e, and fled to
Brussels, now filled with French exiles. He managed to communicate with
his wife, but his sons in their prison-cells could only conjecture as to
his fate. But they heard the roar of cannon and the rattle of musketry
outside the walls, and knew that the prison was overflowing with
victims; and they feared the worst. Madame Hugo soon joined her husband
in Brussels, and he immediately set to work to write "L'Histoire d'un
Crime," and completed it in five months. With the power of a Tacitus he
describes the scenes of the great historical drama he has taken part in,
and with the pen of a Juvenal lashes the betrayers of the Republic. The
book was not published till 1877, but it will tell the story of a
shameful epoch in French history to the remotest time. He was not
allowed to enjoy his refuge in Brussels long; almost as soon as he had
printed his "Napoleon the Little," which book he wrote after completing
the "History of a Crime," he was requested by the Belgian government to
leave the country.

He repaired to the Island of Jersey, where he was joined by his sons
upon their release, and by quite a party of friends. He took a small
house known as Marine Terrace, on the sea-shore, and there set up his
household gods once more. The house was only one story high, but it had
a balcony, a terrace, and a garden; and it overlooked the sea, which
seemed more than all to Victor Hugo. His income was now but seven
thousand francs, and he had nine persons to provide for. No more money
could be expected from France, and probably no more from literature, at
present. But his busy pen kept at its work, trusting to the future; and
the time passed not altogether unpleasantly to the little body of
exiles. Jersey is of itself delightful, and the poet found great
pleasure in its climate, its scenery, and its luxuriant vegetation. But
Napoleon did not at all enjoy the proximity of his great enemy, and soon
took measures to drive him from his retreat. Hearing of the new move
against him, Victor Hugo took occasion to defy Napoleon, and to "warn
him that whether it be from France, from Belgium, from England, or from
America, my voice shall never cease to declare that sooner or later he
will have to expiate the crime of the 2d of December. What is said is
true: there is a _personal quarrel_ between him and me; there is the old
quarrel of the judge upon the bench and the prisoner at the bar." They
were ordered to quit the Island of Jers