lled an album with
caricatures to amuse his wife and children, and draw their attention
from the dreadful ravages of the epidemic.

In 1841 Victor Hugo was elected a member of the Academy. Two years later
he was raised to the dignity of peer of the realm. The duke of Orleans
congratulated him upon the event.

A short time previous to this, Barbes was condemned to death. An
application for a reprieve had been made to the king without being
granted. A sister of Barbes came to Hugo, and besought him to use his
influence with the king. Marie Wirtemburg had just died and the count de
Paris was but a few weeks old. Hugo addressed a few touching lines of
poetry to the king, and with allusions to the dead and the newly born,
besought a pardon. It was instantly granted.

The history of Hugo from this time forward the whole world knows. He was
an honest and hearty reformer. He was not content with glory as a man of
letters--he wished to be of service to his suffering fellow-men. He was
to a certain extent a communist, and a thorough republican. He hated the
man Louis Napoleon, and was exiled. Belgium would not hold him, nor
London--the latter was too full of smoke and fog to be endured. He said,
after trying London, "The good Lord will not take the sunshine, too,
from us."

He lives now in the island of Jersey, in a simple English mansion, but
very comfortable. Behind it there is a beautiful garden terminated by a
terrace, upon which the sea lashes its foam when the wind is high. From
the window the sad exile beholds the distant shores of his native
France.

In his retreat he has occupied himself with literary labors. He has been
writing a volume of poetry to appear in the epic form. He has also been
busy upon a volume of philosophy, a drama of five acts in which Mazarin
is to figure as the principal character, two volumes of lyrical poetry,
and a romance upon a modern subject, for which he has been offered one
hundred and twenty thousand francs.

Madame Hugo and the children partake of exile with Victor Hugo, together
with ten grandchildren. Charles Hugo, his son, who is with him, is
distinguished as an author, but busies himself principally on the island
in taking daguerreotype views. He has already made a hundred different
pictures of his illustrious father, and sent them to his admirers in
France.

Victor Hugo is a little over fifty years of age, and is full of life and
animation. Let us hope that by political change