Victor Hugo

Les femmes regardaient Booz plus qu'un jeune homme.

Car le jeune homme est beau, mais le vieillard est grand.

Le vieillard, qui revient vers la source première,

Entre aux jours éternels et sort des jours changeants;

Et l'on voit de la flamme aux yeux des jeunes gens,

Mais dans l'oeil du vieillard on voit de la lumière.

'Voilà longtemps que celle avec qui j'ai dormi,

O Seigneur! a quitté ma couche pour la vôtre;

Et nous sommes encor tout mêlés l'un à l'autre,

Elle à demi vivante et moi mort à demi.

The ruin of the French society of the olden days, the fall of his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, even more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance, with the magnifying powers of terror

To dare; that is the price of progress.

Would you abandon them for that? Would you turn their distress into a malediction?

with the laugh of his age on his lips, he had not had a heart absolutely sombre and empty.

Still, he had a father and a mother. But his father did not think of him, and his mother did not love him.

ellation pleased him.

appellation pleased him

True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their destinies, as that which they do.