Speaker 1: Preface, so long as it shall exist by virtue of
Speaker 1: law and custom, decrees of damnation produced by society artificially
Speaker 1: creating hills amid the civilization of earth and adding the
Speaker 1: element of human fate to divine destiny. So long as
Speaker 1: the three great problems of the century, the degradation of
Speaker 1: man through popairism, the corruption of women through hunger, the
Speaker 1: crippling of children through lack of light, are unsolved, so
Speaker 1: long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of
Speaker 1: the world. In other words, and with a still wider significance,
Speaker 1: so long as ignorance and poverty exist on earth. Books
Speaker 1: of the nature of Le miserabla cannot fail to be
Speaker 1: of use From Victor Hugo Hovey House, eighteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: end of.
Speaker 2: Preface, Book one, A Just Man, Chapter one. Monsieur murielle
Speaker 2: In eighteen fifteen, Monsieur Charles Francois Bienvenue Muriel was Bishop
Speaker 2: of Duniers. He was an old man of about seventy
Speaker 2: five years of age. He had occupied the Sea of
Speaker 2: Dinier since eighteen o six. Although this detail has no
Speaker 2: connection whatever with the real substance of what we are
Speaker 2: about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely
Speaker 2: for the sake of exactness in all points to mention
Speaker 2: here the various rumors and remarks which had been in
Speaker 2: circulation about him from the very moment when he arrived
Speaker 2: in the diocese, true or false. That which is said
Speaker 2: of men often occupies as important a place in their lives,
Speaker 2: and above all, in their destinies, as that which they do.
Speaker 2: Monsieur Muriell was the son of a councilor of the
Speaker 2: Parliament of As, hence he belonged to the nobility of
Speaker 2: the bar. It was said that his father, destining him
Speaker 2: to be heir of his own post, had married him
Speaker 2: at a very early age eighteen or twenty, in accordance
Speaker 2: with a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary families.
Speaker 2: In spite of this marriage, however, it was said that
Speaker 2: Charles Muriel created a great deal of talk, who was
Speaker 2: well formed, though rather short in stature, elegant and graceful, intelligent.
Speaker 2: The whole of the first portion of his life had
Speaker 2: been devoted to the world into gallantry. The Revolution came,
Speaker 2: events succeeded each other with precipitation. The parliamentary families, decimated, pursued,
Speaker 2: hunted down, were dispersed. Monsieur Charlemuriel emigrated to Italy at
Speaker 2: the very beginning of the revolution. There his wife died,
Speaker 2: a mamalady of the chest from which she had long suffered.
Speaker 2: He had no children. What took place next in the
Speaker 2: fate of Monsieur Muriel The ruin of the French society
Speaker 2: of the olden days, the fall of his own family,
Speaker 2: the tragic spectacles of ninety three, which were perhaps even
Speaker 2: more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance,
Speaker 2: with the magnifying powers of terror. Did these cause the
Speaker 2: ideas of renunciation and solitude to germinate in him? Was he,
Speaker 2: in the midst of these distractions, these affections which absorbed
Speaker 2: his life, suddenly smitten with one of those mysterious and
Speaker 2: terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm. By striking to his heart,
Speaker 2: a man whom public catastrophes would not shake, by striking
Speaker 2: at his existence and his fortune, no one could have told.
Speaker 2: All that was known was that when he returned from
Speaker 2: Italy he was a priest. In eighteen o four, Monsieur
Speaker 2: Muriel was the cure of Brignault. He was already advanced
Speaker 2: in years and lived in a very retired manner. About
Speaker 2: the epoch of the coronation. Some petty affair connected with
Speaker 2: his curacy, just what it is not precisely known, took
Speaker 2: him to Paris. Among other powerful persons to whom he
Speaker 2: went to solicit aid for his parishioners was Monsieur le
Speaker 2: Cardinal Fesch. One day, when the Emperor had come to
Speaker 2: visit his uncle, the worthy Curee, who was waiting in
Speaker 2: the ante room, found himself present when his Majesty passed. Napoleon,
Speaker 2: on finding himself observed with a certain curiosity by this
Speaker 2: old man, turned round and said abruptly, who is this
Speaker 2: good man who is staring at me? Sire, said Monsieur
Speaker 2: muriel You are looking at a good man, and I
Speaker 2: at a great man. Each of us can profit by it.
Speaker 2: That very evening the Emperor asked the cardinal the name
Speaker 2: of the cure and some time afterwards Monsieur Murielle was
Speaker 2: utterly astonished to learn that he had been appointed Bishop
Speaker 2: of Duignier. What truth was there, after all in the
Speaker 2: stories which were invented as to the early portion of
Speaker 2: Monsieur Muriell's life. No one knew. Very few families have
Speaker 2: been acquainted with the muriel family before the Revolution. Monsieur
Speaker 2: Murielle had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in
Speaker 2: a little town where there are many males which talk
Speaker 2: and very few heads which think. He was obliged to
Speaker 2: undergo it although he was a bishop, and because he
Speaker 2: was a bishop. But after all, the rumors with which
Speaker 2: his name was connected were rumors, only noise, sayings, words
Speaker 2: less than words palabres as the energetic language of the
Speaker 2: sales expresses it. However that may be, after nine years
Speaker 2: of episcopal power and of residence in Daignier, all the
Speaker 2: stories and subjects of conversation which engross petty towns and
Speaker 2: petty people at the outset had fallen into profound oblivion.
Speaker 2: No one would have dared to mention them, no one
Speaker 2: would have dared to recall them. Monsieur Murielle had arrived
Speaker 2: at Dignier accompanied by an elderly spinster, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who
Speaker 2: was his sister and ten years his junior. Their only
Speaker 2: domestic was a female servant of the same age as
Speaker 2: Mademoiselle Baptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been
Speaker 2: the servant of Monsieur le Cuierer, now assumed the double
Speaker 2: title of maid to Mademoiselle and housekeeper to Monseigneur. Mademoiselle
Speaker 2: Baptisteine was a long, pale, thin, gentle creature. She realized
Speaker 2: the ideal expressed by the word respectable, for it seems
Speaker 2: that a woman must needs be a mother in order
Speaker 2: to be venerable. She had never been pretty. Her whole life,
Speaker 2: which had been nothing but a succession of holy deeds,
Speaker 2: had finally conferred upon her sort of pallor and transparency.
Speaker 2: And as she advanced in years, she had acquired what
Speaker 2: may be called the beauty of goodness. What had been
Speaker 2: leanness in her youth had become transparency in her maturity,
Speaker 2: and this diaphaneity allowed the angel to be seen. She
Speaker 2: was a soul rather than a virgin. Her person seemed
Speaker 2: made of a shadow. There was hardly sufficient body to
Speaker 2: provide for sex. A little matter enclosing a light, large
Speaker 2: eyes forever drooping, a mere pretext for a soul's remaining
Speaker 2: on the earth. Madame Magloar was a little, fat, white
Speaker 2: old woman, corpulent and bustling, always out of breath, in
Speaker 2: the first place because of her activity, and in the
Speaker 2: next because of her asthma. On his arrival, Monsieur Miurielle
Speaker 2: was installed in the episcopal palace with the honors required
Speaker 2: by the Imperial Decrees, which class a bishop immediately after
Speaker 2: a major general. The mayor and the President paid the
Speaker 2: first call on him, and he in turn paid the
Speaker 2: first call on the General and the prefect. The installation
Speaker 2: over the town waited to see its bishop. At work
Speaker 2: end of book one, Chapter one.
Speaker 3: Book one, chapter two, Monsieur Muriel becomes Monsieur Welcome the
Speaker 3: Episcopal Palace of Dinia adjoins the hospital. The episcopal Palace
Speaker 3: was a huge and beautiful house built of stone at
Speaker 3: the beginning of the last century by Monsieur Anri Pouget,
Speaker 3: doctor of theology of the Faculty of Paris, Abbe of Seymour,
Speaker 3: who had been Bishop of Dignia in seventeen twelve. This
Speaker 3: palace was a genuine signiorial residence. Everything about it had
Speaker 3: a grand heir, the apartments of the bishop, the drawing rooms,
Speaker 3: the chambers, the principal courtyard, which was very large with
Speaker 3: walks encircling it under arcades in the old Florentine facts
Speaker 3: and gardens planted with magnificent trees. In the dining room
Speaker 3: a long and superb gallery, which was situated on the
Speaker 3: ground floor and opened on the gardens. Monsieur Enri Puget
Speaker 3: had entertained in state on July twenty ninth, seventeen fourteen.
Speaker 3: My Lords Charles Boulard de Gennis, Archbishop Prince d'am brune,
Speaker 3: Antoine de Mesgrigni, the Capuchin Bishop of Grace, Philippe de Vandome,
Speaker 3: Grand Prior of France, Abbe of Saint Honore de Derns,
Speaker 3: Francois de Berton de Crillon, Bishop Baron de Vince Cesarre
Speaker 3: de Sabran de Foucalcier, Bishop Signor of Glandeves, and Jean Soanna,
Speaker 3: Priest of the Oratory Preacher in ordinary to the King,
Speaker 3: Bishop Signor of Sinnez. The portraits of these seven reverend
Speaker 3: personages decorated this apartment, and this memorable date, the twenty
Speaker 3: ninth of July seventeen fourteen, was there engraved in letters
Speaker 3: of gold on a table of white marble. The hospital
Speaker 3: was a low and narrow building of a single story
Speaker 3: with a small garden. Three days after his arrival, the
Speaker 3: bishop visited the hospital. The visit ended he had the
Speaker 3: doctor requested to be so good as to come to
Speaker 3: his house. Monsieur, the director of the hospital said, he
Speaker 3: to him, how many sick people have you at the
Speaker 3: present moment? Twenty six, monseigneur. That was the number which
Speaker 3: I counted, said the bishop. The beds, pursued the doctor,
Speaker 3: are very much crowded against each other. That is what
Speaker 3: I observed. The halls are nothing but rooms, and it
Speaker 3: is with difficulty that the air can be changed in them,
Speaker 3: so it seems to me. And then when there is
Speaker 3: a ray of sun, the garden is very small for
Speaker 3: the convalescence. That was what I said to myself. In
Speaker 3: case of epidemics, we have had the typhus fever this year,
Speaker 3: we have the sweating sickness two years ago, and a
Speaker 3: hundred patients. At times we know not what to do.
Speaker 3: This is the thought which occurred to me. What would
Speaker 3: you have, monseigneur, said the direct One must resign oneself.
Speaker 3: This conversation took place in the gallery dining room on
Speaker 3: the ground floor. The bishop remained silent for a moment,
Speaker 3: then he turned abruptly to the director of the hospital.
Speaker 3: Monsieur said he how many beds do you think this
Speaker 3: hall alone would hold? Monseigneur's dining room, exclaimed the stupefied director.
Speaker 3: The bishop cast a glance around the apartment and seemed
Speaker 3: to be taking measures and calculations with his eyes. It
Speaker 3: would hold full twenty beds, said he, as though speaking
Speaker 3: to himself. Then raising his voice, hold, Monsieur, the director
Speaker 3: of the hospital. I will tell you something. There is
Speaker 3: evidently a mistake here. There are thirty six of you
Speaker 3: in five or six small rooms. There are three of
Speaker 3: us here, and we have room for sixty. There is
Speaker 3: some mistake. I tell you you have my house and
Speaker 3: I have yours. Give me back my house. You are
Speaker 3: at home here. On the following day, the thirty six
Speaker 3: patients were installed in the bishop's palace and the bishop
Speaker 3: was settled in the hospital. Monsieur Briel had no property,
Speaker 3: his family having been ruined by the revolution. His sister
Speaker 3: was in receipt of a yearly income of five hundred francs,
Speaker 3: which sufficed for her personal wants. At the vicarage. Monsieur
Speaker 3: Muriel received from the state in his quality of bishop
Speaker 3: a salary of fifteen thousand francs. On the very day
Speaker 3: when he took up his abode in the hospital, Monsieur
Speaker 3: Muriel settled on the disposition of this sum once for all.
Speaker 3: In the following manner we transcribe here a note made
Speaker 3: by his own hand, note on the regulation of my
Speaker 3: household expenses for the Little Seminary one thousand, five hundred livres,
Speaker 3: Society of the Mission, one hundred livres for the Lazarus
Speaker 3: of Mondidier one hundred livres, Seminary for Foreign Missions in
Speaker 3: Paris two hundred livres. Congregation of the Holy Spirit one
Speaker 3: hundred fifty livres. Religious Establishments of the Holy Land one
Speaker 3: hundred livres, Charitable Maternity Society, three hundred livres extra for
Speaker 3: that of Arles, fifty livres. Work for the amelioration of prisons,
Speaker 3: four hundred livres, work for the relief and delivery of prisoners,
Speaker 3: five hundred livre to liberate fathers of families incarcerated for
Speaker 3: debt one thousand livres addition to the salary of the
Speaker 3: poor Teachers of the Diocese two thousand livres. Public Granary
Speaker 3: of the Haute Alp one hundred livres. Congregation of the
Speaker 3: ladies of Digne, of Manosque and of Sisteron for the
Speaker 3: gratuitous instruction of poor girls one thousand, five hundred livres
Speaker 3: for the poor six thousand livre my personal expenses one
Speaker 3: thousand livre. Total fifteen thousand livre. Monsieur Miriel made no
Speaker 3: change in this arrangement during the entire period that he
Speaker 3: occupied the Sea of Digne. As has been seen, he
Speaker 3: called it regulating his household expenses. This arrangement was accepted
Speaker 3: with absolute submission by Mademoiselle Baptistine. This holy woman regarded
Speaker 3: Monseigneur of Digna as at one and the same time
Speaker 3: her brother and her bishop, her friend according to the flesh,
Speaker 3: and her superior according to the church. She simply loved
Speaker 3: and venerated him. When he spoke, she bowed when he acted.
Speaker 3: She yield her adherents. Their only servant, Madame Marglois, grumbled
Speaker 3: a little. It will be observed that Monsieur the Bishop
Speaker 3: had reserved for himself only one thousand livres, which added
Speaker 3: to the pension of Mademoiselle Baptistine, made fifteen hundred francs
Speaker 3: a year. On these fifteen hundred francs, these two old
Speaker 3: women and the old man subsisted, and when a village
Speaker 3: curate came to Dina, the bishops still found means to
Speaker 3: entertain him, thanks to the severe economy of Madame Maglois
Speaker 3: and to the intelligent administration of Mademoiselle Baptistine. One day,
Speaker 3: after he had been in Dina about three months, the
Speaker 3: bishop said, and still I am quite cramped with it
Speaker 3: all I should think so, exclaimed Madame Magois. Monseigneur has
Speaker 3: not even claimed the allowance which the Department owes him
Speaker 3: for the expense of his carriage in town and for
Speaker 3: his journeys about the diocese. It was customary for bishops
Speaker 3: in the former days. Hold cried the bishop. You are
Speaker 3: quite right, Madame Magloire, and he made his demand. Some
Speaker 3: time afterwards, the General Council took this demand under consideration
Speaker 3: and voted him an annual sum of three thousand francs
Speaker 3: under this heading allowance to Monseigneur the Bishop for expenses
Speaker 3: of carriage, expenses of posting, and expenses of pastoral visits.
Speaker 3: This provoked a great outcry among the local burgesses, and
Speaker 3: a senator of the Empire, a former member of the
Speaker 3: Council and of the five hundred, which favored the eighteen Brumaire,
Speaker 3: and who was provided with a magnificent senatorial office in
Speaker 3: the vicinity of the town of Digne, wrote to Monsieur
Speaker 3: Bijos de Pree Migneux, the Minister of Public Worship, a
Speaker 3: very angry and confidential note on the subject, from which
Speaker 3: we extract these authentic lines. Expenses of carriage, what can
Speaker 3: be done with it in a town of less than
Speaker 3: four thousand inhabitants. Expenses of journeys, what is the use
Speaker 3: of these trips in the first place? Next, how can
Speaker 3: the posting be accomplished in these mountainous parts? There are
Speaker 3: no roads. No one travels otherwise than on horseback. Even
Speaker 3: the bridge between Durance and Chateau Arnou can barely support
Speaker 3: ox teams. These priests are all thus greedy and avaricious.
Speaker 3: This man played the good priest when he first came.
Speaker 3: Now he does like the rest. He must have a
Speaker 3: carriage and a posting chaise. He must have luxuries like
Speaker 3: the bishops of the olden days. Ough all this priesthood,
Speaker 3: things will not go well, Monsieur le Comte, until the
Speaker 3: Emperor has freed us from these black capped rascals down
Speaker 3: with the pope. Matters were getting embroiled with Rome.
Speaker 4: For my part, I.
Speaker 3: Am for Caesar alone, et cetera, et cetera. On the
Speaker 3: other hand, this affair afforded great delight to Madame Maguire good,
Speaker 3: said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine. Monseigneur began with other people,
Speaker 3: but he has had to wind up with himself. After all,
Speaker 3: he has regulated all his charities. Now Here are three
Speaker 3: thousand francs for us. At last, that same evening, the
Speaker 3: bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a memorandum
Speaker 3: conceived in the following terms. Expenses of carriage and circuit,
Speaker 3: for furnishing meat soup to the patients in the hospital,
Speaker 3: one thousand, five hundred livres for the Maternity Charitable Society
Speaker 3: of Ikes, two hundred fifty livres for the Maternity Charitable
Speaker 3: Society of Draguignan, two hundred fifty livres for foundlings, five
Speaker 3: hundred livre for orphans five hundred livre. Total three thousand livres.
Speaker 3: Such was Monsieur Mirieu's budget, as for the chance episcopal perposites,
Speaker 3: the fees for marriage bands, dispensations, private baptisms, sermons, benedictions
Speaker 3: of churches or chapels, marriages, et cetera. The bishop levied
Speaker 3: them on the wealthy, with all the more asperity since
Speaker 3: he bestowed them on the needy. After a time, offerings
Speaker 3: of money flowed in. Those who had, and those who
Speaker 3: lacked knocked at Monsieur Meuriell's door, the latter in search
Speaker 3: of the alms which the former came to deposit. In
Speaker 3: less than a year, the bishop had become the treasurer
Speaker 3: of all benevolence and the cashier of all those in distress.
Speaker 3: Considerable sums of money passed through his hands, but nothing
Speaker 3: could induce him to make any change whatever in his
Speaker 3: mode of life, or add anything superfluous to his bare necessities.
Speaker 3: Far from it, as there is always more wretchedness below
Speaker 3: than there is brotherhood above. All was given away, so
Speaker 3: to speak, before it was received. It was like water
Speaker 3: on dry soil. No matter how much money he received,
Speaker 3: he never had any. Then he stripped himself. The usage
Speaker 3: being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at the
Speaker 3: head of their charges and their pastoral letters. The poor
Speaker 3: people of the countryside had selected with a sort of
Speaker 3: affectionate instinct among the names and prenomins of their bishop
Speaker 3: that which had a meaning for them, and they never
Speaker 3: called him anything except Monseigneur bienvenue welcome. We will follow
Speaker 3: their example and will also call him thus when we
Speaker 3: have occasion to name him. Moreover, this appellation pleased him.
Speaker 3: I like that name, said he. Bien venue makes up
Speaker 3: for the monseigneur. We do not claim that the portrait
Speaker 3: herewith presented is probable. We confine ourselves to stating that
Speaker 3: it resembles the original end of book one, Chapter two, Book.
Speaker 5: One A just man, Chapter three A hard bishop bric
Speaker 5: for a good bishop. The bishop did not omit his
Speaker 5: pastoral visits because he had converted his carriage into alms.
Speaker 5: The diocese of Digny is a fatiguing one. There are
Speaker 5: very few plains and a great many mountains, hardly any roads,
Speaker 5: as we have just seen, thirty two curacies, forty one vicarships,
Speaker 5: and two hundred and eighty five auxiliary chapels. To visit
Speaker 5: all these is quite a task. The bishop managed to
Speaker 5: do it. He went on foot when it was in
Speaker 5: the neighborhood, in a tilted spring cart when it was
Speaker 5: on the plain, and on a donkey in the mountains.
Speaker 5: The two old women accompanied him. When the trip was
Speaker 5: too hard for them, he went alone. One day he
Speaker 5: arrived at Sennies, which is an ancient episcopal city. He
Speaker 5: was mounted on an ass. His purse, which was very
Speaker 5: dry at the moment, did not permit him any other equipage.
Speaker 5: The mayor of the town came to receive him at
Speaker 5: the gate of the town and watched him dismount from
Speaker 5: his ass with scandalized eyes. Some of the citizens were
Speaker 5: laughing around him. Monsieur, the mayor said the bishop and
Speaker 5: may sure, citizens, I perceive that I shock you. You think
Speaker 5: it very arrogant in a poor priest to ride an
Speaker 5: animal which was used by Jesus Christ. I have done
Speaker 5: so from necessity, I assure you, and not from vanity.
Speaker 5: In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent,
Speaker 5: and talked rather than preached. He never went far in
Speaker 5: search of his arguments and his examples. He quoted to
Speaker 5: the inhabitants of one district the example of a neighboring
Speaker 5: district in the Cantons, where they were harsh to the poor.
Speaker 5: He said, look at the people of Brianclhan. They have
Speaker 5: conferred on the poor, on widows and orphans the right
Speaker 5: to have their meadows mown three days in advance of
Speaker 5: every one else. They rebuild their houses for them gratuitously
Speaker 5: when they are ruined. Therefore, it is a country which
Speaker 5: is blessed by God. For a whole century there has
Speaker 5: not been a single murderer among them in the villages
Speaker 5: which were greedy for prophet and harvest. He said, look
Speaker 5: at the people of Embron. If at the harvest season
Speaker 5: the father of the family has his son away on
Speaker 5: service in the army, and his daughters at service in
Speaker 5: the town, And if he is ill and incapacitated, the
Speaker 5: curate recommends him to the prayers of the congregation. And
Speaker 5: on Sunday after the Mass, all the inhabitants of the village, men,
Speaker 5: women and children go to the poor man's field and
Speaker 5: do his harvesting for him, and carry his straw and
Speaker 5: his grain to his granary. To families divided by questions
Speaker 5: of money and inheritance, he said, look at the mountaineers
Speaker 5: of Devolny, a country so wild that the nightingale is
Speaker 5: not heard. There are once in fifty years. Well, when
Speaker 5: the father of the family dies, the boys go off
Speaker 5: to seek their fortunes, leaving the property to the girls
Speaker 5: so that they may find husbands. To the cantons, which
Speaker 5: had of taste for lawsuits, and where the farmers ruined
Speaker 5: themselves in stamped paper, he said, look at those good
Speaker 5: peasants in the valley of Kaira's. There are three thousand
Speaker 5: souls of them Mondeux. It is like a little republic.
Speaker 5: Neither judge nor bailiff is known there. The mayor does
Speaker 5: everything he lets. The imposts taxes each person conscientiously, judges
Speaker 5: quarrels for nothing, divides inheritances without charge, pronounces sentences gratuitously,
Speaker 5: and he has obeyed because he is a just man
Speaker 5: among simple men. To villages where he found no schoolmaster,
Speaker 5: he quoted once more, the people of Kaira's. Do you
Speaker 5: know how they manage? He said, since a little country
Speaker 5: of a dozen or fifteen hearts cannot always support a teacher,
Speaker 5: they have schoolmasters who are paid by the whole valley,
Speaker 5: who make the round of the villages, spending a week
Speaker 5: in one ten days in that, and instruct them. These
Speaker 5: teachers go to the fairs. I've seen them there. They
Speaker 5: are to be recognized by the quill pens, which they
Speaker 5: wear in the court of their hat. Those who teach
Speaker 5: reading only have one pen. Those who teach reading and
Speaker 5: reckoning have two pins. Those who teach reading, reckoning and
Speaker 5: Latin have three pins. But what a disgrace to be ignorant.
