Kabanata Kabanata 3 · M. MYRIEL BECOMES M. WELCOME

The episcopal palace of D—— adjoins the hospital.

The episcopal palace was a huge and beautiful house, built of stone at

the beginning of the last century by M. Henri Puget, Doctor of Theology

of the Faculty of Paris, Abbé of Simore, who had been Bishop of D—— in

1712. This palace was a genuine seignorial residence. Everything about

it had a grand air,—the apartments of the Bishop, the drawing-rooms,

the chambers, the principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks

encircling it under arcades in the old Florentine fashion, and gardens

planted with magnificent trees. In the dining-room, a long and superb

gallery which was situated on the ground floor and opened on the

gardens, M. Henri Puget had entertained in state, on July 29, 1714, My

Lords Charles Brûlart de Genlis, archbishop; Prince d’Embrun; Antoine

de Mesgrigny, the capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philippe de Vendôme,

Grand Prior of France, Abbé of Saint Honoré de Lérins; François de

Berton de Crillon, bishop, Baron de Vence; César de Sabran de

Forcalquier, bishop, Seignor of Glandève; and Jean Soanen, Priest of

the Oratory, preacher in ordinary to the king, bishop, Seignor of

Senez. The portraits of these seven reverend personages decorated this

apartment; and this memorable date, the 29th of July, 1714, was there

engraved in letters of gold on a table of white marble.

The hospital was a low and narrow building of a single story, with a

small garden.

Three days after his arrival, the Bishop visited the hospital. The

visit ended, he had the director requested to be so good as to come to

his house.

“Monsieur the director of the hospital,” said he to him, “how many sick

people have you at the present moment?”

“Twenty-six, Monseigneur.”

“That was the number which I counted,” said the Bishop.

“The beds,” pursued the director, “are very much crowded against each

other.”

“That is what I observed.”

“The halls are nothing but rooms, and it is with difficulty that the

air can be changed in them.”

“So it seems to me.”

“And then, when there is a ray of sun, the garden is very small for the

convalescents.”

“That was what I said to myself.”

“In case of epidemics,—we have had the typhus fever this year; we had

the sweating sickness two years ago, and a hundred patients at

times,—we know not what to do.”

“That is the thought which occurred to me.”

“What would you have, Monseigneur?” said the director. “One must resign

one’s self.”

This conversation took place in the gallery dining-room on the ground

floor.

The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the

director of the hospital.

“Monsieur,” said he, “how many beds do you think this hall alone would

hold?”

“Monseigneur’s dining-room?” exclaimed the stupefied director.

The Bishop cast a glance round the apartment, and seemed to be taking

measures and calculations with his eyes.

“It would hold full twenty beds,” said he, as though speaking to

himself. Then, raising his voice:—

“Hold, Monsieur the director of the hospital, I will tell you

something. There is evidently a mistake here. There are thirty-six of

you, in five or six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we

have room for sixty. There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my

house, and I have yours. Give me back my house; you are at home here.”

On the following day the thirty-six patients were installed in the

Bishop’s palace, and the Bishop was settled in the hospital.

M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the

Revolution. His sister was in receipt of a yearly income of five

hundred francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage.

M. Myriel received from the State, in his quality of bishop, a salary

of fifteen thousand francs. On the very day when he took up his abode

in the hospital, M. Myriel settled on the disposition of this sum once

for all, in the following manner. We transcribe here a note made by his

own hand:—

NOTE ON THE REGULATION OF MY HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.

For the little seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 livres

Society of the mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 ”

For the Lazarists of Montdidier . . . . . . . . . . 100 ”

Seminary for foreign missions in Paris . . . . . . 200 ”

Congregation of the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . 150 ”

Religious establishments of the Holy Land . . . . . 100 ”

Charitable maternity societies . . . . . . . . . . 300 ”

Extra, for that of Arles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 ”

Work for the amelioration of prisons . . . . . . . 400 ”

Work for the relief and delivery of prisoners . . . 500 ”

To liberate fathers of families incarcerated for debt 1,000 ”

Addition to the salary of the poor teachers of the

diocese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 ”

Public granary of the Hautes-Alpes . . . . . . . . 100 ”

Congregation of the ladies of D——, of Manosque, and of

Sisteron, for the gratuitous instruction of poor

girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 ”

For the poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 ”

My personal expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000 ”

———

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000 ”

M. Myriel made no change in this arrangement during the entire period

that he occupied the see of D—— As has been seen, he called it

_regulating his household expenses_.

