Stanford Student Letters and Memoirs

[written] 30

[typed] revolution so as to know Milton, and in French Rev. we are just beginning Mirabeau. I haven't found out about Victor Hugo's poems yet but shall soon. I shall leave the rest of this for extra ideasso good night- your loving....

Tuesday - Dec. 17, '95.

I didn't realize this would be a Christmas letter or I should have begun on more Christmasy paper - but I must tell you about"Napoleon's retreat from Moscow". I asked Prof. Andersen about it and he said he had never published it but that he would copy it for me - providing I would never let it get into print as sometime he intended to publish it. Of course, I would not listen to his going to so much trouble and he supplied me with pen, paper and the original to copy it myself. As I did so he glanced over my shoulder and read the whole thing through. He said that he wrote it one night when we was preparing a lecture on Victor Hugo - he wanted some extract of his works to illustrate with and the volume of translations was so poor that he turned to this passage and translated it himself as he said, he thought he could do better than "those fellows"(the volume of translations) The result was the best work he ever did. He said the passage in the original had always been a favorite of his and he had translated it into the heroic meter as that best gave the idea of the rugged system rhythmn of the French verse. He went on to say that this was only a part of the series of Victor Hugo's portrayals of Napoleon's eventful life, and the the Expiation at last came when Napoleon arose from his gorgeous tomb and beheld the debauched reign of his successor according to Hugo's thought. We had a delightful talk, and he took my copy and put his signature to it and date. Wasn't it lovely of him_I was so happy I wanted to hug him. In Browning he read "Strafford" to us and when he came to the last scene, there