Speaker 5: Do like the people of Chiras. Thus he discoursed gravely
Speaker 5: and paternally. In default of examples. He invented parables going
Speaker 5: directly to the point, with few phrases and many images,
Speaker 5: which characteristic form the real eloquence of Jesus Christ. And
Speaker 5: being convinced himself, he was persuasive. End of Book one,
Speaker 5: Chapter three.
Speaker 6: Book one A Just Man, Chapter four works corresponding to words.
Speaker 6: His conversation was gay and affable. He put himself on
Speaker 6: a level with the two old women who had passed
Speaker 6: to their lives beside him. When he laughed, it was
Speaker 6: the laugh of a schoolboy. Madame Magliori used to call
Speaker 6: him your grace. One day he rose from his arm
Speaker 6: chair and went to his library in search of a book.
Speaker 6: This book was on one of the upper shelves. As
Speaker 6: the bishop was rather short of stature, he could not
Speaker 6: reach it. Madame Magliore said, he fetch me a chair.
Speaker 6: My greatness does not reach as far as that shelf.
Speaker 6: One of his distant relatives, Madame Lacturs, stood low, rarely
Speaker 6: allowed an opportunity to escape of enumerting in his presence
Speaker 6: what she designated as the expectations of her three sons.
Speaker 6: She had numerous relatives who were very old and near
Speaker 6: to death, and of whom her sons were the natural heirs.
Speaker 6: The youngest of the three was to receive from a
Speaker 6: great aunt a good hundred thousand livres of income. The
Speaker 6: second was the heir by entail to the title of
Speaker 6: the Duke his uncle. The eldest, was to succeed to
Speaker 6: the peerage of his grandfather. The Bishop was accustomed to
Speaker 6: listen in silence to these innocent and pardonable maternal boasts.
Speaker 6: On one occasion, however, he appeared to be more thoughtful
Speaker 6: than usual. While Madame delou was relating once again the
Speaker 6: details of all these inheritances and all these expectations, she
Speaker 6: interrupted herself impatiently. Mon Dieu cousin, what are you thinking about?
Speaker 6: I am thinking, replied the Bishop of a singular remark,
Speaker 6: which is to be found. I believe in Saint Augustine
Speaker 6: placed your hopes in the man from whom you do
Speaker 6: not inherit.
Speaker 4: At another time.
Speaker 6: On receiving a notification of the decease of a gentleman
Speaker 6: of the countryside, wherein not only the dignities of the
Speaker 6: dead man, but also the futile and noble qualifications of
Speaker 6: all his relatives spread over an entire page. What a
Speaker 6: stout back death has, he exclaimed, What a strange burden
Speaker 6: of titles is cheerfully imposed on him? And how much
Speaker 6: wit must men have in order thus to press the
Speaker 6: tomb into the service of vanity. He was gifted on
Speaker 6: occasion with a gentle raillery, which almost always concealed a
Speaker 6: serious meaning. In the course of one lant, a youthful
Speaker 6: vicar came to d and preached in the cathedral. He
Speaker 6: was tolerably eloquent. The subject of his sermon was charity.
Speaker 6: He urged the rich to give to the poor in
Speaker 6: order to avoid hell, which he depicted in the most
Speaker 6: frightful manner of which he was capable, and to win paradise,
Speaker 6: which he represented as charming and desirable. Among the audience
Speaker 6: there was a wealthy, retired merchant who was somewhat of
Speaker 6: a usurer named Monsieur Gaberon, who had amassed two millions
Speaker 6: in the manufacturer of coarse cloth surges and woolen galloons.
Speaker 6: Never in his whole life had Monsieur Gaberond bestowed alms
Speaker 6: on any poor wretch. After the delivery of that sermon,
Speaker 6: it was observed that he gave a sou every Sunday
Speaker 6: to the poor old beggar women at the door of
Speaker 6: the cathedral. There were six of them to share it.
Speaker 6: One day the bishop caught sight of him in the
Speaker 6: act of bestowing the charity, and said to his sister
Speaker 6: with a smile, there is Monsieur Gaberond purchasing paradise for
Speaker 6: a zous. When it was a question of charity, he
Speaker 6: was not to be rebuffed even by refusal, and on
Speaker 6: such occasions he gave utterance to remarks which induced reflection.
Speaker 6: Once he was begging for the poor, and a drawing
Speaker 6: room of the town there was present the Marquis de Champontersiers,
Speaker 6: a wealthy and avaricious old man who contrived to be
Speaker 6: at one and the same time an ultra royalist and
Speaker 6: an ultra voltarian. This variety of man has actually existed
Speaker 6: when the bishop came to him. He touched his arm.
Speaker 6: You must give me something, monsieur le marquis. The marquis
Speaker 6: turned round and answered dryly, I have poor people of
Speaker 6: my own, Monseigneur, give them to me.
Speaker 4: Replied the Bishop.
Speaker 6: One day he preached the following sermon in the cathedral.
Speaker 6: My very dear brethren, my good friends, there are thirteen
Speaker 6: hundred and twenty thousand peasants dwellings in France which have
Speaker 6: but three openings, eighteen hundred and seventeen thousand hovels which
Speaker 6: have but two openings, the door and one window, and
Speaker 6: three hundred and forty six thousands cabins besides, which have
Speaker 6: but one opening, the door. And this arises from a
Speaker 6: thing which is called the tax on doors and windows.
Speaker 6: Just put poor families, old women and little children in
Speaker 6: those buildings, and behold the fevers and maladies which result
Speaker 6: Alas God gives air to men, the law sells it
Speaker 6: to them. I do not blame the law, but I
Speaker 6: bless God. In the department of the East, are in
Speaker 6: the var In the due departments of the Alps, the
Speaker 6: Oat and the Bass, the peasants do not have even whalebarrows.
Speaker 6: They transport their manure on the backs of men. They
Speaker 6: have no candles, and they burn resinous sticks and bits
Speaker 6: of rope dipped in pitch. This is the state of
Speaker 6: affairs throughout the of the hilly country of Dauphine. They
Speaker 6: make bread for six months at one time. They bake
Speaker 6: it with dried cow dung. In the winter they break
Speaker 6: the spread up with an axe and they soak it
Speaker 6: for twenty four hours in order to render it eatable.
Speaker 6: My brethren have pity. Behold the suffering on all sides
Speaker 6: of you. Born a provincial, he easily familiarized himself with
Speaker 6: the dialect of the South. He said on bei mususe
Speaker 6: sage as in the lower Langa, duke ante anaras passa
Speaker 6: as in Basal puerte abu nun muto ambei ambu nun
Speaker 6: fromage grass as in Upper Dauphine. This pleased the people
Speaker 6: extremely and contributed not a little to win him access
Speaker 6: to all spirits. He was perfectly at home in the
Speaker 6: thatched cottage and in the mountains. He understood how to
Speaker 6: say the grandest things in the most vulgar vidioms. As
Speaker 6: he spoke all tongues, he entered into all hearts. Moreover,
Speaker 6: he was the same towards people of the world, and
Speaker 6: towards the lower classes. He condemned nothing in haste, and
Speaker 6: without taking circumstances into account. He said, examine the road
Speaker 6: over which the fault has passed. Being, as he described
Speaker 6: himself with a smile, an ex sinner, he had none
Speaker 6: of the asperities of austerity, and he professed with a
Speaker 6: good deal of distinctness, and without the frown of the
Speaker 6: ferociously virtuous. A doctrine which may be summed up as follows.
Speaker 6: Man has upon him his flesh, which is at once
Speaker 6: his burden and his temptation. He drags it with him
Speaker 6: and yields to it. He must watch it, cheek it,
Speaker 6: repress it, and obey it only at the last extremity.
Speaker 6: There may be some fault even in this obedience. But
Speaker 6: the faults thus committed is venial. It is a fall,
Speaker 6: but a fall on the knees, which may terminate in prayer.
Speaker 6: To be a saint is the exception. To be an
Speaker 6: upright man is the rule air fall sin. If you
Speaker 6: will but be upright, the least possible sin is the
Speaker 6: law of man. No sin at all is the dream
Speaker 6: of the angel. All which is terrestrial is subject to sin.
Speaker 6: Sin is a gravitation. When he saw every one exclaiming
Speaker 6: very loudly and growing angry very quickly, Oh oh, he said,
Speaker 6: with a smile to all appearance, this is a great
Speaker 6: crime which all the world commits. These are hypocrisies which
Speaker 6: have taken fright and are in haste to make protest
Speaker 6: and put themselves under shelter. He was indulgent towards women
Speaker 6: and poor people, on whom the burden of human society rest.
Speaker 6: He said. The faults of women, of children, of the feeble,
Speaker 6: the indigent, and the ignorant are the faults of the husbands,
Speaker 6: the fathers, the masters, the strong, the rich, and the wise.
Speaker 6: He said. Moreover, teach those who are ignorant as many
Speaker 6: things as possible. Society is culpable in that it does
Speaker 6: not afford instruction. Goddess, it is responsible for the night
Speaker 6: which it produces. This soul is full of shadow. Sin
Speaker 6: is therein committed. The guilty one is not the person
Speaker 6: who has committed the sin, but the person who has
Speaker 6: created the shadow. It will be perceived that he had
Speaker 6: a peculiar manner of his own of judging things. I
Speaker 6: suspect that he obtained it from the gospel. One day
Speaker 6: he heard a criminal case which was in preparation and
Speaker 6: on the point of trial, discussed in a drawing room.
Speaker 6: A wretched man, being at the end of his resources,
Speaker 6: had coined counterfeit money out of love for a woman
Speaker 6: and for the child which he had had by her.
Speaker 6: Counterfeiting was still punishable with death.
Speaker 4: At that epoch.
Speaker 6: The woman had been arrested in the act of passing
Speaker 6: the first false peace made by the man. She was held,
Speaker 6: but there were no proofs except against her. She alone
Speaker 6: could accuse her lover and destroy him by her confession.
Speaker 6: She denied, they insisted, she persisted in her denial. Thereupon
Speaker 6: an idea occurred to the attorney of the crowd. He
Speaker 6: invented an infidelity on the part of the lover, and
Speaker 6: succeeded by means of fragments of letters cunningly represented in
Speaker 6: persuading the unfortunate woman that she had arrival and that
Speaker 6: the man was deceiving her. Thereupon, exasperated by jealousy, she
Speaker 6: denounced her lover, confessed, all proved all the man was ruined.
Speaker 6: He was shortly to be tried at aches with his accomplice.
Speaker 6: They were relating the matter, and each one was expressing
Speaker 6: enthusiasm over the cleverness of the magistrate. By bringing jealousy
Speaker 6: into play, he had caused the truth to burst forth
Speaker 6: in wrath. He had adduced the justice of revenge. Bishop
Speaker 6: listened to all of this in silence. When they had finished,
Speaker 6: he inquired, where are this man and woman to be
Speaker 6: tried at the court of a seas he went on,
Speaker 6: and where will the advocate of the.
Speaker 2: Crown be tried?
Speaker 6: A tragic event occurred at d A man was condemned
Speaker 6: to death for murder. He was a wretched fellow, not
Speaker 6: exactly educated, not exactly ignorant, who had been a mountebank
Speaker 6: at fairs and a writer for the pup The town
Speaker 6: took a great interest in the trial. On the eve
Speaker 6: of the day fixed for the execution of the condemned man,
Speaker 6: the chaplain of the prison fell ill. A priest was
Speaker 6: needed to attend to the criminal in his last moments.
Speaker 6: They sent for the curee. It seems that he refused
Speaker 6: to come, saying, this is no affair of mine. I
Speaker 6: have nothing to do with that unpleasant task, and with
Speaker 6: that mountebank, I too am ill, and besides, it is
Speaker 6: not my place. This reply was reported to the bishop,
Speaker 6: who said, Monsieur le Curee is right. It is not
Speaker 6: his place, it is mine. He went instantly to the prison,
Speaker 6: descended to the cell of the mountebank, called him by name,
Speaker 6: took him by the hand, and spoke to him. He
Speaker 6: passed the entire day with him, forgetful of food and sleep,
Speaker 6: praying to God for the soul of the condemned man,
Speaker 6: and praying the condemned man for his own. He told
Speaker 6: him the best truths, which were also the most simple.
Speaker 6: He was father, brother, friend, He was bishop only to
Speaker 6: bless He taught him everything, encouraged and consoled him. The
Speaker 6: man was on the point of dying in despair. Death
Speaker 6: was an abyss to him. As he stood trembling on
Speaker 6: its mournful brink, he recoiled with horror. He was not
Speaker 6: sufficiently ignorant to be absolutely indifferent. His condemnation, which had
Speaker 6: been a profound shock, had in a manner broken through
Speaker 6: here and there that wall which separates us from the
Speaker 6: mystery of things, and which we call life. He gazed
Speaker 6: incessantly beyond this world through these fatal breeches and beheld
Speaker 6: only darkness. The Bishop made him see light. On the
Speaker 6: following day, when they came to fetch the unhappy wretch,
Speaker 6: the bishop was still there. He followed him and exhibited
Speaker 6: himself to the eyes of the crowd in his purple
Speaker 6: kmal and in his episcopal cross upon his neck. Side
Speaker 6: by side with the criminal, bound with cords, he mounted
Speaker 6: the tumbrel with him. He mounted the scaffold with him.
Speaker 6: The sufferer, who had been so gloomy and cast down
Speaker 6: on the preceding, was radiant. He felt that his soul
Speaker 6: was reconciled, and he hoped in God. The Bishop embraced him,
Speaker 6: and at the moment when the knife was about to fall,
Speaker 6: he said to him, God raises from the dead, him
Speaker 6: whom man slays, He whom his brothers have rejected, finds
Speaker 6: his father once more. Pray, believe, enter into life. The
Speaker 6: Father is there. When he descended from the scaffold, there
Speaker 6: was something in his look which made the people draw
Speaker 6: aside to let him pass.
Speaker 4: They did not know.
Speaker 6: Which was most worthy of admiration, his pallor or his serenity.
Speaker 6: On his return to the humble dwelling, which he designated
Speaker 6: with a smile as his palace. He said to his sister,
Speaker 6: I have just officiated pontifically, since the most sublime things
Speaker 6: are often those which are the least understood. There were
Speaker 6: people in the town who said, when commenting on this
Speaker 6: conduct of the bishop, it is affectation. This, however, was
Speaker 6: a remark which was confined to the drawing rooms. The populace,
Speaker 6: which perceives no jest and holy deeds, was touched and
Speaker 6: admired him. As for the bishop, it was a shock
Speaker 6: to him to have beheld the guillotine, and it was
Speaker 6: a long time before he recovered from it.
Speaker 4: In fact, when the.
Speaker 6: Scaffold is there, all erected and prepared, it has something
Speaker 6: about it which produces hallucination. One may feel a certain
Speaker 6: indifference to the death penalty. One may refrain from pronouncing
Speaker 6: upon it, from saying yes or no, so long as
Speaker 6: one has not seen a guillotine with one's own eyes.
Speaker 6: But if one encounters one of them, the shock is violent.
Speaker 6: One is forced to decide and to take part for
Speaker 6: or against it. Some admire it like demeestra, Others execrate
Speaker 6: it like vicaria. The guillotine is the consecration of the law.
Speaker 6: It is called vendiicte. It is not neutral, and it
Speaker 6: does not permit you to remain neutral. He who sees
Speaker 6: it shivers with the most mysterious of shivers. All social
Speaker 6: problems erect their interrogation point around this chopping knife. The
Speaker 6: scaffold is a vision. The scaffold is not a piece
Speaker 6: of carpentry. The scaffold is not a machine. The scaffold
Speaker 6: is not an inert piece of mechanism constructed of wood,
Speaker 6: iron and chords. It seems as though it were a
Speaker 6: being possessed of I know not what somber initiative. One
Speaker 6: would say that this piece of carpenter's work saw what
Speaker 6: this machine heard, That this mechanism understood, that this wood,
Speaker 6: this iron, in these cords were possessed of will. In
Speaker 6: the frightful meditation into which its presence casts the soul,
Speaker 6: the scaffold appears in terrible guise and as though taking
Speaker 6: part in what is going on. The scaffold is the
Speaker 6: accomplice of the executioner. It devours, it eats flesh, it
Speaker 6: shrinks blood. The scaffold is a sort of monster fabricated
Speaker 6: by the judge and the carpenter, a specter which seems
Speaker 6: to live with a horrible vitality composed of all the
Speaker 6: death which it has inflicted. Therefore, the impression was terrible
Speaker 6: and profound. On the day following the execution, and on
Speaker 6: minute succeeding days, the bishop appeared to be crushed. The
Speaker 6: most violent serenity of the funereal moment had disappeared. The
Speaker 6: phantom of social justice tormented him. He who generally returned
Speaker 6: from all his deeds with a radiant satisfaction, seemed to
Speaker 6: be reproaching himself. At times he talked to himself and
Speaker 6: stammered lugubrious monologus in a low voice. This is one
Speaker 6: which his sister overheard one evening, and it preserved I
Speaker 6: did not think that it was so monstrous. It is
Speaker 6: wrong to become absorbed in the divine law to such
Speaker 6: a degree as not to perceive human law. Death belongs
Speaker 6: to God alone. By what right do men touch that
Speaker 6: unknown thing? In course of time, these impressions weakened and
Speaker 6: probably vanished. Nevertheless, it was observed that the bishop thenceforth
Speaker 6: avoided passing the place of execution. Monsieur Marielle could be
Speaker 6: summoned at any hour to the bedside of the sick
Speaker 6: and dying. He did not ignore the fact that therein
Speaker 6: lay his greatest duty and his greatest labor. Widowed and
Speaker 6: orphaned families had no need to summon him. He came
Speaker 6: of his own accord. He understood how to sit down
Speaker 6: and hold his peace for long hours beside the man
Speaker 6: who had lost the wife of his love, of the
Speaker 6: mother who had lost her child. As he knew the
Speaker 6: moment for silence, he also knew the moment for speech, Oh,
Speaker 6: admirable consoler. He sought not to effaced sorrow by forgetfulness,
Speaker 6: but to magnify and dignify it by hope. He said,
Speaker 6: have not a care of the manner in which you
Speaker 6: turned towards the dead, think thought of that which perishes.
Speaker 6: Gaze steadily you will perceive the living light of your
Speaker 6: well beloved dead in the depths of heaven. He knew
Speaker 6: that faith is wholesome. He sought to counsel and calm
Speaker 6: the despairing man by pointing out to him the resigned man,
Speaker 6: and to transform the grief which gazes upon a grave
Speaker 6: by showing him the grief which fixes its gaze upon
Speaker 6: a star. End of Book one, Chapter four, Book one
Speaker 6: A Just Man, Chapter five Monsieur Piavenu made his cassacks
Speaker 6: last two long. The private life of Monsieur Mariel was
Speaker 6: filled with the same thoughts as his public life. The
Speaker 6: voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of Daniel lived would
Speaker 6: have been a solemn and charming sight for any one
Speaker 6: who could have viewed it close at hand. Like all
Speaker 6: old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he slept
Speaker 6: a little. This brief slumber was profound. In the morning,
Speaker 6: he meditated for an hour. Then he set his masks,
Speaker 6: either at the cathedral or in his own house. His
Speaker 6: mast said. He broke his fast on rye bread dipped
Speaker 6: in the milk of his own cows. Then he set
Speaker 6: to work. A bishop is a very busy man. He
Speaker 6: must every day receive the Secretary of the bishopric, who
Speaker 6: is generally a cannon, and nearly every day his vicars general.
Speaker 6: He has congregations to reprove privileges, to grant a whole
Speaker 6: ecclesiastic library, to examine prayer books, diocesan catechisms, book of hours,
Speaker 6: et cetera. Charges to write sermons, to authorize cures and mayors,
Speaker 6: to reconcile a clerical correspondence, and administrative correspondence on one side,
Speaker 6: the State on the other, the Holy See, and a
Speaker 6: thousand matters of business. What time was left to him
Speaker 6: after these thousand details of business in his offices and
Speaker 6: his revery he bestowed first on the necessitus, the sick
Speaker 6: and the afflicted. The time which was left to him
Speaker 6: from the afflicted, the sick of the necessitus he devoted
Speaker 6: to work. Sometimes he dug in his garden again he
Speaker 6: read or wrote. He had but one word for both
Speaker 6: these kinds of toil. He called them gardening. The mind
Speaker 6: is a garden, he said. Towards midday, when the weather
Speaker 6: was fine, he went forth and took a stroll in
Speaker 6: the country or in town, often entering lowly dwellings. He
Speaker 6: was seen walking alone, buried in his own thoughts, his
Speaker 6: eyes cast down, supporting himself on his long cane, clad
Speaker 6: in his wadded purple garment of silk which was very warm,
Speaker 6: wearing purple stockings inside his coarse shoes, and surmounted by
Speaker 6: a flat hat which allowed three golden tassels of large
Speaker 6: bullion to drop from its three points. It was a
Speaker 6: perfect festival. Wherever he appeared, one would have said that
Speaker 6: his presence had something warming and luminous about it. The
Speaker 6: children and the old people came out to the door
Speaker 6: steps for the bishop. As for the sun, he bestowed
Speaker 6: his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out his
Speaker 6: house to any one who was in need of anything.
Speaker 6: Here and there he halted accost of the little boys
Speaker 6: and girls, and smiled upon the mother's He visited the
Speaker 6: poor so long as he had any money. When he
Speaker 6: no longer had any, he visited the rich as he
Speaker 6: made his cassocks last a long while, and did not
Speaker 6: wish to have it noticed. He never went out in
Speaker 6: the town without his wadded purple cloak. This inconvenienced him
Speaker 6: somewhat in summer. On his return, he dined. The dinner
Speaker 6: resembled his breakfast. At half past eight in the evening,
Speaker 6: he supped, with his sister, Madame Maglioroi, standing behind them
Speaker 6: and serving them at table. Nothing could be more frugal
Speaker 6: than this repast. If, however, the bishop had one of
Speaker 6: his cures to supper, Madame Magliore took advantage of the
Speaker 6: opportunity to serve Monseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake,
Speaker 6: or with some fine game from the mountains. Every cure
Speaker 6: furnished the pretext for a good meal. The bishop did
Speaker 6: not interfere with that exception. His ordinary diet consisted only
Speaker 6: of vegetables boiled in water and oil soup. Thus it
Speaker 6: was set in the town. When the bishop does not
Speaker 6: indulge in the cheer of a curee, he indulges in
Speaker 6: the cheer of a trappist. After supper, he conversed for
Speaker 6: half an hour with Mademoiselle Baptisteine and Madame Maglioroi. Then
Speaker 6: he retired to his own room and set to writing,
Speaker 6: sometimes on loose sheets, and again on the margin of
Speaker 6: some folio. He was a man of letters, and rather learned.
Speaker 6: He left behind him five six very curious manuscripts, among
Speaker 6: them a dissertation on this verse in Genesis, in the
Speaker 6: beginning the spirit of God floated upon the waters. With
Speaker 6: this verse, he compares three texts, the Arabic verse which
Speaker 6: says the winds of God blew, Flavius Josephus, who says
Speaker 6: a wind from above was precipitated upon the earth, and
Speaker 6: finally the Chaldaeic paraphrase of Voncellos, which renders it a
Speaker 6: wind coming from God blew upon the face of the waters.