This arrangement was accepted with absolute submission by Mademoiselle

Baptistine. This holy woman regarded Monseigneur of D—— as at one and

the same time her brother and her bishop, her friend according to the

flesh and her superior according to the Church. She simply loved and

venerated him. When he spoke, she bowed; when he acted, she yielded her

adherence. Their only servant, Madame Magloire, grumbled a little. It

will be observed that Monsieur the Bishop had reserved for himself only

one thousand livres, which, added to the pension of Mademoiselle

Baptistine, made fifteen hundred francs a year. On these fifteen

hundred francs these two old women and the old man subsisted.

And when a village curate came to D——, the Bishop still found means to

entertain him, thanks to the severe economy of Madame Magloire, and to

the intelligent administration of Mademoiselle Baptistine.

One day, after he had been in D—— about three months, the Bishop said:—

“And still I am quite cramped with it all!”

“I should think so!” exclaimed Madame Magloire. “Monseigneur has not

even claimed the allowance which the department owes him for the

expense of his carriage in town, and for his journeys about the

diocese. It was customary for bishops in former days.”

“Hold!” cried the Bishop, “you are quite right, Madame Magloire.”

And he made his demand.

Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand under

consideration, and voted him an annual sum of three thousand francs,

under this heading: _Allowance to M. the Bishop for expenses of

carriage, expenses of posting, and expenses of pastoral visits._

This provoked a great outcry among the local burgesses; and a senator

of the Empire, a former member of the Council of the Five Hundred which

favored the 18 Brumaire, and who was provided with a magnificent

senatorial office in the vicinity of the town of D——, wrote to M. Bigot

de Préameneu, the minister of public worship, a very angry and

confidential note on the subject, from which we extract these authentic

lines:—

“Expenses of carriage? What can be done with it in a town of less than

four thousand inhabitants? Expenses of journeys? What is the use of

these trips, in the first place? Next, how can the posting be

accomplished in these mountainous parts? There are no roads. No one

travels otherwise than on horseback. Even the bridge between Durance

and Château-Arnoux can barely support ox-teams. These priests are all

thus, greedy and avaricious. This man played the good priest when he

first came. Now he does like the rest; he must have a carriage and a

posting-chaise, he must have luxuries, like the bishops of the olden

days. Oh, all this priesthood! Things will not go well, M. le Comte,

until the Emperor has freed us from these black-capped rascals. Down

with the Pope! [Matters were getting embroiled with Rome.] For my part,

I am for Cæsar alone.” Etc., etc.

On the other hand, this affair afforded great delight to Madame

Magloire. “Good,” said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine; “Monseigneur

began with other people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after

all. He has regulated all his charities. Now here are three thousand

francs for us! At last!”

That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a

memorandum conceived in the following terms:—

EXPENSES OF CARRIAGE AND CIRCUIT.

For furnishing meat soup to the patients in the hospital. 1,500 livres

For the maternity charitable society of Aix . . . . . . . 250 ”

For the maternity charitable society of Draguignan . . . 250 ”

For foundlings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 ”

For orphans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 ”

——-

Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000 ”

Such was M. Myriel’s budget.

As for the chance episcopal perquisites, the fees for marriage bans,

dispensations, private baptisms, sermons, benedictions, of churches or

chapels, marriages, etc., the Bishop levied them on the wealthy with

all the more asperity, since he bestowed them on the needy.

After a time, offerings of money flowed in. Those who had and those who

lacked knocked at M. Myriel’s door,—the latter in search of the alms

which the former came to deposit. In less than a year the Bishop had

become the treasurer of all benevolence and the cashier of all those in

distress. Considerable sums of money passed through his hands, but

nothing could induce him to make any change whatever in his mode of

life, or add anything superfluous to his bare necessities.

Far from it. As there is always more wretchedness below than there is

brotherhood above, all was given away, so to speak, before it was

received. It was like water on dry soil; no matter how much money he

received, he never had any. Then he stripped himself.

The usage being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at

the head of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people

of the country-side had selected, with a sort of affectionate instinct,

among the names and prenomens of their bishop, that which had a meaning

for them; and they never called him anything except Monseigneur

Bienvenu [Welcome]. We will follow their example, and will also call

him thus when we have occasion to name him. Moreover, this appellation

pleased him.

“I like that name,” said he. “Bienvenu makes up for the Monseigneur.”

We do not claim that the portrait herewith presented is probable; we

confine ourselves to stating that it resembles the original.