232 THE MOTHER OF VICTOR HUGO. than to play in it the livelong day games of war, explor- ing expeditions, and exciting searches for mythical beasts. Lessons, however, had to be learned, and the garden paradise could only be enjoyed in leisure hours. Victor's instructor was a benevolent old priest who after the Revolution had married, and who with his wife kept a little school. In the beautiful poem entitled Ce Qui Se Passait aux Feuillantines Vers 1813, Victor Hugo describes this happy period. Even when rendered into English prose the lovely verses do not lose all their charm. "In my fair childhood — alas! too brief — I had three masters — a garden, an old priest, and my mother. The garden was large, deep, mysterious, shut in by high walls from curious glances, filled with flowers opening like eyes, and with bright insects that ran along the stones; full of hummings and confused voices; in the centre, almost a field ; at the far end, almost a wood. The priest, nurtured upon Tacitus and Homer, was a gentle old man. My mother — was my mother." Soon to this mysterious garden, one more element of mystery was added. One day, in 1809, Victor and Eug&ne were summoned into the parlor, where they found in company with their mother a tall, black haired man with a kindly face. He was a relative, Madame Hugo told them. He dined with them that day and returned the next, to the joy of the children, with whom he had at once made friends. He soon became a member of the family, and was especially attached to Victor, although he was fond of all the boys and would join in their games, tell them stories, and help them with their lessons. But they thought it strange that instead of sleeping in the house he passed his nights in a corner of the convent at the foot of the garden, long used as a tool house, and also that he never passed the limits of the