Speaker 6: In another dissertation, he examines the theological works of Hugo,
Speaker 6: Bishop of ptolemy great grand uncle to the writer of
Speaker 6: this book, and establishes the fact that to this bishop
Speaker 6: must be attributed the diverse little works published during the
Speaker 6: last century under the pseudonym of Barleycourt. Sometimes, in the
Speaker 6: midst of his reading, no matter what the book might be,
Speaker 6: which he had in his hand, he would suddenly fall
Speaker 6: into a profound meditation, whence the only emerge to write
Speaker 6: a few lines on the pages of the volume itself.
Speaker 6: These lines have often no connection whatever with the book
Speaker 6: which contains them. We now have under our eyes a
Speaker 6: note written by him on the margin of a quartro
Speaker 6: entitled correspondence of Lord Germaine with Generals Clinton, Cornwallis and
Speaker 6: the Admirals of the American Station Versailles Puanco Bookseller and
Speaker 6: Paris Pisat Bookseller Chai de o gustain. Here is the note,
Speaker 6: Oh you who are Ecclesiastes calls you the all Powerful.
Speaker 6: The Maccabees call you the Creator. The Epistles to the
Speaker 6: Ephesians calls you liberty. Baruch calls you immensity. The Psalms
Speaker 6: call you wisdom, and truth. John calls you Light, the
Speaker 6: Book of Kings call you Lord, Exodus calls you Providence, Leviticus, Sanctity,
Speaker 6: Estras Justice, the Creation calls you God. Man calls you Father.
Speaker 6: But Solomon calls you compassion. And that is the most
Speaker 6: beautiful of all your names. Toward nine o'clock in the evening,
Speaker 6: the two women retired and betook themselves to their chambers
Speaker 6: on the first floor, leaving him alone until morning on
Speaker 6: the ground floor. It is necessary that we should, in
Speaker 6: this place give an exact idea of the dwelling of
Speaker 6: the Bishop of Denia, Book one, A just Man, Chapter six,
Speaker 6: who guarded his house for him. The house in which
Speaker 6: he lived consisted, as we have said, of a ground
Speaker 6: floor and one story above, three rooms on the ground floor,
Speaker 6: three chambers on the first and an attic above. Behind
Speaker 6: the house was a garden a quarter of an acre
Speaker 6: in extent. The two women occupied the first floor. The
Speaker 6: bishop was lodged below. The first room, opening on the street,
Speaker 6: served him as a dining room. The second was his bedroom,
Speaker 6: and the third his oratory. There was no exit possible
Speaker 6: from this oratory except by passing through the bedroom, nor
Speaker 6: from the bedroom without passing through the dining room. At
Speaker 6: the end of the suite. In the oratory there was
Speaker 6: a detached alcove with a bed for use in cases
Speaker 6: of hospitality. The bishop offered this bed to county curates,
Speaker 6: whom business or the requirements of their parishes brought to Denya.
Speaker 6: The pharmacy of the hospital, a small building which had
Speaker 6: been added to the house and abutted to the garden,
Speaker 6: had been transformed into a kitchen and cellar. In addition
Speaker 6: to this, there was in the garden a stable which
Speaker 6: had formerly been the kitchen of the hospital, and in
Speaker 6: which the bishop kept two calves. No matter what the
Speaker 6: quantity of milk they gave, he invariably sent half of
Speaker 6: it every morning to the sick people in the hospital.
Speaker 6: I am paying my tithes, he said. His bedroom was
Speaker 6: tolerably large, and rather difficult to warm in bad weather,
Speaker 6: As wood is extremely dear in Denya. He hit upon
Speaker 6: the idea of having a compartment of boards constructed in
Speaker 6: the cow shed. Here he passed his evenings during seasons
Speaker 6: of severe cold. He called it his winter's salon. In
Speaker 6: this winter salon, as in the dining room, there was
Speaker 6: no other furniture than a square table in white wood,
Speaker 6: and four straw seated chairs. In addition to this, the
Speaker 6: dining room was ornamented with an antique sideboard painted pink
Speaker 6: in water colors out of a similar sideboard properly draped
Speaker 6: with white napery and invitation lace. The bishop had constructed
Speaker 6: the altar which decorated his oratory. His wealthy penitents and
Speaker 6: the sainted women of Dana had more than once assessed
Speaker 6: themselves to raise the money for a new altar from
Speaker 6: Monseigneur's oratory. On each occasion he had taken the money
Speaker 6: and had given it to the poor. The most beautiful
Speaker 6: of altars, he said, is the soul of an unhappy creature,
Speaker 6: consoled and thanking God. In his oratory there were two
Speaker 6: straw pres dieu. There was an arm chair, also in straw,
Speaker 6: in his bread room. When by chance he received seven
Speaker 6: or eight persons at one time, the pre effect of
Speaker 6: the general or the staff of the regiment in garrison,
Speaker 6: or several pupils from the little seminary, the chairs had
Speaker 6: to be fetched from the winter salon in the stable,
Speaker 6: the predieu from the oratory, and the arm chair from
Speaker 6: the bedroom. In this way, as many as eleven chairs
Speaker 6: could be collected for the visitors. A room was dismantled
Speaker 6: for each new guest. It sometimes happened that there were
Speaker 6: twelve in the party. The bishop then relieved the embarrassment
Speaker 6: of the situation by standing in front of the chimney
Speaker 6: if it were winter, or by strolling in the garden
Speaker 6: if it were summer. There was still another chair in
Speaker 6: the detached alcove, but the straw was half gone from it,
Speaker 6: and it had but three legs, so that it was
Speaker 6: of service only when propped against the wall. Mademoiselle Baptistin
Speaker 6: had also in her own room a very large easy
Speaker 6: chair of wood, which had formerly been gilded, and which
Speaker 6: was covered with flowered pekan. But they had been obliged
Speaker 6: to hoist the sperger up to the first story through
Speaker 6: the window, as the staircase was too narrow. It could
Speaker 6: not therefore be reckoned. Among the possibilities in the way
Speaker 6: of furniture, Mademoiselle Baptistine's ambition had been to be able
Speaker 6: to purchase a set of drawing room furniture in yellow
Speaker 6: Utricht velvet, stamped with a rose pattern and with mahogany
Speaker 6: In Swan's next stile with a sofa, but this would
Speaker 6: have cost five hundred francs at least, and in view
Speaker 6: of the fact that she had only been able to
Speaker 6: lay by forty two francs and ten sous for this
Speaker 6: purpose in the course of five years, she had ended
Speaker 6: by renouncing the idea. However, who is there who has
Speaker 6: attained his ideal? Nothing is more easy to present to
Speaker 6: the imagination than the bishop's bed chamber. A glazed door
Speaker 6: opened on the garden. Opposite this was the bed, a
Speaker 6: hospital bed of iron with a canopy of green serge
Speaker 6: in the shadow of the bed, behind a curtain with
Speaker 6: the utensils of the toilet, which still betrayed the elegant
Speaker 6: habits of the man of the world. There were two doors,
Speaker 6: one near the chimney, opening into the oratory, the other
Speaker 6: near the bookcase, opening into the dining room. The bookcase
Speaker 6: was a large cupboard with glass doors filled with books.
Speaker 6: The chimney was of wood, painted to represent marble and
Speaker 6: habitually without a fire. In the chimney stood a pair
Speaker 6: of fire dogs of iron, ornamented above with two garlanded
Speaker 6: vases and flutings which had formerly been silvered with silver leaf,
Speaker 6: which was a sort of episcopal luxury. Above the chimney
Speaker 6: piece hung a crucifix of copper with a silver worn
Speaker 6: off fixed on the background of thadbare velvet in a
Speaker 6: wooden frame from which the guilding had fallen. Near the
Speaker 6: glass door, a large table with an inkstand, loaded with
Speaker 6: a confusion of papers and with huge volumes. Before the door,
Speaker 6: an arm chair of straw in front of the bed
Speaker 6: a pri dieu borrowed from the oratory. Two portraits and
Speaker 6: oval frames were fastened to the wall on each side
Speaker 6: of the bed. Small gilt inscriptions on the plain surface
Speaker 6: of the cloth at the side of these figures indicated
Speaker 6: that the porches represented one the Abbe of Shiloh, Bishop
Speaker 6: of Saint Claude, the other Abbe Torteaux, Thicker General of Agde,
Speaker 6: Abbey of Grand Shaws, Order of Sittoux, Diocese of Chartren.
Speaker 6: When the Bishop succeeded to this apartment after the hospital patients,
Speaker 6: he had found these portraits there and had left them.
Speaker 6: They were priests and probably donors. Two reasons for respecting them.
Speaker 6: All that he knew about these two persons was that
Speaker 6: they had been appointed by the king, the one to
Speaker 6: his bishopric the other to his benefice. On the same day,
Speaker 6: the twenty seventh of April seventeen eighty five, Madame Magliori,
Speaker 6: having taken the pictures down to dust, the bishop had
Speaker 6: discovered these particulars written in whiteish ink on a little
Speaker 6: square of paper, yellowed by time, and attached to the
Speaker 6: back of the portrait of the Abbe of grand Shaw
Speaker 6: with four wafers. At his window he had an antique
Speaker 6: curtain of a coarse woolen stuff, which finally became so
Speaker 6: old that, in order to avoid the expense of a
Speaker 6: new one, Madame Maglory was forced to take a large
Speaker 6: seam in the very middle of it. This scene took
Speaker 6: the form of a cross. The bishop often called attention
Speaker 6: to it. How delightful that is, he said. All the
Speaker 6: rooms in the house, without exception those on the ground
Speaker 6: floor as well as those on the first floor, were whitewashed,
Speaker 6: which is a fashion in barracks and hospitals. However, in
Speaker 6: their latter years, Madame Magliori discovered, beneath the paper which
Speaker 6: had been washed over, paintings ornamenting the apartment of Mademoiselle
Speaker 6: baptistein as we shall see further on. Before becoming a hospital,
Speaker 6: this house had been the ancient parliament house of the bourgeois,
Speaker 6: hence this decoration. The chambers were paved in red bricks,
Speaker 6: which were washed every week, with straw mats in front
Speaker 6: of all the beds. Altogether, the dwelling, which was attended
Speaker 6: to by the two women, was exquisitely cleaned from top
Speaker 6: to bottom. This was the sole luxury which the bishop permitted.
Speaker 6: He said that takes nothing from the poor. It must
Speaker 6: be confessed. However, these still retained from his former possessions,
Speaker 6: six silver knives and forks, and a soup ladle, which
Speaker 6: Madame Maglory contemplated every day with delight as they glistened
Speaker 6: splendidly upon the courselinen cloth. And since we are now
Speaker 6: painting the Bishop of Denya as he was in reality,
Speaker 6: we must add that he had said more than once
Speaker 6: I find it difficult to renounce eating from silver dishes.
Speaker 6: To this silverware must be added two large candlesticks of
Speaker 6: massive silver, which he had inherited from a great aunt.
Speaker 6: These candlesticks held two wax candles and usually figured on
Speaker 6: the bishop's chimney piece. When he had anyone to dinner,
Speaker 6: Madame Mcleory lighted the two candles and set the candlesticks
Speaker 6: on the table. In the bishop's own chamber, at the
Speaker 6: head of his bed, there was a small cupboard in
Speaker 6: which Madame Magliory locked up the six silver knives and
Speaker 6: forks and the big spoon every night. But it is
Speaker 6: necessary to add that the key was never removed. The garden,
Speaker 6: which has been rather spoiled by the ugly buildings which
Speaker 6: we have mentioned, was composed of four alleys in cross form,
Speaker 6: radiating from a tank. Another walk made the circuit of
Speaker 6: the garden and skirted the white wall which incl closed it.
Speaker 6: These alleys left behind them four square plots, rimmed with
Speaker 6: box In three of these, Madame Magliori cultivated vegetables. In
Speaker 6: the fourth, the bishop had planted some flowers here, and
Speaker 6: there stood a few fruit trees. Madame Magliori had once remarked,
Speaker 6: with a sort of gentle malice, monseigneur, you would turn
Speaker 6: everything to account to have nevertheless, one useless plot. It
Speaker 6: would be better to grow salads there than bouquets. Madame
Speaker 6: Magliori retorted the bishop, you are mistaken. The beautiful is
Speaker 6: as useful as the useful, he added, after a pause.
Speaker 6: More So, perhaps this plot, consisting of three or four beds,
Speaker 6: occupied the bishop almost as much as did his books.
Speaker 6: He liked to pass an hour or two there trimming, hoeing,
Speaker 6: and making holes here and there in the earth into
Speaker 6: which he dropped seeds. He was not as hostile to
Speaker 6: insects as the garden could have wished to see him. Moreover,
Speaker 6: he made no pretensions to botany. He ignored groups and consists,
Speaker 6: and he made not the slightest effort to decide between
Speaker 6: torn foe and the natural method. He took part neither
Speaker 6: with the buds against the Cotealidans, nor was Jussieux against Linnaeus.
Speaker 6: He did not study pliants. He loved flowers he respective
Speaker 6: learn had been greatly. He respected the ignorance still more,
Speaker 6: and without ever failing these in these two respects, he
Speaker 6: watered his flower beds every summer evening, with the tin
Speaker 6: watering pot painted green. The house had not a single
Speaker 6: door which could be locked. The door of the dining room,
Speaker 6: which as we have said, opened directly on the cathedral square,
Speaker 6: had formerly been ornamented with locks and bolts, like the
Speaker 6: door of a prison. The bishop had had all this
Speaker 6: iron work removed, and this door was never fastened, either
Speaker 6: by night or by day, with anything except the latch.
Speaker 6: All that the first passer by had to do at
Speaker 6: any hour was to give it a push. At first,
Speaker 6: the two women had been very much tried by the
Speaker 6: store which was never fastened. But Monsieur de Dania had
Speaker 6: said to them, have bold put on your rooms, if
Speaker 6: that will please you. They had ended by sharing his confidence,
Speaker 6: or by at least acting as though they shared it.
Speaker 6: Madame Magliore alone had frights from time to time. As
Speaker 6: for the Bishop, his thought can be found explained, or
Speaker 6: at least indicated, in the three lines which he wrote
Speaker 6: on the margin of a bible. This is the shade
Speaker 6: of difference. The door of the physician should never be shut,
Speaker 6: the door of the priest should always be open. On
Speaker 6: another book entitled Philosophy of the Medical Science, he had
Speaker 6: written this other note, am not I a physician like them.
Speaker 6: I also have my patience, And then too I have
Speaker 6: some whom I call my unfortunates. Again, he wrote, do
Speaker 6: not inquire the name of him who seeks the shelter
Speaker 6: of you. The very man who is embarrassed by his
Speaker 6: name is the one who needs shelter. It chanced that
Speaker 6: a worthy cure, I know not whether it was the
Speaker 6: cure of schue Lebrux or the cure of Pompierre, took
Speaker 6: it into his head to ask him one day, probably
Speaker 6: at the instigation of Madame Magleiori, whether Monsieur was sure
Speaker 6: that he was not committing an indiscretion to a certain
Speaker 6: extent in leaving his door unfastened day or night, at
Speaker 6: the mercy of anyone who should choose to enter, And whether,
Speaker 6: in short, he did not fear lest some misfortune might
Speaker 6: occur in a house so little guarded. The Bishop touched
Speaker 6: his shoulder with gentle gravity and said to him, nissi
Speaker 6: dominus costerdert domum in vanam vigilante qui costiretante eam Unless
Speaker 6: the lord guard the house in vain, do they watch
Speaker 6: who guard it? Then he spoke of something else he
Speaker 6: was fond of, saying, there is a bravery of the
Speaker 6: priest as well as the bravery of a colonel of dragoons. Only,
Speaker 6: he added, ours must be tranquil.
Speaker 5: End of.
Speaker 3: Book one, A Just Man, Chapter seven Cravat. It is
Speaker 3: here that a fact falls naturally into place which we
Speaker 3: must not admit, because it is one of the sort
Speaker 3: which show us best what sort of a man the
Speaker 3: Bishop of Denia was. After the destruction of the band
Speaker 3: of Gaspard Besse, who had infested the gorges of Oliun,
Speaker 3: one of his lieutenants, Cravat took refuge in the mountains.
Speaker 3: He concealed himself for some time with his bandits the
Speaker 3: remnant of gasparqs Besse's troop, in the country of Nice.
Speaker 3: Then he made his way to Piedmont, and suddenly reappeared
Speaker 3: in France, in the vicinity of Barcelonnette. He was first
Speaker 3: seen at Josier, then at Tuilles. He hid himself in
Speaker 3: the caverns of the Juges de Lage, and thence he
Speaker 3: descended towards the hamlets and villages, through the ravines of
Speaker 3: Ubei and Ubayete. He even pushed as far as Enbron,
Speaker 3: entered the cathedral one night and despoiled the sacristy. His
Speaker 3: highway robberies laid waste the countryside. The gendarmes were set
Speaker 3: on his track, but in vain he always escaped. Sometimes
Speaker 3: he resisted by main force. He was a bold wretch
Speaker 3: in the midst of all this terror. The bishop arrived.
Speaker 3: He was making his circuit to Schasteller. The mayor came
Speaker 3: to him and urged him to retrace his steps. Pravat
Speaker 3: was in possession of the mountains as far as Ache
Speaker 3: and beyond. There was a danger. Even with an escort,
Speaker 3: it merely exposed three or four unfortunate gendarme to no purpose. Therefore,
Speaker 3: said the Bishop, I intend to go without escort. You
Speaker 3: do not really mean that, monseigneur, exclaimed the Mayor. I
Speaker 3: do mean it so thoroughly that I absolutely refuse any gendarme,
Speaker 3: and shall set out in an hour, set out, set
Speaker 3: out alone alone. Monseigneur, you will not do that. There
Speaker 3: exists yonder in the mountains, said the bishop, a tiny community,
Speaker 3: no bigger than that which I have not seen for
Speaker 3: three years. They are my good friends, those gentle and
Speaker 3: honest shepherds. They own one goat out of every thirty
Speaker 3: that they tend. They make very pretty woolen cords of
Speaker 3: various colors, and they play the mountain airs on little
Speaker 3: flutes with six holes. They need to be told of
Speaker 3: the good God now and then what would they say
Speaker 3: to a bishop who was afraid? What would they say
Speaker 3: if I did not go, but the brigand Monseigneur hold,
Speaker 3: said the bishop. I must think of that. You are right,
Speaker 3: I may meet them. They too need to be told
Speaker 3: of the good God. But monseigneur, there is a band
Speaker 3: of them, a flock of wolves. Monsieur le maire, it
Speaker 3: may be that it is of this very flock of
Speaker 3: wolves that Jesus has constituted me the shepherd who knows
Speaker 3: the ways of Providence. They will rob you, monseigneur, I
Speaker 3: have nothing. They will kill you, an old good man
Speaker 3: of a priest who passes along mumbling his prayers. Bah.
Speaker 3: To what purpose, oh, mon dieu, what if you should
Speaker 3: meet them? I should beg alms of them for my poor.
Speaker 3: Do not go, monseigneur, in the name of Heaven. You
Speaker 3: are risking your life, Monsieur le maire, said the bishop.
Speaker 3: Is that really all? I am not in the world
Speaker 3: to guard my own life, but to guard souls. They
Speaker 3: had to allow him to do as he pleased. He
Speaker 3: set out, accompanied only by a child who offered to
Speaker 3: serve as a guide. His obstinacy was bruited about the
Speaker 3: countryside and caused great consternation. He would take neither his
Speaker 3: sister nor Madame Magloar. He traversed the mountain on mule back,
Speaker 3: encountered no one, and arrived safe and sound at the
Speaker 3: residence of his good friends, the shepherds. He remained there
Speaker 3: for a fortnight, preaching, administering the sacrament, teaching, exhorting. When
Speaker 3: the time of his departure approached, he resolved to chant
Speaker 3: at tadem pontifically. He mentioned it to the cure. But
Speaker 3: what was to be done? There were no episcopal ornaments.
Speaker 3: They could only place at his disposal a wretched village
Speaker 3: sacristy with a few ancient chastibles of threadbare damask adorned
Speaker 3: with imitation lace. Bah, said the bishop, let us announce
Speaker 3: our te daem from the pulpit. Nevertheless, Monsieur le cueur,
Speaker 3: things will arrange themselves. They instituted a search in the
Speaker 3: churches of the neighborhood. All the magnificence of these humble
Speaker 3: parishes combined would not have sufficed to clothe the chorister
Speaker 3: of a cathedral properly. While they were thus embarrassed, a
Speaker 3: large chest was brought and deposited in the presbytery for
Speaker 3: the bishop by two unknown horsemen who departed on the
Speaker 3: instant the chest was opened. It contained a cope of
Speaker 3: cloth of gold, a miter ornamented with diamonds, an archbishop's cross,
Speaker 3: a magnificent crozier, all the pontifical vestments which had been
Speaker 3: stolen a month previously from the treasury of Notre Dame d'ambrens.
Speaker 3: In the chest was a paper on which these words
Speaker 3: were written, from Cravat to Monseigneur. Yevenue, did not I
Speaker 3: say that things would come right of themselves? Said the bishop.
Speaker 3: Then he added, with a smile, to him who contents
Speaker 3: himself with the surplice of a curate, God sends the
Speaker 3: cope of an archbishop. Monseigneur murmured the cure, throwing back
Speaker 3: his head with a smile, God or the devil. The
Speaker 3: bishop looked steadily at the cure and repeated with authority God.
Speaker 3: When he returned to Chastelar, the people came out to
Speaker 3: stare at him as out of curiosity, all along the road.
Speaker 3: At the priest's house in Chastelar, he rejoined Mademoiselle Baptistine
Speaker 3: and Madame Maglars, who were waiting for him, and he
Speaker 3: said to his sister, well, was I in the right.
Speaker 3: The poor priest went to his poor mountaineers with empty hands,
Speaker 3: and he returns from them with his hands full. I
Speaker 3: set out bearing only my faith in God. I have
Speaker 3: brought back the treasure of a cathedral. That evening, before
Speaker 3: he went to bed, he said again, let us never
Speaker 3: fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers.
Speaker 3: Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers. Vices
Speaker 3: are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.
Speaker 3: What matters it, what threatens our head or our purse.
Speaker 3: Let us think only of that which threatens our soul. Then,
Speaker 3: turning to his sister sister, never a precaution on the
Speaker 3: part of the priest against his fellow man that which
Speaker 3: his fellow does God permits. Let us confine ourselves to
Speaker 3: prayer when we think that a danger is approaching us.
Speaker 3: Let us pray not for ourselves, but that our brother
Speaker 3: may not fall into sin on our account. However, such
Speaker 3: incidents were rare in his life. We relate those of
Speaker 3: which we know, But generally he passed his life in
Speaker 3: doing the same things. At the same moment, one month
Speaker 3: of his year resembled one hour of his day. As
Speaker 3: to what became of the treasure of the Cathedral of Enbron,
Speaker 3: we should be embarrassed by any inquiry in that direction.
Speaker 3: It consisted of very handsome things, very tempting things, and
Speaker 3: things which were very well adapted to be stolen for
Speaker 3: the benefit of the unfortunate. Stolen they had already been elsewhere.
Speaker 3: Half of the adventure was completed. It only remained to
Speaker 3: impart a new direction to the theft, and to cause
Speaker 3: it to take a short trip in the direction of
Speaker 3: the poor. However, we make no assertions on this point.
