the worthy curé, who was waiting in the anteroom, happened to be on the way of his Majesty. Napoleon noticing that the old man looked at him with a certain curiousness, turned around and said brusquely : "Who is this goodman who looks at me?" "Sire," said M. Myriel, "you behold a goodman, and I a great man. Each of us may profit by it." That evening the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the curé, and some time afterwards M. Myriel was overwhelmed with surprise on learning that he had been appointed Bishop of D. Beyond this, no one knew how much truth there was in the stories which passed current concerning the first portion of M. Myriel's life. But few families had known the Myriels before the Revolution. M. Myriel had to submit to the fate of every new-comer in a small town, where there are many tongues to talk, and but few heads to think. He had to submit, although he was bishop, and because he was bishop. But, after all, the gossip with which his name was connected was only gossip: noise, talk, words, less than words-palabres, as they say in the forcible language of the South. Be that as it may, after nine years of episcopacy and of residence in D, all these stories, topics of talk, which engross at first petty towns and petty people, were entirely forgotten. Nobody would have dared to speak of, or even to remember them. When M. Myriel came to D- he was accompanied by an old lady, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was his sister, ten years younger than himself. Their only domestic was a woman of about the same age as Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was called Madame Magloire, and who, after having been the servant of M. le curé, now took the double title of femme de chambre of Mademoiselle and housekeeper of Monseigneur. Mademoiselle Baptistine was a tall, pale, thin, sweet person. She fully realized the idea which is expressed by the word "respectable;" for it seems as if it were necessary that a woman should be a mother to be venerable. She had never been pretty; her whole life, which had been but a succession of pious works, had produced upon her a kind of transparent whiteness, and in growing old she had acquired what may be called the beauty of goodness. What had been thinness in her youth had become in maturity transparency, and this etherialness permitted gleams of the angel within. She was more a spirit than a virgin mortal. Her form was shadow-like, hardly enough. body to convey the thought of sex-a little earth containing a spark-large eyes, always cast down; a pretext for a soul to remain on earth. Madame Magloire was a little, white, fat, jolly, bustling old woman, always out of breath, caused first by her activity, and then by the asthma. M. Myriel, upon his arrival, was installed in his episcopal palace with the honours ordained by the imperial decrees, which class the Bishop next in rank to the Field-marshal. The Mayor and the President made him the first visit, and he, on his part, paid like honour to the General and the Prefect. The installation being completed, the town was curious to see its Bishop at work. II. M. MYRIEL BECOMES MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU. THE Bishop's palace at D was contiguous to the hospital: the palace was a spacious and beautiful edifice, built of stone, near the beginning of the last century, by Monseigneur Henri Pujet, a doctor of theology of the Faculty of Paris, abbé of Simore, who was Bishop of Din 1712. The palace was in truth a lordly dwelling: there was an air of grandeur about everything, the apartments of the Bishop, the saloons, the chambers, the court of honour, which was very large, with arched walks after the antique Florentine style; and a garden planted with magnificent trees. In the dining-hall was a long, superb gallery, which was level with the ground, opening upon the garden; Monseigneur Henri Pujet had given a grand banquet on the 29th of July, 1714, to Monseigneur Charles Brûlart de Genlis, archbishop, Prince d'Embrun, Antoine de Mesgrigny, capuchin bishop of Grasse, Philippe de Vendôme, grand-prior de France, the Abbé de Saint Honoré de Lérins, François de Berton de Grillon, lord bishop of Vence, Cesar de Sabran de Forcalquier, lord bishop of Glandève, and Jean Soanen, priest of the oratory, preacher in ordinary to the King, lord bishop of Senez; the portraits of the seven reverend personages decorated the hall, and this memorable date, July 29th, 1714, appeared in letters of gold on a white. marbletablet. The hospital was a low, narrow, one-story building with a small garden. Three days after the Bishop's advent he visited the hospital; when the visit was ended, he invited the Director to oblige him by coming to the palace. "Monsieur," he said to the Director of the hospital, "how many patients have you ?" "Twenty-six, Monseigneur." "That is as I counted them," said the Bishop. "The beds," continued the Director, "are very much crowded." "I noticed it." "The wards are but small chambers, and are not easily ventilated." "It seems so to me." "And then, when the sun does shine, the garden is very small for the convalescents." "That was what I was thinking." "Of epidemics we have had typhus fever this year; two years ago we had miliary fever, sometimes one hundred patients, and we did not know what to do." "That occurred to me." "What can we do, Monseigneur ?" said the Director; we must be resigned." This conversation took place in the dining gallery on the ground floor. The Bishop was then silent a few moments: then he turned suddenly towards the Director. "Monsieur," he said, "how many beds do you think this hall alone would contain ?" "The dining-hall of Monseigneur !" exclaimed the Director, stupefied. The Bishop ran his eyes over the hall, seemingly taking measure and making calculations. "It will hold twenty beds," said he to himself; then raising his voice, he said: 66 what I have to say. There are twenty-six of Listen, Monsieur Director, to There is evidently a mistake here. you in five or six small rooms: there are only three of us, and space for sixty. There is a mistake, I tell you. You have my house, and I have yours. Restore mine to me; you are at home." Next day the twenty-six poor invalids were installed in the Bishop's palace, and the Bishop was in the hospital. M. Myriel had no property, his family having been impoverished by the Revolution. His sister had a life estate of five hundred francs, which in the vicarage sufficed for her personal needs. M. Myriel received from the Government, as Bishop, a salary of fifteen thousand francs. The day on which he took up his residence in the hospital building, he resolved to appropriate this sum once for all to charitable uses, leaving for his own personal expenses only 1,000 francs. "Schedule for the regulation of my household expenses. For the little seminary, fifteen hundred livres. Mission congregation, one hundred livres. For the Lazaristes of Montdidier, one hundred livres. Seminary of foreign missions in Paris, two hundred livres. Congregation of the Saint-Esprit, one hundred and fifty livres. Religious establishments in the Holy Land, one hundred livres. Maternal charitable societies, three hundred livres. For the amelioration of prisons, four hundred livres. For the relief and deliverance of prisoners, five hundred livres. For the liberation of fathers of families imprisoned for debt, one thousand livres. Additions to the salaries of poor schoolmasters of the diocese, two thousand livres. Public storehouse of Hautes-Alpes, one hundred livres. Association of the ladies of D- of Manosque and Sisteron for the gratuitous instruction of poor girls, fifteen hundred livres. For the poor, six thousand livres. My personal expenses, one thousand livres. Total, fifteen thousand livres." M. Myriel made no alteration in this plan during the time he held the see of D; he called it the regulation of bis household expenses. |