;
and he admired also. Cor suddenly, in spite
of warnings and remonstrances from his
friends, who implored him not 10 ruin the
these poems and published them for private
circulation. There was mo possibility of
mistake as regarded the personages meant.
Hugo. rudely awakened from his false Sc
curity, uuarreled furiously with Sainte
Beuye. who, too late repentant. tried to buy
M and destroy the fatal pamphlet. Madame
Hugo was tolerated in her husbands house
because of the children, and submitted ST.
lentlv TO the neglect of her husband. Her
daughter Catherine was, drowned or her
honeymoon tour; her daughter and name
sake Adele was taken TO a madhouse where
she still languishes; and the wretched
mother suddenly dropped out of life, I'M
mourned and not regretted. Nj. Lemaitre,
who has been scraping together the docu-
mentary evidence of this long-buried scan
dal. inclines TO the opinion of Nine. Hugo's
entire innocence. and considers the terribly
precise details of the poems as the fabric
of Sainte Reuve's imagination; but that Is
"A painful view of the case, for 1t would sup
pose the man a fiend incarnate and the
woman a most pitiable martyr: for those
who knew her said that she loved Hugo
till her dying day. in spite of his neglect
and public installation of Nine. Douet
unGer her roof. However, al this is long
ago. The actors are dead. and it is only the
halo of romance that we Parislans throw
about the greatest French poet of the CEN
tury that arrests our attention and induces
us TO study the piteous story Of a woman's
sufferings caused by a coxcomb's inordinate
vanity. If Madame Hugo were guilty. cer-
tainly her expiation was long enough ana
terrible enough TO satisfy the most rigorous
moraIist: whereas. IL she were innocent.
the tragedy OF her ruined life. and of her
husbands hardening. in consequence. into
the cruel egotism that characterized his
I last years, would be one OF those things
which woald be considered grossly improba-
BILE IN fiction