Speaker 3: Only a rather obscure note was found among the bishop's papers,
Speaker 3: which may bear some relation to this matter, and which
Speaker 3: is couched in these terms. The question is to decide
Speaker 3: whether this should be turned over to the cathedral or
Speaker 3: to the hospital. Book one just a man philosophy After
Speaker 3: drinking The senator above mentioned was a clever man who
Speaker 3: had made his own way, heedless of those things which
Speaker 3: present obstacles in which are called conscience, sworn, faith, justice, duty.
Speaker 3: He had marched straight to his goal without once flinching
Speaker 3: in the line of his advancement and his interest. He
Speaker 3: was an old attorney softened by success not a bad
Speaker 3: man by any means, who rendered all the small services
Speaker 3: in his power to his sons, his sons in law,
Speaker 3: his relations, and even to his friends, having wisely seized
Speaker 3: upon in life good sides, good opportunities, good windfalls. Everything
Speaker 3: else seemed to him very stupid. He was intelligent and
Speaker 3: just sufficiently educated to think himself a disciple of Epicurus,
Speaker 3: while he was in reality only a product of Pigo Lebrun.
Speaker 3: He laughed willingly and pleasantly over infinite and eternal things,
Speaker 3: and at the crotchets of that good old fellow, the Bishop.
Speaker 3: He even sometimes laughed at him with an amiable authority,
Speaker 3: in the presence of Monsieur Meriel himself, who listened to
Speaker 3: him on some semi official occasion or other. I do
Speaker 3: not recollect what Count Blanc, this Senator and Monsieur Muriel
Speaker 3: were to dine with the Prefect at dessert. The Senator,
Speaker 3: who was slightly exhilarated, though still perfectly dignified, exclaimed, he gad, Bishop,
Speaker 3: let's have a discussion. It is hard for a senator
Speaker 3: and a bishop to look at each other without winking.
Speaker 3: We are two augurs. I am going to make a
Speaker 3: confession to you. I have a philosophy of my own,
Speaker 3: and you are right, replied the Bishop. As one makes
Speaker 3: one's philosophy, so one lies on it. You are on
Speaker 3: the bed of purple senator. The Senator was encouraged and
Speaker 3: went on, let us be good fellows, good devils, even,
Speaker 3: said the Bishop. I declare to you, continued the Senator,
Speaker 3: that the Marquis d'arjan, Pieron Hobbes, and Monsieur ne Jean
Speaker 3: are no rascals. I have all the philosophers in my
Speaker 3: library gilded on the edges like yourself, Count, interposed the Bishop.
Speaker 3: The Senator resumed, I hate Ditrio. He is an ideologist,
Speaker 3: a declaimer and a revolutionist, a believer in God at bottom,
Speaker 3: and more bigoted than Voltaire. Voltaire made sport of Needum,
Speaker 3: and he was wrong. For Needham's eels prove that God
Speaker 3: is useless. A drop of vinegar in a spoonful of
Speaker 3: flower paste supplies the fiat lukes. Suppose the drop to
Speaker 3: be larger and the spoonful bigger. You have the world
Speaker 3: man is the eel? Then what is the good of
Speaker 3: the eternal Father? The Jehovah hypothesis tires me. Bishop. It
Speaker 3: is good for nothing but to produce shallow people whose
Speaker 3: reasoning is hollow down with that great all which torments me,
Speaker 3: Hurrah for zero, which leaves me in peace between you
Speaker 3: and me. And in order to empty my sack and
Speaker 3: make confession to my pastor, as it behooves me to do,
Speaker 3: I will admit to you that I have good sense.
Speaker 3: I am not enthusiastic over your Jesus. Who preaches renunciation
Speaker 3: and sacrifice to the last extremity tis the counsel of
Speaker 3: an avaricious man to beggars. Renunciation, Why sacrifice to what end?
Speaker 3: I do not see one wolf immolating himself for the
Speaker 3: happiness of another wolf. Let us stick to nature. Then
Speaker 3: we are at the top. Let us have a superior philosophy.
Speaker 3: What is the advantage of being at the top if
Speaker 3: one sees no further than the end of other people's noses?
Speaker 3: Let us live merrily. Life is all that man has
Speaker 3: another future elsewhere on high, below anywhere. I don't believe,
Speaker 3: not one single word of it. Ah, sacrifice and renunciation
Speaker 3: are recommended to me. I must take heed to everything
Speaker 3: I do. I must cudgel my brains over good and evil,
Speaker 3: over the just and unjustic over the fat and the Niphah.
Speaker 3: Why because I shall have to render an account of
Speaker 3: my actions when after death. What a fine dream. After
Speaker 3: my death, it will be a very clever person who
Speaker 3: can catch me. Have a handful of dust seized by
Speaker 3: a shadow hand.
Speaker 4: If you can.
Speaker 3: Let us tell the truth, we who are initiated and
Speaker 3: who have raised the veil of isis. There is no
Speaker 3: such thing as either good or evil. There is vegetation.
Speaker 3: Let us seek the real. Let us get to the
Speaker 3: bottom of it. Let us go into it thoroughly. What
Speaker 3: the deuce? Let us go to the bottom of it.
Speaker 3: We must scent out the truth, dig in the earth
Speaker 3: for it, and seize it. Then it gives you exquisite joys.
Speaker 3: Then you grow strong and you laugh. I am square
Speaker 3: on the bottom. I am immortality. Bishop, is a chance
Speaker 3: a waiting for dead men's shoes? Ah, what a charming promise.
Speaker 7: Trust to it if you like.
Speaker 3: What a fine lot Adam has. We are souls and
Speaker 3: we shall be angels with blue wings on our shoulder blades.
Speaker 3: Do come to my assistance? Is it not Tertullian who
Speaker 3: says that the blessed shall travel from star to star?
Speaker 3: Very well? We shall be the grasshoppers of the stars,
Speaker 3: and then besides we shall see God tat tata? What
Speaker 3: twaddle all these paradises are? God is a nonsensical monster.
Speaker 3: I would not say that in the moniteur Egad, but
Speaker 3: I may whisper it among friends into Pocula. To sacrifice
Speaker 3: the world to paradise is to let slip the prey
Speaker 3: for the shadow be the dupe of the infinite. I
Speaker 3: am not such a fool. I am a knot. I
Speaker 3: call myself monsieur le comte, not senator. Did I exist
Speaker 3: before my birth?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 3: Shall I exist after death?
Speaker 8: No?
Speaker 3: What am I a little dust collected in an organism?
Speaker 3: What am I to do on this earth? The choice
Speaker 3: rests with me. Suffer or enjoy? Whither will suffering lead
Speaker 3: me to nothingness? But I shall have suffered. Whither will
Speaker 3: enjoyment lead me to nothingness? But I shall have enjoyed myself.
Speaker 3: My choice is made. One must eat or be eat.
Speaker 9: I shall eat.
Speaker 3: It is better to be the tooth than the grass.
Speaker 3: Such is my wisdom, after which go whither I push
Speaker 3: thee the grave digger is there the pantheon for some
Speaker 3: of us all falls into the great whole end. Phoenis
Speaker 3: total liquidation. This is the vanishing point. Death is death.
Speaker 3: Believe me, I laugh at the idea of there being
Speaker 3: any one who has anything to tell me on that subject.
Speaker 3: Fables of nurses, Bugaboo for children, Jehovah for men. No,
Speaker 3: Our tomorrow is the night beyond the tomb. There is
Speaker 3: nothing but equal nothingness. You have been Sardanapolis and you
Speaker 3: have been Vincent de Paul. It makes no difference. That
Speaker 3: is the truth. Then live your life above all things.
Speaker 3: Make use of your eye while you have it. In truth, Bishop,
Speaker 3: I tell you that I have a philosophy of my own,
Speaker 3: and I have my philosophers. I don't let myself be
Speaker 3: taken in with that nonsense. Of course, there must be
Speaker 3: something for those who are down, for the barefooted beggars,
Speaker 3: knife grinders, and miserable wretches, legends, chimeras, the soul, immortality, paradise.
Speaker 3: The stars are provided for them to swallow. They gobble
Speaker 3: it down, they spread it on their dry bread. He
Speaker 3: who has nothing else has the Good God, that is
Speaker 3: the least he can have. I oppose no objection to that,
Speaker 3: but I reserve monsieur nigion for myself. The good God
Speaker 3: is good for the populace. The bishop clapped his hands.
Speaker 3: That's talking, he exclaimed. What an excellent and really marvelous
Speaker 3: thing is this materialism? Not everyone who wants it can
Speaker 3: have it. Ugh, when one does have it, one is
Speaker 3: no longer a dupe. One does not stupidly allow one's
Speaker 3: selves to be exiled like Cato, nor Stone, like Stephen,
Speaker 3: nor burned alive like Jean Dac. Those who have succeeded
Speaker 3: in procuring this admirable materialism have the joy of feeling
Speaker 3: themselves irresponsible, and of thinking that they can devour everything
Speaker 3: without uneasiness, places, sinecures, dignities, power, whether well or ill acquired,
Speaker 3: lucrative recantations, useful treacheries, savory capitulations of conscience, and that
Speaker 3: they shall enter the tomb with their digestion accomplished. How
Speaker 3: agreeable that is. I do not say that with reference
Speaker 3: to you, Senator. Nevertheless, it is impossible for me to
Speaker 3: refrain from congratulating you. You great lords, have so you say,
Speaker 3: a philosophy of your own and for yourselves, which is exquisite, refined,
Speaker 3: accessible to the rich alone, good for all sauces, and
Speaker 3: which seasons the voluptuousness of life. Admirably, this philosophy has
Speaker 3: been extracted from the depths and unearthed by special seekers.
Speaker 3: But you are good natured princes, and you do not
Speaker 3: think it a bad thing that believe in the good
Speaker 3: God should constitute the philosophy of the people, very much
Speaker 3: as the goose stuffed with chestnuts is the truffled turkey
Speaker 3: of the poor. End of Book one, Chapter Book one,
Speaker 3: A Just Man, Chapter nine, the brother as depicted by
Speaker 3: the sister, in order to furnish an idea of the
Speaker 3: private establishment of the Bishop of Duigna, and of the
Speaker 3: manner in which those two sainted women subordinated their actions,
Speaker 3: their thoughts, their feminine instincts, even which are easily alarmed
Speaker 3: to the habits and purposes of the Bishop, without his
Speaker 3: even taking the trouble of speaking in order to explain them.
Speaker 3: We cannot do better than transcribe in this place a
Speaker 3: letter from Mademoiselle Baptistine to Madame the Vicontesse de Bois Chevron,
Speaker 3: the friend of her childhood. This letter is in our possession,
Speaker 3: December sixteenth, eighteen blankety blank, My good Madame, not a
Speaker 3: day passes without our speaking of you. It is our
Speaker 3: established custom. But there is another reason besides just imagine.
Speaker 3: While washing and dusting the ceilings and walls, Madame Macloire
Speaker 3: has made some discoveries. Now our two chambers hung with
Speaker 3: antique paper whitewashed over would not discredit a chateau in
Speaker 3: the style of yours. Madame Magloar has pulled off all
Speaker 3: the paper. There were things beneath my drawing room, which
Speaker 3: contains no furniture, and which we use for spreading out.
Speaker 3: The linen after washing, is fifteen feet in height eighteen square,
Speaker 3: with a ceiling which was formerly painted and gilded, and
Speaker 3: with beams as in yours. This was covered with a
Speaker 3: cloth while this was the hospital, and the woodwork was
Speaker 3: of the era of our grandmother's. But my room is
Speaker 3: the one you ought to see. Madame Maglois has discovered,
Speaker 3: under at least ten thicknesses of paper pasted on top,
Speaker 3: some paintings, which, without being good, are very tolerable. The
Speaker 3: subject is Telemachus being knighted by Minerva in some gardens,
Speaker 3: the name of which escapes me. In short, where the
Speaker 3: Roman ladies repaired on one single night. What shall I
Speaker 3: say to you? I have Romans and Roman ladies here
Speaker 3: occurs in a legible word, and the whole train. Madame
Speaker 3: Maglis has cleaned it all off this summer. She is
Speaker 3: going to have some small injuries repaired and the whole revarnished,
Speaker 3: and my chain will be a regular museum. She has
Speaker 3: also found in a corner of the attic two wooden
Speaker 3: pier tables of ancient fashion.
Speaker 10: They asked us.
Speaker 3: Two crowns of six francs each to regild them, but
Speaker 3: it is much better to give the money to the poor,
Speaker 3: and they are very ugly besides, and I should much
Speaker 3: prefer a round table of mahogany. I am always very happy.
Speaker 3: My brother is so good. He gives all he has
Speaker 3: to the poor and sick. We are very much cramped.
Speaker 3: The country is trying in the winter, and we really
Speaker 3: must do something for those who are in need. We
Speaker 3: are almost comfortably lighted and warmed. You see that these
Speaker 3: are great treats. My brother has ways of his own.
Speaker 3: When he talks, he says that a bishop ought to
Speaker 3: be so. Just imagine. The door of our house is
Speaker 3: never fastened. Whoever chooses to enter finds himself at once
Speaker 3: in my brother's room. He fears nothing, even at night.
Speaker 3: This is his sort of bravery. He says he does
Speaker 3: not wish me or Madame Magloire feel any fear for him.
Speaker 3: He exposes himself to all sorts of dangers, and he
Speaker 3: does not like to have us even seem to notice it.
Speaker 3: One must know how to understand him. He goes out
Speaker 3: in the rain, he walks in the water. He travels
Speaker 3: in winter. He fears neither suspicious roads, nor dangerous encounters,
Speaker 3: nor night. Last year he went quite alone into a
Speaker 3: country of robbers. He would not take us. He was
Speaker 3: absent for a fortnight. On his return, nothing had happened
Speaker 3: to him. He was thought to be dead, but was
Speaker 3: perfectly well, and said, this is the way I have
Speaker 3: been robbed. And then he opened a trunk full of jewels,
Speaker 3: and all the jewels of the cathedral of Enprint, which
Speaker 3: the thieves had given him. When he returned on that occasion,
Speaker 3: I could not refrain from scolding him a little, taking care, however,
Speaker 3: not to speak except when the carriage was making a noise,
Speaker 3: so that no one might hear me. At first I
Speaker 3: used to say to myself, there are no dangers which
Speaker 3: will stop him. He is terrible. Now I have ended
Speaker 3: by getting used to it. I make a sign to
Speaker 3: Madame Maglois that she is not to oppose him. He
Speaker 3: risks himself as he sees fit. I carry off Madame.
Speaker 3: I enter my chamber. I pray for him, and I
Speaker 3: fall asleep. I am at ease because I know that
Speaker 3: if anything were to happen to him, it would be
Speaker 3: the end of me. I should go to the Good
Speaker 3: God with my brother and my bishop. It has cost
Speaker 3: Madame Maglis more trouble than it did me to accustom
Speaker 3: herself to what she terms his imprudences. But now the
Speaker 3: habit has been acquired. We pray together, we tremble together,
Speaker 3: and we fall asleep. If the devil were to enter
Speaker 3: this house, he would be allowed to do so. After all,
Speaker 3: what is there for us to fear? In this house?
Speaker 3: There is always some one with us who is stronger
Speaker 3: than me. The devil may pass through it, but the
Speaker 3: Good God dwells here. This suffices me. My brother has
Speaker 3: no longer any need of saying a word to me.
Speaker 3: I understand him without his speaking, and we abandon ourselves
Speaker 3: to the care of providence. That is the way one
Speaker 3: has to do with a man who possesses grandeur of soul.
Speaker 3: I have interrogated my brother with regard to the information
Speaker 3: which he desired on the subject of the full family.
Speaker 3: You are aware that he knows everything and that he
Speaker 3: has memories, because he is still a very good royalist.
Speaker 3: They really are a very ancient Norman family of the
Speaker 3: generalship of Cannes. Five hundred years ago there was a
Speaker 3: Raoul de Fout, a gen Devau, and a Tomas du Foul,
Speaker 3: who were gentlemen, and one of whom was a seignor
Speaker 3: de Rochefort. The last was guill Etienne Alexandre, and was
Speaker 3: commander of a regiment and something in the light horse
Speaker 3: of Bretagne. His daughter Marie Louise, married Atrien Charles de Gramaud,
Speaker 3: son of the dup Luis de Rameaud, peer of France,
Speaker 3: colonel of the French Guards and Lieutenant general of the Army.
Speaker 3: It is written, faux faux and fouque. Good, Madam, recommend
Speaker 3: us to the prayers of your sainted relative, Monsieur the Cardinal.
Speaker 3: As for your dear Silvani, she has done well in
Speaker 3: not wasting the few moments which she passes with you
Speaker 3: in writing to me. She is well works as you
Speaker 3: would wish, and loves me. That is all that I desire.
Speaker 3: The souvenir which she sent through you reached me safely,
Speaker 3: and it makes me very happy. My health is not
Speaker 3: so very bad, and yet I grow thinner every day. Farewell.
Speaker 3: My paper is at an end, and this forces me
Speaker 3: to leave you a thousand good wishes. Baptistin p s.
Speaker 3: Your grand nephew is charming. Do you know that he
Speaker 3: will soon be five years old? Yesterday he saw some
Speaker 3: one riding by on horseback who had on knee caps,
Speaker 3: and he said, what has he got on his knees?
Speaker 3: He is a charming child. His little brother is dragging
Speaker 3: an old room about the room like a carriage and
Speaker 3: saying oooo. As will be perceived from this letter, these
Speaker 3: two women understood how to mold themselves to the bishop's ways,
Speaker 3: with that special feminine genius which comprehends the man better
Speaker 3: than he comprehends himself. The Bishop of Dinia, in spite
Speaker 3: of his gentle and candid air, which never deserted him,
Speaker 3: sometimes did things that were grand, bold and magnificent, without
Speaker 3: seeming to have even a suspicion of the They trembled,
Speaker 3: but they let him alone. Sometimes, Madame Maguire essayed a
Speaker 3: remonstrance in advance, but never at the time nor afterwards.
Speaker 3: They never interfered with him by so much as a
Speaker 3: word or sign in any action, once entered upon at
Speaker 3: certain moments, without his having occasion to mention it, when
Speaker 3: he was not even conscious of it himself. In all probability,
Speaker 3: so perfect was his simplicity. They vaguely felt that he
Speaker 3: was acting as a bishop. Then they were nothing more
Speaker 3: than two shadows in the house. They served him passively,
Speaker 3: and if obedience consisted in disappearing, they disappeared. They understood,
Speaker 3: with an admirable delicacy of instinct, that certain cares may
Speaker 3: be put under constraint. Thus, even when believing him to
Speaker 3: be in peril, they understood, I will not say his thought,
Speaker 3: but his nature, to such a degree that they no
Speaker 3: longer watched over him. They confided him to God. However,
Speaker 3: Baptistine said, as we have just read that her brother's
Speaker 3: and would prove her own. Madame Macrai did not say this,
Speaker 3: but she knew it.
Speaker 11: Book One, a Just Man, Chapter ten. The Bishop in
Speaker 11: the presence of an unknown light, at an epoch a
Speaker 11: little later than the date of the letter cided in
Speaker 11: the preceding pages, he did a thing which, if the
Speaker 11: whole town was to be believed, was even more hazardous
Speaker 11: than his trip across the mountains infested with bandits. In
Speaker 11: the country near Dina, a man lived quite alone. This man,
Speaker 11: we will state at once, was a former member of
Speaker 11: the Convention. His name was G member of the Convention.
Speaker 11: G was mentioned with a sort of horror in the
Speaker 11: little world of Dina, A member of the Convention. Can
Speaker 11: you imagine such a thing that existed from the time
Speaker 11: when people called each other thou and when they said citizen.
Speaker 11: This man was almost a monster. He had not voted
Speaker 11: for the death of the king, but almost he was
Speaker 11: a quasi regicide. He had been a terrible man. How
Speaker 11: did it happen that such a man had not been
Speaker 11: brought before a provost's court on the return of the
Speaker 11: legitimate princes? They need not have cut off his head,
Speaker 11: if you please, clemency must be exercised, agreed, but a
Speaker 11: good banishment for life, an example in short, et cetera. Besides,
Speaker 11: he was an atheist, like all the rest of those people.
Speaker 11: Gossip of the Geese about the vulture was G a vulture?
Speaker 10: After all?
Speaker 11: Yes, if he were to be judged by the element
Speaker 11: of ferocity in the solitude of his As he had
Speaker 11: not voted for the death of the king, he had
Speaker 11: not been included in the decrees of exile, and had
Speaker 11: been able to remain in France. He dwelt at a
Speaker 11: distance of three quarters of an hour from the city,
Speaker 11: far from any hamlet, far from any road, in some
Speaker 11: hid in turn of a very wild valley. No one
Speaker 11: knew exactly where he had there, it was said, a
Speaker 11: sort of field, a hole, a lair. There were no neighbors,
Speaker 11: not even passers by. Since he had dwelt in that valley,
Speaker 11: the path which led thither had disappeared under a growth
Speaker 11: of grass. The locality was spoken of as though it
Speaker 11: had been the dwelling of a hangman. Nevertheless, the bishop
Speaker 11: meditated on the subject, and from time to time he
Speaker 11: gazed at the horizon at a point where a clump
Speaker 11: of trees marked the valley of the former member of
Speaker 11: the Convention, and he said, there is a soul yonder
Speaker 11: which is lonely. And he added, deep in his own mind,
Speaker 11: I owe him a visit, But let us avow it.
Speaker 11: This idea, which seemed natural at the first blush appeared
Speaker 11: to him after a moment's reflection, a strange, impossible, and
Speaker 11: almost repulsive. For at bottom he shared the general impression,
Speaker 11: and the old member of the convention inspired him, without
Speaker 11: his being clearly conscious of the fact himself, with that
Speaker 11: sentiment which borders on hate, and which is so well
Speaker 11: expressed by the word estrangement. Still should the scab of
Speaker 11: the sheep cause the shepherd to recoil? No, but what
Speaker 11: a sheep? The good bishop was perplexed. Some times he
Speaker 11: set out in that direction, then he returned. Finally. The
Speaker 11: rumor one day spread through the town that a sort
Speaker 11: of young shepherd who served the Member of the Convention
Speaker 11: in his hovel, had come in quest of a doctor,
Speaker 11: that the old wretch was dying, that paralysis was gaining
Speaker 11: on him, and that he would not live over night.
Speaker 11: Thank God, some added, the bishop took his staff, put
Speaker 11: on his cloak on account of his two threadbare cassock,
Speaker 11: as we have mentioned, and because of the evening breeze,
Speaker 11: which was sure to rise soon and set out. The
Speaker 11: sun was setting and had almost touched the horizon when
Speaker 11: the Bishop arrived at the excommunicated spot with a certain
Speaker 11: beating of the heart. He recognized the fact that he
Speaker 11: was near the lair. He strode over a ditch, leaped ahead,
Speaker 11: made his way through a fence of dead boughs, entered
Speaker 11: a neglected paddock, took a few steps with a good
Speaker 11: deal of boldness, and suddenly, at the extremity of the
Speaker 11: waste land and behind lofty brambles, he caught sight of
Speaker 11: the cavern. It was a very low hut, poor, small
Speaker 11: and clean, with a vine nailed against the outside. Near
Speaker 11: the door, in an old wheel chair, the arm chair
Speaker 11: of the peasants, there was a white haired man smiling
Speaker 11: at the sun. Near the seated man stood a young boy,
Speaker 11: the shepherd lad. He was offering the old man a
Speaker 11: jar of milk, while the bishop was watching him. The
Speaker 11: old man spoke, thank you. He said, I need nothing,
Speaker 11: and his smile quitted the sun to rest upon the child.
