Death of Victor Hugo France mourns the greatest poet of the 19th century, the illustrious writer whose glory reflected on France throughout the world. Victor Hugo has died, in this flower-filled hotel where he used to receive his friends and admirers, always in green and smiling. He was eighty-three years old since 26 February, but he still looked young, and we had become so accustomed to seeing his powerful forehead defying the years that his death surprised France like an unforeseen catastrophe. Which French citizen could possibly not feel affected by the death of this great old man, the living glory of his country! For sixty years, Victor Hugo had loved his country and made others love it. Not one of the country's sorrows that has drawn from him a cry of anger or pity; he wanted her to be great, he wanted her to be free. For her, he was alternately tender like Virgil and vehement like Juvenal, the poet of the L Année terrible and the avenger of the Châtiments. (...) The Will Victor Hugo left a will in which he disposed of his fortune, estimated at five million. The prose works and plays are left to Paul Maurice, and his other works to M. Vacquerie. Among the bequests made by the great poet are several to charitable foundations, notably for the benefit of literary figures. Victor Hugo's will has been in the hands of M. Vacquerie and a notary for the past two years; his fortune is deposited with Messrs Rothschild. The Master will be buried at Père-Lachaise, next to his two sons, François-Victor and Charles. The last wishes On 2 August 1883, Victor Hugo gave Mr Auguste Vacquerie, his close friend and the legal guardian of Adèle Hugo, one of the poet's daughters, now in her fifties and in a nursing home on the outskirts of Paris, the following testamentary lines, which constitute the deceased's last wishes for the day after his death: "I give fifty thousand francs to the poor of Paris. I refuse the prayers of any church. I ask for a prayer for all souls. I believe in God."