by Victor Hugo
CHAPTER XII.
THE BISHOP AT WORK.
The next morning at sunrise Monseigneur Welcome was walking about thegarden, when Madame Magloire came running toward him in a state ofgreat alarm.
"Monseigneur, Monseigneur!" she screamed, "does your Grandeur knowwhere the plate-basket is?"
"Yes," said the Bishop.
"The Lord be praised," she continued; "I did not know what had becomeof it."
The Bishop had just picked up the basket in a flower-bed, and nowhanded it to Madame Magloire. "Here it is," he said.
"Well!" she said, "there is nothing in it; where is the plate?"
"Ah!" the Bishop replied, "it is the plate that troubles your mind.Well, I do not know where that is."
"Good Lord! it is stolen, and that man who came last night is therobber."
In a twinkling Madame Magloire had run to the oratory, entered thealcove, and returned to the Bishop. He was stooping down and lookingsorrowfully at a cochlearia, whose stem the basket had broken. Heraised himself on hearing Madame Magloire scream,--
"Monseigneur, the man has gone! the plate is stolen!"
While uttering this exclamation her eyes fell on a corner of thegarden, where there were signs of climbing; the coping of the wall hadbeen torn away.
"That is the way he went! He leaped into Cochefilet lane. Oh, what anoutrage! He has stolen our plate."
The Bishop remained silent for a moment, then raised his earnest eyes,and said gently to Madame Magloire,--
"By the way, was that plate ours?"
Madame Magloire was speechless; there was another interval of silence,after which the Bishop continued,--
"Madame Magloire, I had wrongfully held back this silver, whichbelonged to the poor. Who was this person? Evidently a poor man."
"Good gracious!" Madame Magloire continued; "I do not care for it,nor does Mademoiselle, but we feel for Monseigneur. With what willMonseigneur eat now?"
The Bishop looked at her in amazement. "Why, are there not pewter forksto be had?"
Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders. "Pewter smells!"
"Then iron!"
Madame Magloire made an expressive grimace. "Iron tastes."
"Well, then," said the Bishop, "wood!"
A few minutes later he was breakfasting at the same table at which JeanValjean sat on the previous evening. While breakfasting MonseigneurWelcome gayly remarked to his sister, who said nothing, and to MadameMagloire, who growled in a low voice, that spoon and fork, even ofwood, are not required to dip a piece of bread in a cup of milk.
"What an idea!" Madame Magloire said, as she went backwards andforwards, "to receive a man like that, and lodge him by one's side. Andwhat a blessing it is that he only stole! Oh, Lord! the mere thoughtmakes a body shudder."
As the brother and sister were leaving the table there was a knock atthe door.
"Come in," said the Bishop.
The door opened, and a strange and violent group appeared on thethreshold. Three men were holding a fourth by the collar. The three menwere gendarmes, the fourth was Jean Valjean. A corporal, who apparentlycommanded the party, came in and walked up to the Bishop with amilitary salute.
"Monseigneur," he said.
At this word Jean Valjean, who was gloomy and crushed, raised his headwith a stupefied air.
"'Monseigneur,'" he muttered; "then he is not the Cur?."
"Silence!" said a gendarme. "This gentleman is Monseigneur the Bishop."
In the mean while Monseigneur Welcome had advanced as rapidly as hisgreat age permitted.
"Ah! there you are," he said, looking at Jean Valjean. "I am glad tosee you. Why, I gave you the candlesticks too, which are also silver,and will fetch you 200 francs. Why did you not take them away with therest of the plate?"
Jean Valjean opened his eyes, and looked at the Bishop with anexpression which no human language could render.
"Monseigneur," the corporal said; "what this man told us was true then?We met him, and as he looked as if he were running away, we arrestedhim. He had this plate--"
"And he told you," the Bishop interrupted, with a smile, "that it wasgiven to him by an old priest at whose house he passed the night? I seeit all. And you brought him back here? That is a mistake."
"In that case," the corporal continued, "we can let him go?"
"Of course," the Bishop answered.
The gendarmes loosed their hold of Jean Valjean, who tottered back.
"Is it true that I am at liberty?" he said, in an almost inarticulatevoice, and as if speaking in his sleep.
"Yes, you are let go; don't you understand?" said a gendarme.
"My friend," the Bishop continued, "before you go take yourcandlesticks."
He went to the mantel-piece, fetched the two candlesticks, and handedthem to Jean Valjean. The two females watched him do so without aword, without a sign, without a look that could disturb the Bishop.Jean Valjean was trembling in all his limbs; he took the candlesticksmechanically, and with wandering looks.
"Now," said the Bishop, "go in peace. By the bye, when you return,my friend, it is unnecessary to pass through the garden, for you canalways enter, day and night, by the front door, which is only latched."
Then, turning to the gendarmes, he said,--
"Gentlemen, you can retire."
They did so. Jean Valjean looked as if he were on the point offainting; the Bishop walked up to him, and said in a low voice,--
"Never forget that you have promised me to employ this money inbecoming an honest man."
Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of having promised anything,stood silent. The Bishop, who had laid a stress on these words,continued solemnly,--
"Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. Ihave bought your soul of you. I withdraw it from black thoughts and thespirit of perdition, and give it to God."