Speaker 11: The Bishop stepped forward. At the sound which he made
Speaker 11: in walking, the old man turned his head, and his
Speaker 11: face expressed the sum total of the surprise which a
Speaker 11: man can still feel after a long life. This is
Speaker 11: the first time since I have been here, he said,
Speaker 11: that any one has entered here. Who are you, sir?
Speaker 11: The bishop answered, my name is bienvenue Muriel, bienvenu Muriel.
Speaker 11: I have heard that name. Are you the man whom
Speaker 11: the people call monseignor welcome? I am, the old man
Speaker 11: resumed with a half smile. In that case, you are
Speaker 11: my bishop, something of that sort, Enter, sir. The member
Speaker 11: of the convention extended his hand to the bishop, but
Speaker 11: the bishop did not take it. The bishop confined himself
Speaker 11: to the remark. I am pleased to see that I
Speaker 11: have been misinformed. You certainly do not seem to be ill, monsieur,
Speaker 11: replied the old man. I am going to recover. He paused,
Speaker 11: and then said, I shall die three hours. Hence, then
Speaker 11: he continued, I am something of a doctor. I know
Speaker 11: in what fashion the last hour draws on. Yesterday only
Speaker 11: my feet were cold to day. The chill has ascended
Speaker 11: to my knees. Now I feel it mounting to my waist.
Speaker 11: When it reaches the heart, I shall stop. The sun
Speaker 11: is beautiful, is it not. I had myself wheeled out
Speaker 11: here to take a last look at things. You can
Speaker 11: talk to me. It does not fatigue me. You have
Speaker 11: done well to come and look at a man who
Speaker 11: is on the point of death. It is well that
Speaker 11: there should be witnesses at that moment. One has one's caprices.
Speaker 11: I should have liked to last until the dawn, but
Speaker 11: I know that I shall hardly live three hours. It
Speaker 11: will be night. Then what does it matter? After all,
Speaker 11: dying is a simple affair. One has no need of
Speaker 11: the light for that, so be it. I shall die
Speaker 11: by starlight. The old man turned to the shepherd, lad
Speaker 11: go to thy bed. Thou wert awake all last night?
Speaker 11: Thou art tired. The child entered the hut. The old
Speaker 11: man followed him with his eyes and added, as though
Speaker 11: speaking to himself, I shall die while he sleeps. The
Speaker 11: two slumbers may be good neighbors. The bishop was not touched,
Speaker 11: as it seems that he should have been. He did
Speaker 11: not think that he discerned God in this manner of dying.
Speaker 11: Let us say the whole, for these petty contradictions of
Speaker 11: great hearts must be indicated like the rest. He who
Speaker 11: on occasion was so fond of laughing at his grace,
Speaker 11: was rather shocked and not being addressed as monseigneur, and
Speaker 11: he was almost tempted to retort citizen. He was assailed
Speaker 11: by a fancy for peevish familiarity common enough to doctors
Speaker 11: and priests, but which was not habitual with him. This man,
Speaker 11: after all, this member of the Convention, this representative of
Speaker 11: the people, had been one of the powerful ones of
Speaker 11: the earth for the first time in his life. Probably
Speaker 11: the bishop felt in a mood to be severe. Meanwhile,
Speaker 11: the member of the Convention had been surveying him with
Speaker 11: a modest cordiality, and which one could have distinguished, possibly
Speaker 11: that humility which is so fitting when one is on
Speaker 11: the verge of returning to dust. The Bishop, on his side,
Speaker 11: although he generally restrained his curiosity, which in his opinion
Speaker 11: bordered on a fault, could not refrain from examining the
Speaker 11: member of the Convention with an attention which, as it
Speaker 11: did not have its course in sympathy, would have served
Speaker 11: his conscience as a matter of reproach. In connection with
Speaker 11: any other man, a member of the Convention produced in
Speaker 11: him somewhat the effect of being outside the pale of
Speaker 11: the law, even of the law of charity. G calm,
Speaker 11: his body almost upright, his voice vibrating. Was one of
Speaker 11: those octogenarians who formed the subject of astonishment to the physiologist.
Speaker 11: The revolution had many of these men proportioned to the epoch.
Speaker 11: In this old man, one was conscious of a man
Speaker 11: put to the proof, though so near to his end,
Speaker 11: he preserved all the gestures of health, in his clear glance,
Speaker 11: in his firm tone, in the robust movement of his shoulders.
Speaker 11: There was something calculated to disconcert death. Osrael the mohammedan
Speaker 11: angel of the sad sepulcher, would have turned back and
Speaker 11: thought that he had mistaken the door. G seemed to
Speaker 11: be dying because he willed it. So there was freedom
Speaker 11: in his agony. His legs alone were motionless. It was
Speaker 11: there that the shadows held him fast. His feet were
Speaker 11: cold and dead, but his head survived with all the
Speaker 11: power of life and seemed full of light. G at
Speaker 11: this solemn moment, resembled the king of that tale of
Speaker 11: the Orient, who was flesh above and marble below. There
Speaker 11: was a stone there. The bishop sat down. The exordium
Speaker 11: was abrupt. I congratulate you, said he in the tone
Speaker 11: which one uses for a Reprimand you did not vote
Speaker 11: for the death of the king. After all, the old
Speaker 11: member of the convention did not appear to notice the
Speaker 11: bitter meaning under lying the words. After all, he replied
Speaker 11: the smile had quite disappeared from his face. Do not
Speaker 11: congratulate me too much, Sir, I did vote for the
Speaker 11: death of the tyrant. It was the tone of austerity,
Speaker 11: answering the tone of severity. What do you mean to say,
Speaker 11: resumed the Bishop. I mean to say that man has
Speaker 11: a tyrant ignorance. I voted for the death of that tyrant.
Speaker 11: That tyrant engendered royalty, which is authority falsely understood, while
Speaker 11: science is authority rightly understood. Man should be governed only
Speaker 11: by science and conscience, added the Bishop. It is the
Speaker 11: same thing. Conscience is the quantity of innate science, which
Speaker 11: we have within us. Monseigneur Bienvenu listened in some astonishment
Speaker 11: to this language, which was very new to him. The
Speaker 11: member of the convention resumed. So far as Louis the
Speaker 11: sixteenth was concerned, I said, no. I did not think
Speaker 11: that I had the right to kill a man, but
Speaker 11: I felt it by duty to exterminate evil. I voted
Speaker 11: the end of the tyrant, that is to say, the
Speaker 11: end of prostitution for woman, the end of slavery for man,
Speaker 11: the end of night for the child. In voting for
Speaker 11: the Republic, I voted for that I voted for fraternity
Speaker 11: concord the dawn. I have aided in the overthrow of
Speaker 11: prejudices and heirrors. The crumpling away of prejudices and heirrors
Speaker 11: causes light. We have caused the fall of the old world,
Speaker 11: and the old world, that vase of miseries has become,
Speaker 11: through its upsetting upon the human race, an urn of joy,
Speaker 11: mixed joy, said the Bishop. You may say troubled joy.
Speaker 11: And today after that fatal return of the past, which
Speaker 11: is called eighteen fourteen joy, which has disappeared alas the
Speaker 11: work was incomplete, I admit we demolished the ancient regime
Speaker 11: in deeds, we were not able to suppress it entirely
Speaker 11: in ideas. To destroy abuses is not sufficient. Customs must
Speaker 11: be modified. The mill is there no longer, the wind
Speaker 11: is still there. You have demolished. It may be of
Speaker 11: use to demolish. But I distrust demolition complicated with wrath.
Speaker 11: Right has its wrath, Bishop, and the wrath of right
Speaker 11: is an element of progress. In any case, and in
Speaker 11: spite of whatever may be said, the French Revolution is
Speaker 11: the most important step of the human race since the
Speaker 11: Advent of Christ. Incomplete, it may be but sublime. It
Speaker 11: set free all the unknown social quantities. It softened spirits,
Speaker 11: it calmed, appeased, enlightened. It caused the waves of civilization
Speaker 11: to flow over the earth. It was a good thing.
Speaker 11: The French Revolution is the consecration of humanity. The bishop
Speaker 11: could not refrain from murmuring, Yes, ninety three. The member
Speaker 11: of the Convention straightened himself up in his chair with
Speaker 11: an almost lugubrious solemnity, and exclaimed, so far as a
Speaker 11: dying man is capable of exclamation, Ah, there you go,
Speaker 11: ninety three. I was expecting that word. A cloud had
Speaker 11: been forming for the space of fifteen hundred years. At
Speaker 11: the end of fifteen hundred years, at first you are
Speaker 11: putting the thunderbolt on its trial. The bishop felt, without
Speaker 11: perhaps confessing it, that something within him had suffered extinction. Nevertheless,
Speaker 11: he put a good face on the matter. He replied,
Speaker 11: the judge speaks in the name of justice. The priest
Speaker 11: speaks in the name of pity, which is nothing but
Speaker 11: a more lofty justice. A thunderbolt should commit no error.
Speaker 11: And he added, regarding the member of the convention, Steadily
Speaker 11: the while Louis the seventeenth, the conventionary stretched forth his
Speaker 11: hand and grasped the bishop's arm. Louis the seventeenth, let
Speaker 11: us see for whom do you mourn? Is it for
Speaker 11: the innocent child? Very good? In that case? I mourn
Speaker 11: with you? Is it for the royal child? I demand
Speaker 11: time for reflection?
Speaker 6: To me?
Speaker 11: The brother of Cartouche, an innocent child who was hung
Speaker 11: up by the armpits in the Plus to Grev until
Speaker 11: death ensued for the sole crime of having been the
Speaker 11: brother of Cartouche, is no less painful than the grandson
Speaker 11: of Louis the fifteenth, an innocent child martyred in the
Speaker 11: tower of the temple for the sole crime of having
Speaker 11: been grandson of Louis the fifteenth. Monsieur said the bishop,
Speaker 11: I like not this conjunction of names, Cartouche Louis the fifteenth,
Speaker 11: to which of the two do you object? A momentary
Speaker 11: silence ensued. The Bishop almost regretted having come, and yet
Speaker 11: he felt vaguely and strangely shaken. The conventionary resumed, Ah, Monsieur, priest,
Speaker 11: you love not the crudities of the true Christ loved them.
Speaker 11: He seized a rod and cleared out the temple. His scourge,
Speaker 11: full of lightnings, was a harsh speaker of truths. When
Speaker 11: he cried simitae parvlos, he made no distinction between the
Speaker 11: little children. It would not have embarrassed him to bring
Speaker 11: together the dolphin of Brabas and the Douphin of Herod.
Speaker 11: Innocence monsieur is its own crown. Innocence has no need
Speaker 11: to be a highness. It is as August in rags
Speaker 11: as in Fleur de lis. That is true, said the
Speaker 11: bishop in a low voice. I persist, continued the Conventionary G.
Speaker 11: You have mentioned Louis the seventeenth to me. Let us
Speaker 11: come to an understanding. Shall we weep for all the innocent,
Speaker 11: all martyrs, all children, the lowly, as well as the exalted.
Speaker 11: I agree to that. But in that case, as I
Speaker 11: have told you, we must go back further than ninety three,
Speaker 11: and our tears must begin before Louis the seventeenth. I
Speaker 11: will weep with you over the children of kings, provided
Speaker 11: that you will weep with me over the children of
Speaker 11: the people. I weep for all, said the bishop, equally
Speaker 11: exclaimed Conventionary G. And if the balance must incline, let
Speaker 11: it be on the side of the people. They have
Speaker 11: been suffering longer, another silence ensued. The conventionary was the
Speaker 11: first to break it. He raised himself on one elbow,
Speaker 11: took a bit of his cheek between his thumb and
Speaker 11: his forefinger, as one does mechanically when one interrogates and judges,
Speaker 11: and appealed to the bishop with a gaze full of
Speaker 11: all the forces of the death agony. It was almost
Speaker 11: an explosion. Yes, sir, the people have been suffering a
Speaker 11: long while. And hold that is not all either. Why
Speaker 11: have you just questioned me and talked to me about
Speaker 11: Louis the Sand seventeenth? I know you not. Ever since
Speaker 11: I have been in these parts, I have dwelt in
Speaker 11: this enclosure alone, never setting foot outside, and seeing no
Speaker 11: one but that child who helps me. Your name has
Speaker 11: reached me in a confused manner. It is true, and
Speaker 11: very badly pronounced, I must admit, But that signifies nothing.
Speaker 11: Clever men have so many ways of imposing on that
Speaker 11: honest goodman the people. By the way, I did not
Speaker 11: hear the sound of your carriage. You have left it yonder,
Speaker 11: beyond the coppice at the fork of the roads. No doubt,
Speaker 11: I do not know you. I tell you. You have told
Speaker 11: me that you are the bishop, but that affords me
Speaker 11: no information as to your moral personality. In short, I
Speaker 11: repeat my question, who are you? You are a bishop,
Speaker 11: that is to say, a prince of the church, one
Speaker 11: of those gilded men with heraldic bearings and revenues, who
Speaker 11: have vast prebends the bishopric of Digna fifteen thousand francs
Speaker 11: settled income, ten thousand in perquisites total twenty five thousand francs,
Speaker 11: who have kitchens, who have liveries, who make good cheer,
Speaker 11: who eat more hens on Friday, who scrut about a
Speaker 11: lackey before a lackey behind in a galaic coach, and
Speaker 11: who have palaces, and who roll in their carriages in
Speaker 11: the name of Jesus Christ, who went barefoot. You are
Speaker 11: a prelate revenues, palace, horses, servants, good table, all the
Speaker 11: sensualities of life. You have this like the rest, and
Speaker 11: like the rest, you enjoy it. It is well. But
Speaker 11: this says either too much or too little. This does
Speaker 11: not enlighten me upon the intrinsic and essential value of
Speaker 11: the man who comes with the probable intention of bringing
Speaker 11: wisdom to me. To whom do I speak? Who are you.
Speaker 11: The Bishop hung his head and replied, fermi soom I
Speaker 11: am a worm, a worm of the earth, and a carriage,
Speaker 11: growled the conventionary. It was the Conventionary's turn to be
Speaker 11: arrogant and the bishops to be humble. The Bishop resumed mildly.
Speaker 11: So be it, sir, but explain to me how my carriage,
Speaker 11: which is a few paces off beyond the trees yonder,
Speaker 11: How my good table and the moor hens which I
Speaker 11: eat on Friday. How my twenty five thousand francs income,
Speaker 11: How my palace and my lackeys prove that clemency is
Speaker 11: not a duty, and that ninety three was not inexorable.
Speaker 11: The Conventionary passed a hand across his brow, as though
Speaker 11: to sweep away a cloud. Before replying to you, he said,
Speaker 11: I beseech you to pardon me. I have just committed
Speaker 11: a wrong.
Speaker 10: Sir.
Speaker 11: You are at my house, you are my guest. I
Speaker 11: owe you courtesy. You discuss my ideas, and it becomes
Speaker 11: me to confine myself to combating your arguments. Your riches
Speaker 11: and your pleasures are advantages which I hold over you
Speaker 11: in the debate. But good taste dictates that I shall
Speaker 11: not make use of them. I promise you to make
Speaker 11: no use of them in the future. I thank you,
Speaker 11: said the bishop g resumed. Let us return to the
Speaker 11: explanation which you have asked of me.
Speaker 8: Where were we?
Speaker 11: What were you saying to me that ninety three was inexorable? Inexorable? Yes,
Speaker 11: said the bishop, What think you of Maraut clapping his
Speaker 11: hands at the guillotine? What think you of Bossuet? Chanting
Speaker 11: the te deum over the dragonade. The retort was a
Speaker 11: harsh one, but it attained its mark with the directness
Speaker 11: of a point of steel. The bishop quivered under it.
Speaker 11: No reply occurred to him, but he was offended by
Speaker 11: this mode of alluding to Bossuet. The best of mines
Speaker 11: will have their fetishes, and they sometimes feel vaguely wounded
Speaker 11: by the want of respect of logic. The conventionary began
Speaker 11: to pant. The asthma of the agony, which is mingled
Speaker 11: with the last breaths, interrupted his voice. Still there was
Speaker 11: a perfect lucidity of soul in his eyes. He went on,
Speaker 11: let me say a few words more in this and
Speaker 11: that direction. I am willing apart from the revolution, which
Speaker 11: taken as a whole, is an immense human affirmation ninety
Speaker 11: three is alas a rejoinder. You think it inexorable, sir,
Speaker 11: But what of the whole monarchy?
Speaker 6: Sir?
Speaker 11: Carrier is a bandit? But what name do you give
Speaker 11: to montravel Fouquier? Conville is a rascal? But what is
Speaker 11: your opinion as to La Mognon Baville. My yard is terrible,
Speaker 11: but so Tavaan, if you please. Duquenseignor is ferocious, But
Speaker 11: what epithet will you allow me? For the elder LeTellier
Speaker 11: Geordan Couptet is a monster, but not so great a
Speaker 11: one as Monsieur the Marquis de Louvois. Sir, Sir, I
Speaker 11: am sorry for Marie Antoinette, Archduchess and Queen. But I
Speaker 11: am also sorry for that poor Huguenot woman who, in
Speaker 11: sixteen eighty five, under Louis the Great, Sir, while with
Speaker 11: a nursing infant, was bound naked to the waist to
Speaker 11: a stake, and the child kept at a distance. Her
Speaker 11: breast swelled with milk and her heart with anguish. The
Speaker 11: little one, hungry and pale, beheld that breast and cried
Speaker 11: and agonized. The executioner said to the woman, a mother
Speaker 11: and a nurse abjure, giving her her choice between the
Speaker 11: death of her infant and the death of her conscience.
Speaker 11: What say you to that torture of Tantalus as applied
Speaker 11: to a mother? Bear this well in mind, sir. The
Speaker 11: French Revolution had its reasons for existence. Its wrath will
Speaker 11: be absolved by the future. Its result is the world
Speaker 11: made better from its most terrible blows. There comes forth
Speaker 11: a caress for the human race. I abridge, I stop,
Speaker 11: I have too much the advantage. Moreover, I am dying
Speaker 11: and ceasing to gaze at the Bishop. The Conventionary concluded
Speaker 11: his thoughts in these tranquil words. Yes, the brutalities of
Speaker 11: progress are called revolutions. When they are over. This fact
Speaker 11: is recognized that the human race has been treated harshly,
Speaker 11: but that it has progressed. The Conventionary doubted not that
Speaker 11: he had successively conquered all the inmost entrenchments of the Bishop.
Speaker 11: One remained, however, and from this entrenchment the last resource
Speaker 11: of Monseigneur Bienvenu's resistance came forth this reply, wherein appeared
Speaker 11: nearly all the harshness of the beginning. Progress should believe
Speaker 11: in God, good cannot have an impious servitor. He who
Speaker 11: is an atheist is but a bad leader for the
Speaker 11: human race. The former representative of the people made no reply.
Speaker 11: He was seized with a fit of trembling. He looked
Speaker 11: towards heaven, and in his glance a tear gathered. Slowly.
Speaker 11: When the eyelid was full, the tear trickled down his
Speaker 11: livid cheek, and he said, almost in a stammer, quite low,
Speaker 11: and to himself, while his eyes were plunged in depths,
Speaker 11: Oh thou o ideal, thou alone existest. The bishop experienced
Speaker 11: an indescribable shock. After a pause, the old man raised
Speaker 11: a finger heavenward and said, the infinite is He is there.
Speaker 11: If the infinite had no person, person would be without limit.
Speaker 11: It would not be infinite. In other words, it would
Speaker 11: not exist. There is then an eye. That eye of
Speaker 11: the infinite is God. The dying man had pronounced these
Speaker 11: last words in a loud voice, and with the shiver
Speaker 11: of ecstasy, as though he beheld some one. When he
Speaker 11: had spoken, his eyes closed. The effort had exhausted him.
Speaker 11: It was evident that he had just lived through, in
Speaker 11: a moment the few hours which had been left to him.
Speaker 11: That which he had said, brought him nearer to him
Speaker 11: who is in death. The supreme moment was approaching. The
Speaker 11: bishop understood this time pressed it was as a priest
Speaker 11: that he had come from extreme coldness. He had passed
Speaker 11: by degrees to extreme emotion. He gazed at those closed eyes.
Speaker 11: He took that wrinkled, aged and ice cold handed his
Speaker 11: and bent over the dying man. This hour is the
Speaker 11: hour of God. Do you not think that it would
Speaker 11: be regrettable if we had met in vain? The conventionary
Speaker 11: opened his eyes again. A gravity mingled with gloom was
Speaker 11: imprinted on his countenance. Bishop said he with a slowness,
Speaker 11: which probably arose more from his dignity of soul than
Speaker 11: from the failing of his strength. I have passed my
Speaker 11: life in meditation, study and contemplation. I was sixty years
Speaker 11: of age when my country called me and commanded me
Speaker 11: to concern myself with its affairs. I obeyed. Abuses existed,
Speaker 11: I combated them. Tyrannies existed, I destroyed them. Rights and
Speaker 11: principles existed. I proclaimed and confessed them. Our territory was invaded,
Speaker 11: I defended it. France was menaced. I offered my breast.
Speaker 11: I was not rich. I am poor. I have been
Speaker 11: one of the masters of the state. The vaults of
Speaker 11: the treasury were encumbered with specie to such a degree
Speaker 11: that we were forced to shore up the walls, which
Speaker 11: were on the point of bursting beneath the weight of
Speaker 11: gold and silver. I dined in dead Tree Street at
Speaker 11: twenty two sous. I have succored the oppressed. I have
Speaker 11: comforted the suffering. I tore the cloth from the altar,
Speaker 11: it is true, but it was to bind up the
Speaker 11: wounds of my country. I have always upheld the marsh
Speaker 11: forward of the human race, forward towards the light, and
Speaker 11: I have sometimes resisted progress without pity. I have, when
Speaker 11: the occasion offered, protected my own adversaries, men of your profession.
Speaker 11: And there is at Pettigam in Flanders, at the very
Speaker 11: spot where the Merovingian kings has their summer palace, a
Speaker 11: convent of urbanists, the abbey of Saint Clair A Bolleaux,
Speaker 11: which I saved in seventeen ninety three. I have done
Speaker 11: my duty according to my powers, and all the good
Speaker 11: that I was able, after which I was hunted down, pursued, persecuted, blackened,
Speaker 11: cheered at, scorned, cursed prescribed. For many years past, I,
Speaker 11: with my white hair, have been conscious that many people
Speaker 11: think they have the right to despise me. To the poor,
Speaker 11: ignorant masses, I present the visage of one damned, and
Speaker 11: I accept this isolation of hatred without hating any one myself.
Speaker 11: Now I am eighty six years old.
Speaker 8: I am on the.
Speaker 11: Point of death. What is it that you have come
Speaker 11: to ask of me your blessing? Said the bishop, and
Speaker 11: he knelt down. When the Bishop raised his head again,
Speaker 11: the face of the conventionary had become august. He had
Speaker 11: just expired. The Bishop returned home, deeply absorbed in thoughts
Speaker 11: which cannot be known to us. He passed the whole
Speaker 11: night in prayer. On the following morning, some bold and
Speaker 11: curious persons attempted to speak to him about member of
Speaker 11: the convention g. He contented himself with pointing heavenward. From
Speaker 11: that moment he redoubled his tenderness and brotherly feeling towards
Speaker 11: all children and sufferers. Any allusion to that old wretch
Speaker 11: of a g caused him to fall into a singular preoccupation.
Speaker 11: No one could say that the passage of that soul
Speaker 11: before his and the reflection of that grand conscience upon
Speaker 11: his did not count for something in his approach to perfection.
