Les Misérables, v. 1/5: Fantine
Page 4
CHAPTER II.
M. MYRIEL BECOMES MONSEIGNEUR WELCOME.
The Episcopal Palace of D---- adjoined the hospital. It was a spacious,handsome mansion, built at the beginning of the last century byMonseigneur Henri Puget, Doctor in Theology of the Faculty of Paris,and Abb? of Simore, who was Bishop of D---- in 1712. This palace wasa true seigneurial residence: everything had a noble air in it,--theepiscopal apartments, the reception rooms, the bed-rooms, the courtof honor, which was very wide, with arcades after the old Florentinefashion, and the gardens planted with magnificent trees. In thedining-room, a long and superb gallery on the ground floor, MonseigneurHenri Puget had given a state dinner on July 29, 1714, to MesseigneursCharles Br?lart de Genlis, Archbishop, Prince of Embrun; Antoine deMesgrigny, Capuchin and Bishop of Grasse; Philip de Vend?me, GrandPrior of France and Abb? of St. Honor? de L?rins; Fran?ois de Bertonde Grillon, Baron and Bishop of Vence; C?sar de Sabran de Forcalquier,Bishop and Lord of Gland?ve, and Jean Soanen, priest of the oratory,preacher in ordinary to the King, and Bishop and Lord of Senez. Theportraits of these seven reverend personages decorated the dining-room,and the memorable date, JULY 29, 1714, was engraved in golden letterson a white marble tablet.
The hospital was a small, single-storeyed house with a little garden.Three days after his arrival the Bishop visited it, and when his visitwas over asked the Director to be kind enough to come to his house.
"How many patients have you at this moment?" he asked.
"Twenty-six, Monseigneur."
"The number I counted," said the Bishop.
"The beds are very close together," the Director continued.
"I noticed it."
"The wards are only bed-rooms, and difficult to ventilate."
"I thought so."
"And then, when the sun shines, the garden is very small for theconvalescents."
"I said so to myself."
"During epidemics, and we have had the typhus this year, and hadmiliary fever two years ago, we have as many as one hundred patients,and do not know what to do with them."
"That thought occurred to me."
"What would you have, Monseigneur!" the Director said, "we must put upwith it."
This conversation had taken place in the dining-hall on the groundfloor. The Bishop was silent for a moment, and then turned smartly tothe Director.
"How many beds," he asked him, "do you think that this room alone wouldhold?"
"Monseigneur's dining-room?" the stupefied Director asked.
The Bishop looked round the room, and seemed to be estimating itscapacity.
"It would hold twenty beds," he said, as if speaking to himself, andthen, raising his voice, he added,--
"Come, Director, I will tell you what it is. There is evidently amistake. You have twenty-six persons in five or six small rooms. Thereare only three of us, and we have room for fifty. There is a mistake,I repeat; you have my house and I have yours. Restore me mine; this isyours."
The next day the twenty-six poor patients were installed in theBishop's palace, and the Bishop was in the hospital. M. Myriel had noproperty, as his family had been ruined by the Revolution. His sisterhad an annuity of 500 francs, which had sufficed at the curacy forpersonal expenses. M. Myriel, as Bishop, received from the State 15,000francs a year. On the same day that he removed to the hospital, M.Myriel settled the employment of that sum once for all in the followingway. We copy here a note in his own handwriting.
NOTE FOR REGULATING MY HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.
For the little seminary 1500 francs. Congregation of the mission 100 -- For the lazarists of Montdidier 100 -- Seminary of foreign missions at Paris 200 -- Congregation of Saint Esprit 150 -- Religious establishments in the Holy Land 100 -- Societies of maternal charity 300 -- Additional for the one at Aries 50 francs Works for improvement of prisons 400 -- Relief and deliverance of prisoners 500 -- For liberation of fathers of family imprisoned for debt 1000 -- Addition to the salary of poor schoolmasters in the diocese 2000 -- Distribution of grain in the Upper Alps 100 -- Ladies' Society for gratuitous instruction of poor girls at D----, Manosque, and Sisteron 1500 -- For the poor 6000 -- Personal expenses 1000 --
Total 15,000 --
During the whole time he held the see of D----, M. Myriel made nochange in this arrangement. He called this, as we see, regulating hishousehold expenses. The arrangement was accepted with a smile by Mlle.Baptistine, for that sainted woman regarded M. Myriel at once as herbrother and her bishop; her friend according to nature, her superioraccording to the Church. She loved and venerated him in the simplestway. When he spoke she bowed, when he acted she assented. The servantalone, Madame Magloire, murmured a little. The Bishop, it will havebeen noticed, only reserved 1000 francs, and on this sum, with Mlle.Baptistine's pension, these two old women and old man lived. And whena village cur? came to D-, the Bishop managed to regale him, thanksto the strict economy of Madame Magloire and the sensible managementof Mlle. Baptistine. One day, when he had been at D---- about threemonths, the Bishop said,--
"For all that, I am dreadfully pressed."
