1956 Victor Hugo's Tragedy

Victor Hugo's oldest and  favorite daughter, Léopoldine, died at age 19 in 1843 (on September 4, my birthday), shortly after her  marriage. She drowned in the Seine near her house at Villequier, pulled down by her heavy  skirts, when a boat overturned while they were trying to ride out le mascaret.  Her young husband also died trying to save  her.  People on shore stated that he could easily have swum to safety, but he would not leave her.  His parents also drowned. 

Leopoldine's house in Villiquier

The death left her father devastated; Hugo was traveling with his mistress  at the time in the south of France, and first learned about Léopoldine's death  from a newspaper he read at a cafe.  It's well documented that he never fully recovered from this loss.

Statue of Victor Hugo

My loose translation of the stone at the base of the statue of Hugo, which is in the cemetery at Villequier and faces the Seine where they drowned:


"In memory of Leopoldine Hugo and of her husband 
 Charles Vacquerie, drowned in the Seine here on 
 September 4, 1843.  

 It must be that the grass grows and that children 
 die, I know it,  oh my God"



He describes his shock and grief in his famous poem, A Villequier.  

Hélas ! Vers le passé tournant un oeil d'envie, 
Sans que rien  ici-bas puisse m'en consoler, 
Je regarde toujours ce moment de ma vie 
Où je l'ai vue ouvrir son aile et s'envoler!
Je verrai cet instant jusqu'à ce que je meure, 
L'instant, pleurs  superflus! 
Où je criai : L'enfant que j'avais tout à  l'heure, 
Quoi donc ! je ne l'ai plus!

Alas! turning an envious eye towards the past, 
Inconsolable by anything on  earth, 
I keep looking at that moment of my life 
When I saw her open her  wings and fly away!
I will see that instant until I die, 
That instant—too much for  tears! 
When I cried out: "The child that I had just now-- 
What! I don't  have her any more!"