Victor HUGO. L.A.S., Guernsey Hauteville House November 15, 1855, to Just Géraldy in Paris; 2pages small in-4, addressed (splits and tears repaired, with a few line ends missing). To singer and composer Just Géraldy (1808-1869). Hugo explains his delay in replying by "the incidents that have abruptly changed the place of the table on which I am writing to you" [allusion to his expulsion from Jersey]... "Up to this day, I have always conceded free of charge the permission that has been requested of me often enough to publish words of mine set to music; but new duties and new burdens are coming upon us; here I am in a wandering colony of expellees who suffer for the right of all, some of whom have neither bread nor shoes. These must be fed [and] those clothed. Hence new necessities. However, it is certainly not with you that I want to start, and even the most rigorous and imperious situations must smile upon and bow to a charming talent like yours". He therefore granted Géraldy permission for three years "to publish l'aube naît et ta po[rte] est close avec votre musique". But he is counting on its "unfailing success", and hopes that publisher Lemoine will find a way to send "some supplies for our very poor relief fund"...