Speaker 11: This pastoral visit naturally furnished an occasion for a murmur
Speaker 11: of comment in all the little local codies. It was
Speaker 11: the bedside of such a dying man, as that the
Speaker 11: proper place for a bishop. There was evidently no conversion
Speaker 11: to be expected. All those revolutionists are backsliders. Then I
Speaker 11: go there? What was there to be seen there? He
Speaker 11: must have been very curious, indeed, to see his soul
Speaker 11: carried off by the devil. One day, a dowager of
Speaker 11: the impertinent variety, who thinks herself spiritual, addressed this sally
Speaker 11: to him. People are requiring when your greatness will receive
Speaker 11: the red cap. Oh oh, that's a coarse color, replied
Speaker 11: the bishop. It is lucky that those who despise it
Speaker 11: in a cap reve it in a hat.
Speaker 6: And book one hs Man, chapter eleven a restriction. We
Speaker 6: should incur a great risk of deceiving ourselves were we
Speaker 6: to conclude from this that Monseigneur Welcome was a philosophical
Speaker 6: bishop or a patriotic cure. His meeting, which may also
Speaker 6: be designated as his union with conventionary g left behind
Speaker 6: it in his mind a sort of astonishment which rendered
Speaker 6: him still more gentle. That is all, although Monseigneur Bavenue
Speaker 6: was far from being a politician, this is perhaps the
Speaker 6: place to indicate very briefly what his attitude was in
Speaker 6: the events of that epoch. Supposing that Monseigneur ba Avenue
Speaker 6: ever dreamed of having an attitude, let us then go
Speaker 6: back a few years. Some time after the elevation of
Speaker 6: Monsieur Marchelle to the episcopit, the Emperor had made him
Speaker 6: a baron of the Empire in company with many other bishops.
Speaker 6: The arrest of the pope took place, as everyone knows,
Speaker 6: on the night of the fifth the sixth of July
Speaker 6: eighteen o nine. On this occasion, Monsieur Marrie was summoned
Speaker 6: by Napoleon to the Senate of the Bishops of France
Speaker 6: and Italy, convened at Paris. This synod was held at
Speaker 6: Notre Dame and assembled for the first time on the
Speaker 6: fifteenth of June eighteen eleven under the presidency of Cardinal Fesque.
Speaker 6: Monsieur Mauriel was one of the ninety five bishops who
Speaker 6: attended it, but he was present only at one sitting
Speaker 6: and at three or four private conferences. Bishop of a
Speaker 6: mountain diocese, living so very close to nature in rusticity
Speaker 6: and deprivation, it appeared that he imported among these eminent
Speaker 6: personages ideas which altered the temperature of the assembly. He
Speaker 6: very soon returned to Dina. He was interrogated as to
Speaker 6: this speedy return, and he replied, I embarrassed them. The
Speaker 6: outside air penetrated to them. Through me. I produced on
Speaker 6: them the effect of an open door. On another occasion,
Speaker 6: he said, what would you have? Those gentlemen are princess.
Speaker 6: I am only a poor peasant bishop. The fact is
Speaker 6: that he displeased them, among other strange things. It is
Speaker 6: said that he chanced to remark one evening when he
Speaker 6: found himself at the house of one of his most
Speaker 6: notable colleagues, what beautiful clocks, what beautiful carpets, what beautiful liveries.
Speaker 6: They must be a great trouble. I would not have
Speaker 6: all these superfluities crying incessantly in my ears. There are
Speaker 6: people who are hungry, there are people who are cold.
Speaker 6: There are poor people. There are poor people. Let us remark,
Speaker 6: by the way that the hatred of luxury is not
Speaker 6: an intelligent hatred. This hatred would involve the hatred of
Speaker 6: the arts. Nevertheless, in churchmen, luxury is wrong except in
Speaker 6: connection with representations and ceremonies. It seems to reveal habits
Speaker 6: which have very little that is charitable about them. An
Speaker 6: opulent priest is a contradiction. The priest must keep close
Speaker 6: to the poor. Now can one come in contact incessantly,
Speaker 6: night and day with all this distress, all these misfortunes,
Speaker 6: in this poverty, without having about one's own person a
Speaker 6: little of that misery, like the dust of labor? Is
Speaker 6: it possible to imagine a man near a brazier who
Speaker 6: is not warm? Can one imagine a workman who is
Speaker 6: working near a furnace, and who has neither a singed hair,
Speaker 6: nor blackened nails, nor a drop of sweat, nor a
Speaker 6: speck of ashes on his face? The first proof of
Speaker 6: charity and the priest, in the bishop especially is poverty. This,
Speaker 6: no doubt, is what the Bishop of Dnia thought. It
Speaker 6: must not be supposed, however, that he shared what we
Speaker 6: call the ideas of the sentry. On certain delicate points.
Speaker 6: He took very little part in the theological quarrels of
Speaker 6: the moment, and maintained silence on questions in which church
Speaker 6: and state were implicated. But if he had been strongly pressed,
Speaker 6: it seems that he would have been found to be
Speaker 6: an ultra Montaigne rather than a Gallican. Since we are
Speaker 6: making a portrait, and since we do not wish to
Speaker 6: conceal anything, we are forced to add that he was
Speaker 6: glacial towards Napoleon in his decline in eighteen thirteen. He
Speaker 6: gave in his adherents to or applauded all hostile manifestations.
Speaker 6: He refused to see him as he passed through on
Speaker 6: his return from the island of Elba, and he abstained
Speaker 6: from ordering public prayers for the Emperor and his diocese
Speaker 6: during the hundred Days. Besides his sister, Mademoiselle Baptistein, he
Speaker 6: had two brothers, one at general, the other prefect. He
Speaker 6: wrote to both with tolerable frequency. He was harsh for
Speaker 6: a time towards the former, because, holding a command in
Speaker 6: Provence at the epoch of the disembarkation at Cannes, the
Speaker 6: general had put himself at the head of twelve hundred
Speaker 6: men and had pursued the Emperor as though the latter
Speaker 6: had been a person whom one was desirous of allowing
Speaker 6: to escape his correspondents. With the other brother, the ex Prefect,
Speaker 6: a fine, worthy man who lived in retirement at Paris,
Speaker 6: rue Caussette remained more affectionate. Thus, Monseigneur bia Avenue also
Speaker 6: had his hour of party spirit, his hour of bitterness,
Speaker 6: his cloud, the shadow of the passions of the moment
Speaker 6: traversed to this grand and genital spirit occupied with eternal things.
Speaker 6: Certainly such a man would have done well not to
Speaker 6: entertain any political opinions. Let there be no mistake as
Speaker 6: to our meaning. We are not confounding what is called
Speaker 6: political opinions with the grand aspiration for progress, with the
Speaker 6: sublime faith, patriotic, democratic, humane, which in our days should
Speaker 6: be the very foundation of every generous intellect. Without going
Speaker 6: deeply into questions which are only indirectly connected with the
Speaker 6: subject of this book, we will simply say this. It
Speaker 6: would have been well if Monseigneur by Avenue had not
Speaker 6: been a royalist, and if his glance had never been
Speaker 6: for a single instant turned away from that serene contemplation
Speaker 6: in which is distinctly discernible above the fictions and the
Speaker 6: hatreds of this world, above the stormy vicissitudes of human things,
Speaker 6: the beaming of those three purer radiances, truth, justice, and charity.
Speaker 6: While admitting that it was not for political office that
Speaker 6: God created monseigneur welcome. We should have understood and admired
Speaker 6: his protest in the name of right and liberty, his
Speaker 6: proud opposition, his just but perilous resistance to the all
Speaker 6: powerful Napoleon. But that which pleases us in people who
Speaker 6: are arising pleases us less in the case of people
Speaker 6: who are falling. We only love the pray so long
Speaker 6: as there is danger. And in any case, the combatants
Speaker 6: of the first hour have alone the right to be
Speaker 6: the exterminators of the last. He who has not been
Speaker 6: a stubborn accuser in prosperity should hold his peace in
Speaker 6: the face of ruin. The denunciator of success is the
Speaker 6: only legitimate executioner of the fall. As for us, when
Speaker 6: providence intervenes and strikes, we let it work. Eighteen twelve
Speaker 6: commenced to disarm us in eighteen thirteen. The cowardly breach
Speaker 6: of silence of that tactiturned legislative body, emboldened by a
Speaker 6: catastrophe possessed only traits which aroused indignation, And it was
Speaker 6: a crime to applaud in eighteen fourteen in the presence
Speaker 6: of those marshals who betrayed, in the presence of that
Speaker 6: Senate which passed from one dunghill to another, insulting after
Speaker 6: having deified, in the presence of that idolatry which was
Speaker 6: losing its footing and spinning on its idol. It was
Speaker 6: a duty to turn aside the head in eighteen fifteen,
Speaker 6: when the supreme disasters filled the air, when France was
Speaker 6: seized with a shiver at their sinister approach, when Waterloo
Speaker 6: could be dimly discerned opening before Napoleon, the mournful acclamation
Speaker 6: of the army and the people of the condemned of
Speaker 6: destiny had nothing laughable on it. And after making all
Speaker 6: allowance for the despot, a heart like that of the
Speaker 6: Bishop of Denya ought not, perhaps to have failed to
Speaker 6: recognize the auguste and touching features presented by the embrace
Speaker 6: of a great nation and a great man on the
Speaker 6: brink of the Abyss. With this exception, he was in
Speaker 6: all things just true, equitable, intelligent, humble and dignified, beneficent
Speaker 6: and kindly, which is only another sort of benevolence. He
Speaker 6: was a priest, a sage, and a man. It must
Speaker 6: be admitted that, even in the political views with which
Speaker 6: we have just reproached him, and with which we are
Speaker 6: disposed to judge almost with severity, he was tolerant and easy,
Speaker 6: more so perhaps than we who are speaking here. The
Speaker 6: porter of the town hall had been placed there by
Speaker 6: the Emperor. He was an old non commissioned officer of
Speaker 6: the Old Guard, a member of the Legion of Honor
Speaker 6: at Austerlitz. As much of a bonapartist as the Eagle,
Speaker 6: this poor fellow occasionally let slip in considerate remarks which
Speaker 6: the law then stigmatized as seditious speeches. After the Imperial
Speaker 6: profile disappeared from the Legion of Honor, he never dressed
Speaker 6: himself in his regimentals, as he said, so that he
Speaker 6: would not be obliged to wear his cross. He had
Speaker 6: himself devoutly removed the imperial effigy from the cross which
Speaker 6: Napoleon had given him. This made a hole, and he
Speaker 6: would not put anything in its place. I will die,
Speaker 6: he said, rather than wear the three frogs upon my heart.
Speaker 6: He liked a scoff a laud at Louis the eighteenth,
Speaker 6: the gouty old creature in English gaiters, he said, let
Speaker 6: him take himself off to Prussia. With that cue of
Speaker 6: his he was happy to confine in the same imprecation
Speaker 6: the two things which he most attested, Prussia and England.
Speaker 6: He did it so often that he lost his place there.
Speaker 6: He was turned out of the house, with his wife
Speaker 6: and children, and without bread. The bishop sent for him,
Speaker 6: reproved him gently and appointed him beadle in the cathedral.
Speaker 6: In the course of nine years, Monseigneur b Avenu had,
Speaker 6: by dint of holy deeds and gentle manners, filled the
Speaker 6: town of Dina with a sort of tender and filial reverence.
Speaker 6: Even his conduct toward Napoleon had been accepted and tacitly pardoned,
Speaker 6: as it were, by the people, the good and weekly flock,
Speaker 6: who adored their Emperor but loved their bishop. End of
Speaker 6: Book one, Chapter eleven, Book one A Just Man, Chapter twelve,
Speaker 6: The solitude of Monseigneur Welcome. A bishop is almost always
Speaker 6: surrounded by a full squadron of little abbes, just as
Speaker 6: a general is by a covey of young officers. This
Speaker 6: is what that charming Saint Francois de Salle calls somewhere.
Speaker 6: They predro blanc Beck callow priests. Every career has its aspirants,
Speaker 6: who form a train for those who have attained eminence
Speaker 6: in it. There is no power which has not its dependence.
Speaker 6: There is no fortune which has not its court. The
Speaker 6: seekers of the future eddy around the splendid present. Every
Speaker 6: metropolis has its staff of officials. Every bishop who possesses
Speaker 6: the least influence has about him his patrol of cherubim
Speaker 6: from the seminary, which goes the round and maintains good
Speaker 6: order in the episcopal palace and mounts guard over monseigneur's smile.
Speaker 6: To please a bishop is equivalent to getting one's foot
Speaker 6: in the stirrup. For a subdiaconate, it is necessary to
Speaker 6: walk one's path discreetly. The apostleship did not disdain canonship.
Speaker 6: Just as there are big wigs everywhere, there are big
Speaker 6: miters in the church. These are the bishops who stand
Speaker 6: well at court, who are rich, well endowed, skillful, accepted
Speaker 6: by the world, who know how to pray no doubt,
Speaker 6: but who know also how to beg who feel little
Speaker 6: scruple at making a whole dioces dance, attendants in their
Speaker 6: person who are connecting links between the sacristy and diplomacy,
Speaker 6: who are abbes rather than priests, prelates rather than's bishops,
Speaker 6: happy those who approach them, Being persons of influence, they
Speaker 6: create a shower about them, upon the assiduous in the favor,
Speaker 6: and upon all the young men who understand the art
Speaker 6: of pleasing of large parishes, pribons, archidiaconuts, chaplaincies and cathedral posts.
Speaker 6: While awaiting episcopal honors. As they advance themselves, they cause
Speaker 6: their satellites to progress. Also, it is a whole solar
Speaker 6: system on the march. Their radiance casts a gleam of
Speaker 6: purple over their suite. Their prosperity is crumbled up behind
Speaker 6: the scenes into nice little promotions. The larger the diocese
Speaker 6: of the patron, the fatter the curacy for the favorite.
Speaker 6: And then there is Rome, a bishop who understands how
Speaker 6: to become an archbishop. An archbishop who knows how to
Speaker 6: become a cardinal carries you with him as conclavist, you
Speaker 6: into a court of papal jurisdiction. You receive the pallium
Speaker 6: and behold, you are an auditor, then a papal chamberlain,
Speaker 6: then monseigneur. And from a grace to an eminence is
Speaker 6: only a step. And between the eminence and the holiness
Speaker 6: there is but the smoke of a ballot. Every skullcap
Speaker 6: may dream of the tiara. The priest is nowadays the
Speaker 6: only man who can become a king in a regular manner.
Speaker 6: And what a king thus supreme king? Then what a
Speaker 6: nursery of aspirations as a seminary. How many blushing choristers,
Speaker 6: How many youthful abbes bear on their heads parrots pot
Speaker 6: of milk? Who knows how easy it is for ambition
Speaker 6: to call itself vocation in good faith, perchance, and deceiving
Speaker 6: itself devote that it is monseigneur by avenue, poor humble
Speaker 6: retiring was not accounted among the big miters. This was
Speaker 6: plain for the complete absence of young priests about him.
Speaker 6: We have seen that he did not take in Paris.
Speaker 6: Not a single future dreamed of engrafting itself on this
Speaker 6: solitary old man. Not a single sprouting ambition committed the
Speaker 6: folly of putting forth its foliage in his shadow. His
Speaker 6: cannons and grand vicars were good old men, rather vulgar
Speaker 6: like himself, walled up like him in this diocese without
Speaker 6: exit to a cardinalship, and who resembled theirs. With this
Speaker 6: difference that they were finished and he was completed. The
Speaker 6: impossibility of growing great under Monseigneur ba Avenue was so
Speaker 6: well understood that no sooner had the young men whom
Speaker 6: he ordained left the seminary than they got themselves recommended
Speaker 6: to the archbishops of ax Or of ok and went
Speaker 6: off in a great hurry. For in short, we repeated, men.
Speaker 10: Wished to be pushed.
Speaker 6: A saint who dwells in a paroxysm of abnegation is
Speaker 6: a dangerous neighbor. He might communicate to you by contagion
Speaker 6: and incurable poverty and antilosis of the joints which are
Speaker 6: useful in advancement, and in short, more renunciation than you desire.
Speaker 6: And this infectious virtue is avoided. Hence the isolation of
Speaker 6: Monseigneur by Avenue. We live in the midst of a
Speaker 6: gloomy society. Success, that is, the lesson which falls drop
Speaker 6: by drop from the slope of corruption. Be it said
Speaker 6: in passing that success is a very hideous thing, its
Speaker 6: false resemblance to merit to Sieve's men for the masses.
Speaker 6: Success has almost the same profile as supremacy. Success that
Speaker 6: menechmosuf talent has one dupe history, juvenile intacticus alone grumble
Speaker 6: at it.
Speaker 7: In our day.
Speaker 6: A philosophy which is almost official has entered into its service,
Speaker 6: wears the livery of success, and performs the service of
Speaker 6: its ante chamber. Succeed theory prosperity argues capacity when in
Speaker 6: the lottery, and behold, you are a clever man. He
Speaker 6: who triumphs is venerated. Be born with a silver spoon
Speaker 6: in your mouth. Everything lies in that. Be lucky, and
Speaker 6: you will have all the rest. Be happy, and people
Speaker 6: will think you great. Outside of five or six immense
Speaker 6: exceptions which compose the splendor of a century, contemporary admiration
Speaker 6: is nothing but short sightedness. Gilding is gold. It does
Speaker 6: no harm to be the first arrival by pure chance,
Speaker 6: so long as you do arrive. The common herd is
Speaker 6: an old narcissus who adores himself and who applauds the
Speaker 6: vulgar herd that ignoremmiscibility by virtue, of which one is
Speaker 6: Moses Achelas Dante, Michelangelo, or Napoleon the multitude awards on
Speaker 6: the spot, and by acclamation to whomsoever attains his object,
Speaker 6: in whatsoever it may consist. Let a notary transfigure himself
Speaker 6: into a deputy. Let a false corneal compose hire date.
Speaker 6: Let a eunit come to possess a harem. Let a
Speaker 6: military prudamme accidentally win the decisive battle of an epoch.
Speaker 6: Let an apothecary invent cardboard shoe soles for the army
Speaker 6: of the Saint Bradmuse, and construct for himself out of
Speaker 6: this cardboard sold as leather four hundred thousand francs of income.
Speaker 6: Let a pork packer espouse usury and cause it to
Speaker 6: bring forth seven or eight millions, of which he is
Speaker 6: the father, and of which it is the mother. Let
Speaker 6: a preacher become a bishop by force of his nasal drawl.
Speaker 6: Let the steward of a fine family be so rich,
Speaker 6: on retiring from service, that he has made minister of finances,
Speaker 6: and men call that genius, just as they call the
Speaker 6: face of Mousqueton beauty, and the man of Claude majesty.
Speaker 6: With the constellations of space, they confound the stars of
Speaker 6: the abyss, which are made in the soft mire of
Speaker 6: the puddle by the feet of ducks, And of Book one,
Speaker 6: chapter twelve, Book one A Just Man, Chapter thirteen. What
Speaker 6: he believed? We are not obliged to sound the Bishop
Speaker 6: of Dina on the score of orthodoxy. In the presence
Speaker 6: of such a soul, We feel ourselves in no mood,
Speaker 6: but respect the conscience of the just man should be
Speaker 6: accepted on his word. Moreover, certain natures being given, we
Speaker 6: admit the possible development of all beauties of human virtue
Speaker 6: in a belief that differs from our own. What did
Speaker 6: he think of this dogma or of that mystery? These
Speaker 6: secrets of the inner tribunal of the conscience are known
Speaker 6: only to the tomb where souls inter naked. The point
Speaker 6: on which we are so certain is that the difficulties
Speaker 6: of faith never resolved themselves into hypocrisy. In his case,
Speaker 6: no decay is possible to the diamond he believed to
Speaker 6: the extent of his powers Credo and Patrn he often exclaimed. Moreover,
Speaker 6: he drew from good works that amount of satisfaction which
Speaker 6: suffices to the conscience, and which whispers to a man,
Speaker 6: Thou art with God. The point on which we consider
Speaker 6: it our duty to note, is that outside of and
Speaker 6: beyond his faith, as it were, the bishop possessed an
Speaker 6: excess of love. It was in that quarter Kion multum ahmavit,
Speaker 6: because he loved much, that he was regarded as vulnerable
Speaker 6: by serious men, grave persons, and reasonable people favorite locutions
Speaker 6: of our sad world, where egotism takes its word of
Speaker 6: command from pedantry. What was this excess of love? It
Speaker 6: was a serene benevolence which overflowed men, as we have
Speaker 6: already pointed out, and which on occasion extended even to things.
Speaker 6: He lived without disdain. He was indulgent towards God's creation.
Speaker 6: Every man, even the best, has within him a thoughtless harshness,
Speaker 6: which he reserves for animals. The Bishop of Dinya had
Speaker 6: none of that harshness which is peculiar to many priests. Nevertheless,
Speaker 6: he did not go as far as the Brahmin. But
Speaker 6: he seemed to have waited this saying of Ecclesiastes, who
Speaker 6: knoweth whither the soul of the animal goeth. Hideousness of aspect,
Speaker 6: deformity of instinct troubled him not and did not arouse
Speaker 6: his indignation. He was touched, almost softened by them. It
Speaker 6: seemed as though he went thoughtfully away to seek beyond
Speaker 6: the bounds of life, which is apparent the cause, the explanation,
Speaker 6: or the excuse for them. He seemed at times to
Speaker 6: be asking God to commute these penalties. He examined without wrath,
Speaker 6: and with the eye of a linguist who is deciphering
Speaker 6: a poem, cest that portion of chaos which still exists
Speaker 6: in nature. This reverie sometimes caused him to utter odd sayings.
Speaker 6: One morning, he was in his garden and thought himself alone,
Speaker 6: but his sister was walking behind him, unseen by him.
Speaker 6: Suddenly he paused and gazed at something on the ground.
Speaker 6: It was a large, black, hairy, frightful spider. His sister
Speaker 6: heard him say, poor beast, it was not his fault.
Speaker 6: Why not mention these almost divinely childish sayings of kindness?
Speaker 6: Puerile they may be, but these sublime puerilities were peculiar
Speaker 6: to Saint Francis, to Sissy, and of Marcus Aurelius. One
Speaker 6: day he sprained his ankle, and his effort to avoid
Speaker 6: stepping on an ant. Thus lived this just man. Sometimes
Speaker 6: he fell asleep in his garden, and then there was
Speaker 6: nothing more venerable possible. Monseigneur b Avenue had formerly been,
Speaker 6: if the story's inen his youth, and even in regard
Speaker 6: to his manhood, were to be believed, a passionate and
Speaker 6: possibly a violent man. His universal suavity was less an
Speaker 6: instinctive nature than the result of a grand conviction, which
Speaker 6: had filtered into his heart through the medium of life,
Speaker 6: and had trickled there slowly, thought by thought. For in
Speaker 6: a character, as in a rock, there may exist apertures
Speaker 6: made by drops of water. These hollows are uneffaceable, these
Speaker 6: formations are indestructible. In eighteen fifteen, as we think we
Speaker 6: have already said, he reached his seventy fifth birthday, but
Speaker 6: he did not appear to be more than sixty. He
Speaker 6: was not tall, he was rather plump, and in order
Speaker 6: to combat this tendency, he was fond of taking long
Speaker 6: strolls on foot. His step was firm, and his form
Speaker 6: was but slightly bent, a detail from which we do
Speaker 6: not pretend to draw any conclusion. Gregory the sixteenth, at
Speaker 6: the age of eighty, held himself erect and smiling, which
Speaker 6: did not prevent him from being a bad bishop, mon
Speaker 6: signor welcome, had what the people term a fine head.
