We shall take Charles with us. Meanwhile he will be placed in the depository.
MM. Alexis Bouvier and Germain Casse are helping me in these heart-rending preparations.
At 4 o’clock Charles was placed in the coffin. I prevented them from fetching Alice. I kissed the brow of my beloved, then the sheet of lead was soldered. Next they put the oaken lid of the coffin on and screwed it down; thus I shall never see him more. But the soul remains. If I did not believe in the soul I would not live another hour.
I dined with my grandchildren, little Georges and little Jeanne.
I consoled Alice. I wept with her. I said “thou” to her for the first time.
March 15.—For two nights I have not slept. I could not sleep last night.
Edgar Quinet came to see me last evening. On viewing Charles’s coffin in the parlor, he said:
“I bid thee adieu, great mind, great talent, great soul, beautiful of face, more beautiful of thought, son of Victor Hugo!”
We talked together of this great mind that is no more. We were calm. The night watcher wept as he listened to us.
The Prefect of the Gironde called. I could not receive him.