236 THE MOTHER OF VICTOR HUGO. house which was to receive herself and her family, usually a large, massive stone building resembling a prison. Some one of her suite would knock at the door. No answer. Another knock — still silence. After twenty strokes of the heavy knocker, a blind would open above, and a servant's head be thrust out. Madame Hugo would explain her presence and ask admittance. The servant, listening with set lips and sullen eyes, would make no reply ; only when madame had finished speaking she would disappear, and presently return to open the door, still silent, and lead the way to rooms furnished only with the strictest necessaries, no conveniences or ornaments being left to please the hated guests. The servant would then leave, not to be seen again. The owners of the house, secluded in some distant wing, would not be visible at all ; nor until the Frenchwoman and her children departed, permit sight or sound to betray the presence of any living being other than themselves within the walls. At one house it was even worse. The family had departed, leaving their possessions at the mercy of the new-comers ; but before going they had found a way to convey the opinion that the unwelcome occupants were robbers. One great empty hall lighted by a blazing pine torch was left at their disposal ; upon every other door of the house, seals had been placed. Upon arriving at Madrid the children were at first much pleased with the novelty of all around them, and with the splendor of the palace in which they lived. But soon their parents decided that their education must not be neglected in Spain, any more than in France ; and so Eugene and Victor were sent to a Spanish boarding- school, while Abel was received as a page at court. The school to which the younger boys went was dreary and forbidding in the extreme. The teachers were two