Speaker 6: But so amiable was he that they forgot that it
Speaker 6: was fine. When he conversed with that infantile gayety, which
Speaker 6: was one of his charms, and of which we have
Speaker 6: already spoken, people felt at their ease with him, and
Speaker 6: joy seemed to radiate from his whole person. His fresh
Speaker 6: and ruddy complexion, his very white teeth, all of which
Speaker 6: he had preserved, and which were displayed by a smile,
Speaker 6: gave him that open and easy air which caused the
Speaker 6: remark to be said of a man, he is a
Speaker 6: good fellow, and of an old man, he is a
Speaker 6: fine man. That it will be recalled. Was the effect
Speaker 6: which he produced upon Napoleon on the first encounter. And
Speaker 6: to one who saw him for the first time, he
Speaker 6: was nothing, in fact but a fine man. But if
Speaker 6: one remained near him for a few hours and beheld
Speaker 6: him in the least degree pensive, the fine man became
Speaker 6: gradually transfigured and took on some imposing quality.
Speaker 7: I know not what.
Speaker 6: His broad and serious brow rendered all goosed by his
Speaker 6: white locks, became all goosed also by virtue of meditation.
Speaker 6: Majesty radiated from his goodness, though whose goodness ceased not
Speaker 6: to be radiant. One experienced something of the emotion which
Speaker 6: one would feel on beholding a smiling angel slowly unfold
Speaker 6: his wings without ceasing to smile. Respect in unutterable respect,
Speaker 6: penetrated you by degrees and mounted to your heart, And
Speaker 6: one felt that one had before him one of those strong,
Speaker 6: thoroughly tried and indulgent souls, where thought is so grand
Speaker 6: that it can no longer be anything but gentle. As
Speaker 6: we have seen prayer, the celebration of the offices of religion, almsgiving,
Speaker 6: the consolation of the afflicted, the cultivation of a bit
Speaker 6: of land, fraternity, frugality, hospitality, renunciation, confidence, study, work, filled
Speaker 6: every day of his life, filled as exactly the word. Certainly,
Speaker 6: the bishop's day was quite full to the brim of
Speaker 6: good words and good deeds. Nevertheless, it was not complete
Speaker 6: if cold or rainy weather prevented his passing an hour
Speaker 6: or two in his garden before going to bed, and
Speaker 6: after the two women had retired, it seemed to be
Speaker 6: a sort of right with him to prepare himself for
Speaker 6: slumber by meditation. In the presence of the grand spectacles
Speaker 6: of the nocturnal heavens. Sometimes, if the two old women
Speaker 6: were not asleep, they heard him pacing slowly along the
Speaker 6: walks at a very advanced hour of the night. He
Speaker 6: was there alone, communing with himself, peaceful, adoring, comparing the
Speaker 6: serenity of his mind with the serenity of the ether,
Speaker 6: moved amid the darkness by the visible splendor of the
Speaker 6: constellations and the invisible splendor of God, opening his heart
Speaker 6: to the thoughts which fall from the unknown at such moments,
Speaker 6: while he offered his heart at the hour when nocturnal
Speaker 6: flowers offer their perfume, illuminated like a lamp amid the
Speaker 6: starry night. As he poured himself out in ecstasy in
Speaker 6: the midst of the universal radiance of creation, he could
Speaker 6: not have told himself probably what was passing in his spirit.
Speaker 6: He felt something take its flight from him, and something
Speaker 6: to send in to him, mysterious exchange of the abyssiness
Speaker 6: of the soul with the abyssiness of the universe. He
Speaker 6: thought of the grandeur in presence of God, of the
Speaker 6: future eternity, that strange mystery of the eternity past, a
Speaker 6: mystery still more strange of all the infinities which pierced
Speaker 6: their way into all his senses beneath his eyes, and
Speaker 6: without seeking to comprehend the incomprehensible, he gazed upon it.
Speaker 6: He did not study God, he was dazzled by him.
Speaker 6: He considered those magnificent conjunctions of atoms, which communicate aspects
Speaker 6: to matter, reveal forces by verifying them, create individualities in
Speaker 6: unit proportions in extent the innumerable and the infinite, and
Speaker 6: through light produce beauty. These conjunctions are formed and dissolved incessantly,
Speaker 6: hence life and death. He seated himself on a wooden bench,
Speaker 6: with his back against a decrepit vine. He gazed at
Speaker 6: the stars, past the puny and stunted silhouettes of his
Speaker 6: fruit trees. This quarter of an acre, so poorly planted,
Speaker 6: so encumbered with mean buildings and sheds, was dear to
Speaker 6: him and satisfied his wants. What more was needed by
Speaker 6: this old man who divided the leisure of his life,
Speaker 6: where there was so little leisure between gardening in the
Speaker 6: daytime and contemplation at night. Was not this narrow enclosure
Speaker 6: with the heavens for a ceiling sufficient to enable him
Speaker 6: to adore God in his most divine works. In turn,
Speaker 6: does not this comprehend all in fact? And what is
Speaker 6: there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in
Speaker 6: which to walk, an immensity in which to dream at
Speaker 6: one's feet, that which can be cultivated and plucked overhead,
Speaker 6: that which one can study and meditate upon, some flowers
Speaker 6: on earth, and all the stars in the sky.
Speaker 9: In Book First a Just Man, Chapter fourteen, what he
Speaker 9: thought one last word, Since this sort of details might
Speaker 9: particularly at the present moment, and to use an expression
Speaker 9: now in fashion, give to the Bishop of Dinia a
Speaker 9: certain penththeistical physiognomy, and induce the belief, either to his
Speaker 9: credit or discredit, that he entertained one of those personal
Speaker 9: philosophies which are peculiar to our century, which sometimes spring
Speaker 9: up in solitary spirits, and there take on a form
Speaker 9: and grow until they usurp the place of religion. We
Speaker 9: insist upon it that not one of those persons who
Speaker 9: knew Monseigneur welcome would have thought himself authorized to think
Speaker 9: anything of the sort. That which enlightened this man was
Speaker 9: his heart. His wisdom was made of the light which
Speaker 9: comes from there no systems, many works abstruse speculations contain vertigo.
Speaker 9: Know there is nothing to indicate that he risked his
Speaker 9: mind in apocalypses. The apostle may be daring, but the
Speaker 9: bishop must be timid. He would probably have felt a
Speaker 9: scruple at sounding too far in advance certain problems which
Speaker 9: are in a manner reserved for terrible great minds. There
Speaker 9: is a sacred horror beneath the porches of the enigma.
Speaker 9: Those gloomy openings stand yawning there. But something tells you, you,
Speaker 9: a passerby in life, that you must not enter. Woe
Speaker 9: to him who penetrates the geniuses in the impenetrable depths
Speaker 9: of abstraction and pure speculation, situated, so to speak, above
Speaker 9: all dogmas propose their ideas to God. Their prayer audaciously
Speaker 9: offers discussion, their adoration interrogates. This is direct religion, which
Speaker 9: is full of anxiety and responsibility for him who attempts
Speaker 9: its steep cliffs. Human meditation has no limits at his
Speaker 9: own risk and peril. It analyzes and digs deep into
Speaker 9: its own bedazzlement. One might almost say that by a
Speaker 9: sort of splendid reaction it with it dazzles nature. The
Speaker 9: mysterious world which surrounds us renders back what it has received.
Speaker 9: It is probable that the contemplators are contemplated. However that
Speaker 9: may be. There are on earth men who are they
Speaker 9: men perceive distinctly at the verge of the horizons of revery,
Speaker 9: the heights of the absolute, and who have the terrible
Speaker 9: vision of the infinite mountain. Monseigneur Welcome was one of
Speaker 9: these men. Monseigneur Welcome was not a genius. He would
Speaker 9: have feared those sublimities. Whence some very great men, even
Speaker 9: like Swedenborg and Pascal, have slipped into insanity. Certainly, these
Speaker 9: powerful reveries have their moral utility, and by these arduous
Speaker 9: paths one approaches to ideal perfection. As for him, he
Speaker 9: took the path which shortens the Gospels. He did not
Speaker 9: attempt to impart to his chasuble the folds of Elijah's mantle.
Speaker 9: He projected no ray of future upon the dark ground
Speaker 9: swell of events. He did not see to condense inflame
Speaker 9: the light of things. He had nothing of the prophet,
Speaker 9: and nothing of the magician about him. This humble soul loved,
Speaker 9: and that was all that he carried prayer to the
Speaker 9: pitch of a superhuman aspiration as probable. But one can
Speaker 9: no more pray too much than one can love too much.
Speaker 9: And if it is a heresy to pray beyond the texts,
Speaker 9: Saint Theresa and Saint Jerome would be heretics. He inclined
Speaker 9: towards all that groans and all that expiates. The universe
Speaker 9: appeared to him like an immense malady. Everywhere he felt fever,
Speaker 9: everywhere he heard the sound of suffering, And without seeking
Speaker 9: to solve the enigma, he strove to dress the wound.
Speaker 9: The terrible spectacle of created things developed tenderness in him.
Speaker 9: He was occupied only in finding for himself and in
Speaker 9: inspiring others with the best way to compassionate and relieve.
Speaker 9: That which exists was for this good and rare priest
Speaker 9: a permanent subject of sadness, which sought consolation. There are
Speaker 9: men who toil at extracting gold. He toiled at the
Speaker 9: extraction of pity. Universal misery was his mind. The sadness
Speaker 9: which reigned everywhere was but an excuse for unfailing kindness
Speaker 9: love each other. He declared this to be complete, desired
Speaker 9: nothing further, and that was the whole of his doctrine.
Speaker 9: One day that man, who believed himself to be a philosopher,
Speaker 9: the senator, who has already been alluded to, said to
Speaker 9: the bishop, just survey the spectacle of the world, all
Speaker 9: war against all, the strongest has the most wit. Your
Speaker 9: love each other is nonsense, well replied monseigneur. Welcome without
Speaker 9: contesting the point. If it is nonsense, the soul should
Speaker 9: shut itself up in it, as the pearl in the oyster.
Speaker 9: Thus he shut himself up, He lived there, he was
Speaker 9: absolutely satisfied with it, Leaving on one side the prodigious
Speaker 9: questions which attract and terrify, the fathomless perspectives of abstraction,
Speaker 9: the precipices of metaphysics, all those profundities which converge for
Speaker 9: the apostle in God, for the atheist, in nothingness, destiny,
Speaker 9: good and evil, the way of being against being, the
Speaker 9: conscience of man, the thoughtful somnambulism of the animal, the
Speaker 9: transformation in death, the recapitulation of existences which the tomb contains,
Speaker 9: the incomprehensible grafting of successive loves on the persistent eye,
Speaker 9: the essence, the substance, the nile, and the ends. The soul, nature, liberty, necessity,
Speaker 9: perpendicular problems, sinister obscurities, where lean the gigantic archangels of
Speaker 9: the human mind formidable abysses which Lucretius Maneux Saint Paul
Speaker 9: Dante contemplate with eyes flashing lightning, which seems, by its
Speaker 9: steady gaze on the infinite to cause stars to blaze forth. There,
Speaker 9: monseigneur bienvenue was simply a man who took note of
Speaker 9: the exterior of mysterious questions, without scrutinizing them, and without
Speaker 9: troubling his own mind with them, and who cherished in
Speaker 9: his own soul a grave respect for darkness.
Speaker 7: Books Second The Fall, Chapter one, the evening of a
Speaker 7: day of walking, early in the month of October eighteen fifteen,
Speaker 7: about an hour before sunset, a man who was traveling
Speaker 7: on foot entered the little town of Dean. The few
Speaker 7: inhabitants who were at their windows or on their thresholds
Speaker 7: at the moment stared at this traveler with a sort
Speaker 7: of uneasiness. It was difficult to encounter a wayfarer of
Speaker 7: more wretched appearance. He was a man of medium stature, thickset,
Speaker 7: and robust in the prime of his life. He might
Speaker 7: have been forty six or forty eight years old. A
Speaker 7: cab with a drooping leather visor partly concealed his face,
Speaker 7: burned and tanned by sun and wind, and dripping with perspiration.
Speaker 7: His shirt of coarse yellow linen, fastened at the neck
Speaker 7: by a small silver anchor, permitted a view of his
Speaker 7: hairy breast. He had a cravat twisted into a string,
Speaker 7: trousers of blue drilling, worn and threadbare, white on one
Speaker 7: knee and torn on the other. An old, gray tattered
Speaker 7: blouse patched on one of the elbows with a bit
Speaker 7: of green cloth sewed on with twine. A tightly packed
Speaker 7: soldier knapsack, well buckled and perfectly new on his back,
Speaker 7: an enormous knotty stick in his hand, iron shod shoes
Speaker 7: on his stockingless feet, a shaved head, and a long beard.
Speaker 7: The sweat, the heat, the journey on foot, the dust added.
Speaker 7: I know not what sordid quality to this dilapidated hoole.
Speaker 7: His hair was closely cut, yet bristling, for it had
Speaker 7: begun to grow a little, and did not seem to
Speaker 7: have been cut for some time. No one knew him.
Speaker 7: He was evidently only a chance passer by whence came
Speaker 7: he from the south from the sea shore, Perhaps for
Speaker 7: he made his entrance into Dean by the same street
Speaker 7: with which which seven months previously had witnessed the passage
Speaker 7: of the Emperor Napoleon on his way from Canes to Paris.
Speaker 7: This man must have been walking all day. He seemed
Speaker 7: very much fatigued. Some women of the ancient market town,
Speaker 7: which is situated below the city, had seen him pause
Speaker 7: beneath the trees of the Boulevard Gesandi and drink at
Speaker 7: the fountain which stands at the end of the promenade.
Speaker 7: He must have been very thirsty, for the children who
Speaker 7: followed him saw him stop again for a drink two
Speaker 7: hundred paces further on at the fountain in the market place.
Speaker 7: On arriving at the corner of the Rue Poichevert, he
Speaker 7: turned to the left and directed his steps towards the
Speaker 7: town hall. He entered, then came out. A quarter of
Speaker 7: an hour later. A gendarme was seated near the door
Speaker 7: on the stone bench which General Drouot had mounted on
Speaker 7: the fourth of March to read to the frightened throng
Speaker 7: of the inhabitants of ning the proclamation of the Gulf Juan.
Speaker 7: The man pulled off his and humbly saluted the gendarme.
Speaker 7: The gendarme, without replying to his salute, stared attentively at him,
Speaker 7: followed him for a while with his eyes, and then
Speaker 7: entered the town hall. There then existed at Dean a
Speaker 7: fine inn at the sign of the Cross of Colbas.
Speaker 7: This inn had for a landlord a certain Jacquin Labarre,
Speaker 7: a man of consideration in the town on account of
Speaker 7: his relationship to another le Bars, who kept the Inn
Speaker 7: of the Three Dauphins in Grenoble and had served in
Speaker 7: the guides. At the time of the Emperor's landing, many
Speaker 7: rumors had circulated throughout the country with regard to this
Speaker 7: Inn of three Dauphins. It is said that General Bertrand,
Speaker 7: disguised as a carter, had made frequent trips thither in
Speaker 7: the month of January, and that he had distributed crosses
Speaker 7: of honor to the soldiers and handfuls of gold to
Speaker 7: the citizens. The truth is that when the Emperor entered Grenoble,
Speaker 7: he had refused to install himself at the hotel of
Speaker 7: the prefecture. He had thanked the mayor, saying I am
Speaker 7: going to the house of a brave man of my acquaintance,
Speaker 7: and he had betaken himself to the three Dauphins. This
Speaker 7: glory of the Labarre of the three Dauphins was reflected
Speaker 7: upon the Labarre of the Cross to colbat at a
Speaker 7: distance of five and twenty leagues. It was said of
Speaker 7: him in town, that is the cousin of the men
Speaker 7: of Grenoble. The man bent his steps towards this inn,
Speaker 7: which was the best in the countryside. He entered the kitchen,
Speaker 7: which opened on a level with the street. All the
Speaker 7: stoves are lighted. A huge fire blazed gaily in the fireplace.
Speaker 7: The host, which was also the chief cook, was going
Speaker 7: from one stewpan to another, very busily superintending an excellent
Speaker 7: dinner designed for the wagoners, whose loud talking, conversation and
Speaker 7: laughter were audible from the adjoining apartment. Any One who
Speaker 7: has traveled knows that there is no one who indulges
Speaker 7: in better cheer than wagoners. A fat marmot, flanked by
Speaker 7: white partridges and heather cocks, was turning on a long
Speaker 7: spit before the fire. On the stove. Two huge carps
Speaker 7: from Lake Luzette, and a trout from like a laws
Speaker 7: for cooking. The host heard the door open, and, seeing
Speaker 7: a newcomer enter, said, without raising his eyes from his stoves,
Speaker 7: what do you wish, sir, Food and lodging, said the man.
Speaker 7: Nothing easier, replied the host. At that moment he turned
Speaker 7: his head, took in the traveler's appearance with a single glance,
Speaker 7: and added by paying for it. The man drew a
Speaker 7: large leather purse from the pocket of his blouse and answered,
Speaker 7: I have money. In that case. We are at your service,
Speaker 7: said the host. The man put his purse back in
Speaker 7: his pocket, removed his knapsack from his back, put it
Speaker 7: on the ground near the door, retained his stick in
Speaker 7: his hand, and seated himself on a low stool close
Speaker 7: to the fire. Dean is in the mountains. The evenings
Speaker 7: are cold there in October. But as the host went
Speaker 7: back and forth, he scrutinized the traveler. Will dinner be
Speaker 7: ready soon? Said the man, immediately replied the landlord. While
Speaker 7: the newcomer was warming himself before the fire, with his
Speaker 7: back turned, the worthy host, jacquin Labarre, drew a pencil
Speaker 7: from his pocket, then tore off the corner of an
Speaker 7: old newspaper, which was lying on a small table near
Speaker 7: the window. On the white margin, he rode a line
Speaker 7: or two, folded it without sealing, and then entrusted this
Speaker 7: scrap of paper to a child, who seemed to serve
Speaker 7: him in the capacity both of scullion and lackey. The
Speaker 7: landlord whispered a word in the scullion's ear, and the
Speaker 7: child set off at a run in the direction of
Speaker 7: the town hall. The traveler saw nothing of all this.
Speaker 7: Once more, he inquired, will dinner be ready soon? Immediately
Speaker 7: responded the host. The child returned. He brought back the paper.
Speaker 7: The host unfolded it eagerly, like a person who is
Speaker 7: expecting a reply. He seemed to read it attentively, then
Speaker 7: tossed his head and remained thoughtful for a moment. Then
Speaker 7: he took a step in the direction of the traveler,
Speaker 7: who appeared to be immersed in reflections which were not
Speaker 7: very serene. I cannot receive you, sir, said he. The
Speaker 7: man half rose, what are you afraid that I will
Speaker 7: not pay you? Do you want me to pay you
Speaker 7: in advance? I have money, I tell you, it is
Speaker 7: not that. What then you have money? Yes, said the man,
Speaker 7: And I said the host, have no room. The man
Speaker 7: resumed tranquility, put me in the stable. I cannot why
Speaker 7: the horses take up all the space. Very well, retorted
Speaker 7: the man. A corner of the loft, then a trouse
Speaker 7: of straw. We will see about that after dinner. I
Speaker 7: cannot give you any dinner. This declaration, made in a
Speaker 7: measured but firm tone, struck the stranger as grave. He rose,
Speaker 7: ah bah, but I am dying of hunger. I have
Speaker 7: been walking since sunrise. I have traveled twelve leagues. I
Speaker 7: pay I wish to eat. I have nothing, said the landlord.
Speaker 7: The man burst out laughing, and turned towards the fireplace
Speaker 7: and the stoves. Nothing and all that, all that is
Speaker 7: engaged by whom by monsieurs, the wagoners. How many are
Speaker 7: there of them? Twelve? There is enough food there for twenty.
Speaker 7: They have engaged the whole of it, and paid for
Speaker 7: in advance. The man seated himself again and said, without
Speaker 7: raising his voice, I am at an inn, I am hungry,
Speaker 7: and I shall remain. Then the host bent down to
Speaker 7: his ear and said, in a tone that made him
Speaker 7: start go away. At that moment, the traveler was bending
Speaker 7: forward and thrusting some brands into the fire with the
Speaker 7: iron shod tip of his staff. He turned quickly round,
Speaker 7: and as he opened his mouth to reply, the host
Speaker 7: gazed steadily at him and added, still in a low voice, stop,
Speaker 7: that's enough of that sort of talk. Do you want
Speaker 7: me to tell you your name? Your name is Jean Valjean.
Speaker 7: Now do you want me to tell you who you are?
Speaker 7: When I saw you come in, I suspected something. I
Speaker 7: sent to the town hall, And this was the reply
Speaker 7: that was sent to me. Can you read so? Saying
Speaker 7: he held out to the stranger, fully unfolded the paper,
Speaker 7: which had just traveled from the inn to the town hall,
Speaker 7: and from the town hall to the inn. The man
Speaker 7: cast a glance upon it. The landlord resumed after a pause.
Speaker 7: I am in the habit of being polite to every one.
Speaker 7: Go away. The man dropped his head, picked up the
Speaker 7: knapsack which he had deposited on the ground, and took
Speaker 7: his departure. He chose the principal street. He walked straight
Speaker 7: on at a venture, keeping close to the houses like
Speaker 7: a sad and humiliated man. He did not turn round
Speaker 7: a single time. Had he done so, he would have
Speaker 7: seen the host of the cross of cobas, standing on
Speaker 7: his threshold, surrounded by all the guests of his inn,
Speaker 7: and all the passers by in the street, talking vivaciously
Speaker 7: and pointing him out with his finger. And from the
Speaker 7: glances of terror and distrust cast by the group, he
Speaker 7: might have divined that his arrival would speedily come an
Speaker 7: event for the whole town. He saw nothing of all this.
Speaker 7: People who are crushed do not look behind them. They
Speaker 7: know but too well the evil fate which follows them.
Speaker 7: Thus he proceeded for some time, walking on without ceasing,
Speaker 7: traversing at random streets of which he knew nothing. Forgetful
Speaker 7: of his fatigue, As is often the case when a
Speaker 7: man is sad, all at once he felt the pangs
Speaker 7: of hunger sharply. Night was drawing near. He glanced about
Speaker 7: him to see whether he could not discover some shelter.
Speaker 7: The fine hostelry was closed to him. He was seeking
Speaker 7: some very humble public place, some hovel, however lowly. Just
Speaker 7: then a light flashed up at the end of the streets.
Speaker 7: A pine branch suspended from a cross beam of iron,
Speaker 7: was outlined against the white sky of the twilight. He
Speaker 7: proceeded thither. It proved to be in fact a public house,
Speaker 7: the public house which is in the Rue de Chauffe.
Speaker 7: The wayfarer halted for a moment and peeped through the
Speaker 7: window into the interior of the low studded room of
Speaker 7: the public house, illuminated by a small lamp on the
Speaker 7: table and by a large fire on the hearth. Some
Speaker 7: men were engaged in drinking there. The landlord was warming
Speaker 7: himself an iron pot suspended from a crane, bubbled over
Speaker 7: the flame. The entrance to this public house, which is
Speaker 7: also a sort of an inn, is by two doors.