"I should think so," exclaimed Madame Magloire. "Monseigneur has noteven claimed the allowance which the department is bound to pay forkeeping up his carriage in town, and for his visitations. That was thecustom with bishops in other times."
"True," said the Bishop, "you are right, Madame Magloire." He madehis claim, and shortly after the Council-general, taking the demandinto consideration, voted him the annual sum of 3000 francs, under theheading, "Allowance to the Bishop for maintenance of carriage, postingcharges, and outlay in visitations."
This caused an uproar among the cits of the town, and on this occasiona Senator of the Empire, ex-member of the Council of the Five Hundred,favourable to the 18th Brumaire, and holding a magnificent appointmentnear D----, wrote to the Minister of Worship, M. Bigot de Pr?ameneu,a short, angry, and confidential letter, from which we extract theseauthentic lines:
"----Maintenance of carriage! what can he want one for in a town ofless than 4000 inhabitants? Visitation charges! in the first place,what is the good of visitations at all? and, secondly, how can hetravel post in this mountainous country, where there are no roads,and people must travel on horseback? The very bridge over the Duranceat Ch?teau Arnoux can hardly bear the weight of a cart drawn by oxen.These priests are all the same, greedy and avaricious! This one playedthe good apostle when he arrived, but now he is like the rest, and musthave his carriage and post-chaise. He wishes to be as luxurious as theold bishops. Oh this priesthood! My Lord, matters will never go on welltill the Emperor has delivered us from the skullcaps. Down with thePope! (there was a quarrel at the time with Rome). As for me, I am forC?sar and C?sar alone, etc., etc., etc."
The affair, on the other hand, greatly gladdened Madame Magloire."Come," she said to Mlle. Baptistine, "Monseigneur began with others,but he was obliged to finish with himself. He has regulated all hischarities, and here are 3000 francs for us at last!"
The same evening the Bishop wrote, and gave his sister, a noteconceived thus:--
CARRIAGE AND TRAVELLING EXPENSES.
To provide the hospital patients with broth 1500 francs. The society of maternal charity at Aix 250 -- The society of maternal charity at Draguignan 250 -- For foundlings 500 -- For orphans 500 -- Total 3000 --
Such was M. Myriel's budget. As for the accidental receipts, suchas fees for bans, christenings, consecrating c
hurches or chapels,marriages, &c., the Bishop collected them from the rich with so muchthe more eagerness because he distributed them to the poor. In a shorttime the monetary offerings became augmented. Those who have and thosewho want tapped at M. Myriel's door, the last coming to seek the almswhich the former had just deposited. The Bishop in less than a yearbecame the treasurer of all charity and the cashier of all distress.Considerable sums passed through his hands, but nothing could inducehim to make any change in his mode of life, or add the slightestsuperfluity to his expenditure.
Far from it, as there is always more wretchedness at the bottom thanpaternity above, all was given, so to speak, before being received;it was like water on dry ground: however much he might receive he hadnever a farthing. At such times he stripped himself. It being thecustom for the bishops to place their Christian names at the head oftheir mandates and pastoral letters, the poor people of the countryhad selected the one among them which conveyed a meaning, and calledhim Monseigneur Welcome (Bienvenu). We will do like them, and call himso when occasion serves. Moreover, the name pleased him. "I like thatname," he would say. "The Welcome corrects the Monseigneur."
We do not assert that the portrait we are here drawing is probably asfar as fiction goes: we confine ourselves to saying that it bears alikeness to the reality.