Speaker 7: One opens on the street, the other upon a small
Speaker 7: yard filled with manure. The traveler dare not enter by
Speaker 7: the street door. He slipped into the yard, halted again,
Speaker 7: then raised the latch timidly and opened the door. Who
Speaker 7: goes there, said the master, some one who wants supper
Speaker 7: in bed. Good. We furnish supper and bed. Here he entered.
Speaker 7: All the men who were drinking turned round. The lamp
Speaker 7: illuminated him on one side, the firelight on the other.
Speaker 7: They examined him for some time. While he was taking
Speaker 7: off his knapsack. The host said to him, there is
Speaker 7: the fire. The supper is cooking at the pot. Come
Speaker 7: and warm yourself, comrade. He approached and seated himself near
Speaker 7: the hearth. He stretched out his feet, which were exhausted
Speaker 7: with fatigue, to the fire. A fine odor was emitted
Speaker 7: by the pot. All that could be distinguished of his face,
Speaker 7: beneath his cap, which was well pulled down, assumed a
Speaker 7: vague appearance of comfort, mingled with that other poignant aspect
Speaker 7: which habitual suffering bestows. It was, moreover, a firm, energetic,
Speaker 7: and melancholy profile. This physiognomy was strangely composed. It began
Speaker 7: by seeming humble and ended by seeming severe. The eye
Speaker 7: shone beneath its lashes, like a fire beneath brushwood. One
Speaker 7: of the men seated at the table, however, was a fishmonger, who,
Speaker 7: before entering the public house of the Rue de Chauffaut,
Speaker 7: had been to stable his horse at La Barre's. It
Speaker 7: chanced that he had that very morning encountered this unprepossessing
Speaker 7: stranger on the road between Bros Dass and I have
Speaker 7: forgotten the name. I think it was Escoublon. Now. When
Speaker 7: he met him, the man, who then seemed already extremely weary,
Speaker 7: had requested him to take him on his crupper, to
Speaker 7: which the fishmonger had made no reply, except by redoubling
Speaker 7: his gait. This fishmonger had been a member half an
Speaker 7: hour previously of the group which surrounded Jacquin Labarre, and
Speaker 7: had himself related his disagreeable encounter of the morning to
Speaker 7: the people at the cross to Colbas, from where he sat.
Speaker 7: He made an imperceptible sign to the tavern keeper. The
Speaker 7: tavern keeper went to him. They exchanged a few words
Speaker 7: in a low tone. The man had again become absorbed
Speaker 7: in his reflections. The tavern keeper returned to the fireplace,
Speaker 7: laid his hand abruptly on the shoulder of the man,
Speaker 7: and said to him, you are going to get out
Speaker 7: of here. The stranger turned round and replied, gently, Ah,
Speaker 7: you know, yes, I was sent away from the other inn,
Speaker 7: and you are to be turned out of this one.
Speaker 7: Where would you have me go elsewhere? The man took
Speaker 7: his stick and his knapsack and departed. As he went out,
Speaker 7: some children who had followed him from the cross of Colbas,
Speaker 7: and who seemed to be lying in wait for him,
Speaker 7: threw stones at him. He retraced his steps in anger
Speaker 7: and threatened them with his stick. The children dispersed like
Speaker 7: a flock of birds. He passed before the prison. At
Speaker 7: the door hung an iron chain attached to the bell.
Speaker 7: He rang. The wicket opened. Turnkey said he removing his
Speaker 7: cap politely. Will you have the kindness to admit me
Speaker 7: and give me a lodging for the night? A voice replied,
Speaker 7: the prison is not an inn. Get yourself arrested and
Speaker 7: you will be admitted. The wicket closed again. He entered
Speaker 7: a little street in which there were many gardens. Some
Speaker 7: of them were enclosed only by hedges, which lends a
Speaker 7: cheerful aspect to the street. In the midst of these
Speaker 7: gardens and hedges, he caught sight of a small house
Speaker 7: of a single story, the window of which was lighted up.
Speaker 7: He peered through the pane, as he had done at
Speaker 7: the public house. Within was a large whitewashed room with
Speaker 7: a bed draped in printed cotton stuff and a cradle
Speaker 7: in one corner, a few wooden chairs, and a double
Speaker 7: barreled gun hanging on the wall. A table was spread
Speaker 7: in the center of the room. A copper lamp illuminated
Speaker 7: the tablecloth of coarse white linen, the pewter jug shining
Speaker 7: like silver and filled with wine and the brown smoking
Speaker 7: soup tureen. At this table sat a man of about forty,
Speaker 7: with a merry and open countenance, who was dandling a
Speaker 7: little child on his knees. Close by, a very young
Speaker 7: woman was nursing another child. The father was laughing, the
Speaker 7: child was laughing, the mother was smiling. The stranger paused
Speaker 7: a moment in reverie before this tender and calming spectacle.
Speaker 7: What was taking place within him? He alone could have told.
Speaker 7: It is probable that he thought that this joyous house
Speaker 7: would be hospitable, and that in a place where he
Speaker 7: beheld so much happiness, he might find perhaps a little pity.
Speaker 7: He tapped on the pane with a very small and
Speaker 7: feeble knock. They did not hear him. He tapped again.
Speaker 7: He heard the woman say, it seems to me, husband,
Speaker 7: that some one is knocking. No, replied the husband. He
Speaker 7: tapped a third time. The husband rose, took the lamp
Speaker 7: and went to the door, which he opened. He was
Speaker 7: a man of lofty stature, half peasant, half artisan. He
Speaker 7: wore a huge leather apron which reached to his left shoulder,
Speaker 7: and which a hammer and red kerchief, a powder horn,
Speaker 7: and all sorts of objects which were upheld by the
Speaker 7: girdle as in a pocket, caused to bulge out. He
Speaker 7: carried his head thrown backwards. His shirt widely opened and
Speaker 7: turned back, displayed his bull neck white and bare. He
Speaker 7: had thick eyelashes, enormous black whiskers, prominent eyes, the lower
Speaker 7: part of his face like a snout, and besides all
Speaker 7: this that air of being on his own ground, which
Speaker 7: is indescribable. Pardon me, sir, said the wayfarer. Could you,
Speaker 7: in consideration of payment, give me a plate of soup
Speaker 7: and a corner of that shed yonder in the garden
Speaker 7: in which to sleep. Tell me can you for money?
Speaker 7: Who are you? Demanded the master of the house. The
Speaker 7: man replied, I have just come from Poyt Mooisan. I
Speaker 7: have walked all day long. I have traveled twelve leagues.
Speaker 7: Can you if I pay? I would not refuse, said
Speaker 7: the peasant, to lodge any respectable man who would pay me.
Speaker 7: But why do you not go to the inn? There
Speaker 7: is no room? Bah impossible, this is neither a fair
Speaker 7: nor a market day. Have you been to La Barre? Yes? Well,
Speaker 7: the traveler replied, in embarrassment, I do not know he
Speaker 7: did not receive me. Have you been to what's his names?
Speaker 7: In the Ruecheffaut. The stranger's embarrassment increased. He stammered, he
Speaker 7: did not receive me either. The peasant's countenance assumed an
Speaker 7: expression of distrust. He surveyed the newcomer from head to feet,
Speaker 7: and suddenly explained, with a sort of shudder, are you
Speaker 7: the man? He cast a fresh glance upon the stranger,
Speaker 7: took three steps backwards, placed the lamp on the table,
Speaker 7: took his gun down from a wall. Meanwhile, at the
Speaker 7: words are you the man? The woman had risen, had
Speaker 7: clasped her two children in her arms, and had taken
Speaker 7: refuge precipitately behind her husband, staring in terror at the stranger,
Speaker 7: with her bosom uncovered and with frightened eyes, as she
Speaker 7: murmured in a low tone, solo old. All this took
Speaker 7: place in less time than it requires to picture it
Speaker 7: to one's self. After having scrutinized the man for several minutes,
Speaker 7: as one scrutinizes a viper, the master of the house
Speaker 7: returned to the door and said, clear out, for pity's sake,
Speaker 7: a glass of water, said the man. A shot from
Speaker 7: my gun, said the peasant. Then he closed the door violently,
Speaker 7: and the man heard him shoot two large bolts. A
Speaker 7: moment later, the window shutter was closed, and the sound
Speaker 7: of a bar of iron, which was placed against it
Speaker 7: was audible. Outside, night continued to fall. A cold wind
Speaker 7: from the Alps was blowing. By the light of the
Speaker 7: expiring day, the stranger perceived in one of the gardens
Speaker 7: which bordered the street a sort of hut which seemed
Speaker 7: to him to be built of sods. He climbed over
Speaker 7: the wooden fence resolutely and found himself in the garden.
Speaker 7: He approached the hut. Its door consisted of a very
Speaker 7: low and narrow aperture, and it resembled those buildings which
Speaker 7: road laborers construct from themselves along the roads. He thought
Speaker 7: without doubt that it was in fact the dwelling of
Speaker 7: a road laborer. He was suffering from cold and hunger,
Speaker 7: but this was at least a shelter from the cold.
Speaker 7: This sort of dwelling was not usually occupied at night.
Speaker 7: He threw himself flat on his face and crawled into
Speaker 7: the hut. It was warm there, and he found a
Speaker 7: tolerably good bed of straw. He lay for a moment
Speaker 7: stretched out on the bed, without the power to make
Speaker 7: a movement. So fatigued was he. Then, as the knapsack
Speaker 7: on his back was in his way, and as it
Speaker 7: furnished moreover a pillow ready at his hand, he set
Speaker 7: about unbuckling one of the straps. At that moment, a
Speaker 7: ferocious growl became audible. He raised his eyes. The head
Speaker 7: of an enormous dog was outlined in the darkness at
Speaker 7: the entrance of the hut. It was a dog's kennel.
Speaker 7: He was himself, vigorous and formidable. He armed himself with
Speaker 7: his staff, made a shield of his knapsack, and made
Speaker 7: his way out of the kennel in the best way
Speaker 7: he could not, without enlarging the rents of his rags.
Speaker 7: He left the garden in the same manner, but backwards,
Speaker 7: being obliged in order to keep the dog respectful to
Speaker 7: have recourse to that maneuver with his stick, which masters
Speaker 7: in that sort of fencing designate as la rose couforte.
Speaker 7: When he had not, without difficulty, repassed the fence, and
Speaker 7: found himself once more in the street, alone, without refuge,
Speaker 7: without shelter, without a roof over his head, chased even
Speaker 7: from that bed of straw, and from that miserable kennel.
Speaker 7: He dropped rather than seated himself on a stone, and
Speaker 7: it appears that a passer by heard him exclaim, I
Speaker 7: am not even a dog. He soon rose again and
Speaker 7: resumed his march. He went out of the town, hoping
Speaker 7: to find some tree or haystack in the fields which
Speaker 7: would afford him shelter. He walked thus for some time,
Speaker 7: with his head still drooping. When he felt himself far
Speaker 7: from every human habitation, he raised his eyes and gazed
Speaker 7: searchedly around him. He was in a field. Before him
Speaker 7: was one of those low hills covered with close cut stubble, which,
Speaker 7: after the harvest, resembled shaved heads. The horizon was perfectly black.
Speaker 7: This was not alone the obscurity of night. It was
Speaker 7: caused by very low hanging clouds, which seemed to rest
Speaker 7: upon the hill itself, and which were mounting and filling
Speaker 7: the whole sky. Meanwhile, as the moon was about to rise,
Speaker 7: and as there was still floating in the zenith a
Speaker 7: remnant of the brightness of twilight, these clouds formed at
Speaker 7: the summit of the sky a sort of whitish arch.
Speaker 7: Whence a gleam of light fell upon the earth. The
Speaker 7: earth was thus better lighted than the sky, which produces
Speaker 7: a particularly sinister effect. And the hill, whose contour was
Speaker 7: poor and mean, was outlined vag and wan against the
Speaker 7: gloomy horizon. The whole effect was hideous, petty, lugubrious, and narrow.
Speaker 7: There was nothing in the field or on the hill
Speaker 7: except a deformed tree which writhed and shivered a few
Speaker 7: paces distant from the wayfarer. This man was evidently very
Speaker 7: far from having those delicate habits of intelligence and spirit
Speaker 7: which render, when sensible, to the mysterious aspects of things. Nevertheless,
Speaker 7: there was something in that sky, in that hill, in
Speaker 7: that plain, in that tree, which was so profoundly desolate, that,
Speaker 7: after a moment of immobility and reverie, he turned back abruptly.
Speaker 7: There are instants when nature seemed hostile. He retraced his steps.
Speaker 7: The gates of Dean were closed. Dean, which had sustained
Speaker 7: sieges during the Wars of Religion, was still surrounded in
Speaker 7: eighteen fifteen by ancient walls flanked by square towers, which
Speaker 7: have been demolished. Since he passed through a breach and
Speaker 7: entered the town again. It might have been eight o'clock
Speaker 7: in the evening. As he was not acquainted with the streets,
Speaker 7: he recommenced his walk at random. In this way he
Speaker 7: came to the prefecture, then to the seminary. As he
Speaker 7: passed through the cathedral square, he shook his fist at
Speaker 7: the church. At the corner of this square there is
Speaker 7: a printing establishment. It is there that the proclamations of
Speaker 7: the Emperor and of the Imperial Guard to the Army,
Speaker 7: brought from the island of Elba and dictated by Napoleon himself,
Speaker 7: were printed for the first time. Worn Out with fatigue
Speaker 7: and no longer entertaining any hope, he lay down on
Speaker 7: a stone bench which stands at the doorway of this
Speaker 7: printing office. At that moment, an old woman came out
Speaker 7: of the church. She saw the man stretched out in
Speaker 7: the shadow. What are you doing there, my friend, said she.
Speaker 7: He answered, harshly and angrily, as you see, my good woman,
Speaker 7: I am sleeping. The good woman who was well worthy
Speaker 7: the name, in fact, was the Marquise de Yr. On
Speaker 7: this bench, she went on, I have had a mattress
Speaker 7: of wood for nineteen years, said the man. To day,
Speaker 7: I have a mattress of stone. You have been a soldier, yes,
Speaker 7: my good woman, a soldier. Why do you not go
Speaker 7: to the inn? Because I have no money? Alas said
Speaker 7: Madame de R, I have only four sous in my purse.
Speaker 7: Give it to me all the same. The man took
Speaker 7: the four sous. Madame de R continued, you cannot obtain
Speaker 7: lodgings in an inn for so small a sum, But
Speaker 7: have you tried. It is impossible for you to pass
Speaker 7: the night. Thus you are cold and hungry. No doubt
Speaker 7: some one might have given you a lodging out of charity.
Speaker 7: I have knocked at all doors. Well, I have been
Speaker 7: driven away everywhere. The good woman touched the man's arm
Speaker 7: and pointed out to him on the other side of
Speaker 7: the street a small low house which stood beside the
Speaker 7: bishop's palace. Have you knocked at all doors?
Speaker 5: Yes?
Speaker 7: Have you knocked at that one? No knock there? And
Speaker 7: of Book two, Chapter one.
Speaker 6: Book two The Fall, Chapter two Prudence Counsel to Wisdom
Speaker 6: that evening, the Bishop of Dna, after his promenade through
Speaker 6: the town, remained shut up rather late in his room.
Speaker 6: He was busy over a great work on duties, which
Speaker 6: was never completed. Unfortunately, he was carefully compiling everything that
Speaker 6: the fathers and the doctors have said on this important subject.
Speaker 6: His book was divided into two parts, firstly the duties
Speaker 6: of all, and secondly the duties of each individual, according
Speaker 6: to the class to which he belongs. The duties of
Speaker 6: all are the great duties. There are four of these,
Speaker 6: Saint Matthew points them out. Duties toward God Matthew six,
Speaker 6: duties towards one's self Matthew five twenty nine, and thirty
Speaker 6: duties towards one neighbor Matthew seven, twelve duties towards animals
Speaker 6: Matthew six, twenty and twenty five. As for the other duties,
Speaker 6: the bishop found them pointed out and prescribed elsewhere to
Speaker 6: sovereigns and subjects in the Epistles to the Romans, to magistrates,
Speaker 6: to wives, to mothers, to young men by Saint Peter,
Speaker 6: to husbands, fathers, children and servants in the Epistles to
Speaker 6: the Ephesians, to the faithful in the Epistles of the Hebrews,
Speaker 6: to virgins in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Out of
Speaker 6: these precepts, he was laboriously constructing a harmonious hole which
Speaker 6: he desired to present to souls. At eight o'clock. He
Speaker 6: was still at work, writing with a good deal of
Speaker 6: inconvenience upon little squares of paper, with a big book
Speaker 6: open on his knees. When Madame Macleory entered, according to her,
Speaker 6: wont to get the silverware from the cupboard near his bed.
Speaker 6: A moment later, the bishop, knowing that the table was
Speaker 6: set and that his sister was probably waiting for him,
Speaker 6: shut his book, rose from his table and entered the
Speaker 6: dining room.
Speaker 10: The dining room was.
Speaker 6: An oblong apartment with a fireplace, which had a door
Speaker 6: opening on the street, as we have said, and a
Speaker 6: window opening on the garden. Madam Macleory was in fact
Speaker 6: just the last touches to the table. As she performed
Speaker 6: the service, she was conversing with Mademoiselle Baptisteine. A lamp
Speaker 6: stood on the table. The table was near the fireplace,
Speaker 6: a wood fire was burning there. One can easily picture
Speaker 6: to one's self these two women, both of whom were
Speaker 6: over sixty years of age. Madame Magliori, small, plump, vivacious,
Speaker 6: Mademoiselle Baptisteine gentle, slender, frail, somewhat taller than her brother,
Speaker 6: dressed in a gown of puce colored silk, of the
Speaker 6: fashion of eighteen o six, which she had purchased at
Speaker 6: that date in Paris, and which had lasted ever since
Speaker 6: to borrow vulgar phrases which possessed the merit of giving
Speaker 6: utterance in a single word to an idea which a
Speaker 6: whole page would hardly suffice to express. Madame Magloi had
Speaker 6: the air of a peasant, and Mademoiselle Baptisteine that of
Speaker 6: a lady. Madame Magleory wore a white quilted cap, a
Speaker 6: gold Jeannette cross on a velvet ribbon upon her neck,
Speaker 6: the only bit of feminine jewelry that there was in
Speaker 6: the house, a very white fetoe puffing out from a
Speaker 6: gown of coarse black woolen stuff, with large short sleeves,
Speaker 6: an apron of cotton cloth, and red and green checks
Speaker 6: knotted round the waist, with a green ribbon, with a
Speaker 6: stomacher of the same attached by two pins at the
Speaker 6: upper corners, coarse shoes on her feet, and yellow stockings.
Speaker 6: Like the women of Marseilles, Mademoiselle Baptisteine's gown was cut
Speaker 6: on the patterns of eighteen o six, with a short waist,
Speaker 6: a narrow sheathlike skirt, puffed sleeves with flaps and buttons.
Speaker 6: She concealed her gray hair under a frizzed wig known
Speaker 6: as the baby wig. Madame Magleory had an intelligent, vivacious,
Speaker 6: and kindly air. The two corners of her mouth unequally raised,
Speaker 6: and her upper lip, which was larger than the lower,
Speaker 6: imparted to her a rather crabbed and imperious look. So
Speaker 6: long as Monseigneur held his peace, she talked to him resolutely,
Speaker 6: with a mixture of respect and freedom. But as soon
Speaker 6: as Monseigneur began to speak, as we have seen, she
Speaker 6: obeyed passively. Like her mistress, Mademoiselle Baptistin did not even speak.
Speaker 6: She confined herself to obeying and pleasing him. She had
Speaker 6: never been pretty, even when she was young. She had large, blue,
Speaker 6: prominent eyes and a long arched nose. But her whole visage,
Speaker 6: her whole person, breathed forth in ineffable goodness. As we
Speaker 6: have stated in the beginning, she had always been predestined
Speaker 6: to gentleness, but faith, charity, hope, those three virtues which
Speaker 6: mildly warmed the soul had gradually elevated that gentleness to sanctity.
Speaker 6: Nature had made her a lamb. Religion had made her
Speaker 6: an angel, Poor Sainted Virgin, sweet memory, which has vanished.
Speaker 6: Mademoiselle Baptisteine has so often narrated what passed the episcopal
Speaker 6: residence that evening that there are many people now living
Speaker 6: who still recall the most minute details. At the moment
Speaker 6: when the Bishop entered, Madame Magleore was talking with considerable vivacity.
Speaker 6: She was her wranging Mademoiselle Baptisteine on a subject which
Speaker 6: was familiar to her and to which the Bishop was
Speaker 6: also accustomed. The question concerned the lock upon the entrance door.
Speaker 6: It appears that while procuring some provisions for supper, Madame
Speaker 6: Magleory had heard things in divers places. People had spoken
Speaker 6: of a prowler of evil appearance, a suspicious vagabond had arrived,
Speaker 6: who must be somewhere about the town, and those who
Speaker 6: should take into their heads to return home late that
Speaker 6: night might be subjected to unpleasant encounters. The police was
Speaker 6: very badly organized. Moreover, because there was no love lost
Speaker 6: between the Prefect and the mayor, who sought to injury
Speaker 6: each other by making things happen. It behooved wise people
Speaker 6: to play the part of their own police, and to
Speaker 6: guard themselves well. And care must be taken to duly clothes,
Speaker 6: bar and barricade their houses, and to fasten the doors well.
Speaker 6: Madame Macleory emphasized these last words. But the Bishop had
Speaker 6: just come from his room, where it was rather cold.
Speaker 6: He seated himself in front of the fire and warmed himself,
Speaker 6: and then fell the thinking of other things. He did
Speaker 6: not take up the remark dropped with design by Madame Macleory.
Speaker 6: She repeated it. Then, Mademoiselle Baptisteine, desirous of satisfying Madame
Speaker 6: Macleory without displeasing her brother, ventured to say, timidly, did
Speaker 6: you hear what Madame Macleory is saying? Brother? I have
Speaker 6: heard something of it in a vague way, replied the Bishop, then,
Speaker 6: half turning in his chair, placing his hands on his knees,
Speaker 6: and raising towards the old servant woman, his cordial face
Speaker 6: which so easily grew joyous, and which was illuminated from
Speaker 6: below by the firelight. Come, what is the matter? What
Speaker 6: is the matter? Are we in any great danger? Then,
Speaker 6: Madame Magleori began the whole story afresh, exaggerating it a
Speaker 6: little without being aware of the fact. It appeared that
Speaker 6: a bohemian, a barefooted bag upon a sort of dangerous mendicant,
Speaker 6: was at that moment in the town. He had presented
Speaker 6: himself at jacquand Labert's to obtain lodgings, but the latter
Speaker 6: had not been willing to take him in. He had
Speaker 6: been seen to arrive by the way of the Boulevard
Speaker 6: de Sendee, and about the streets and the gloaming a
Speaker 6: gallows bird with a terrible face, really, said the bishop.
Speaker 6: This willingness to interrogate encouraged Madame Magliori. It seemed to
Speaker 6: her to indicate that the Bishop was on the point
Speaker 6: of becoming alarmed. She pursued triumphantly, Yes, monseigneur, that is
Speaker 6: how it is. There will be some sort of catastrophe
Speaker 6: in this town to night. Every one says so, and
Speaker 6: withal The police is so badly regulated. A useful repetition.
Speaker 6: The idea of living in a mountainous country and not
Speaker 6: even having lights in the streets at night, one goes
Speaker 6: out black as ovens. Indeed, and I say, monseigneur, and
Speaker 6: Mademoiselle there says with me. I interrupted. His sister say nothing.
Speaker 6: What my brother does is well done. Madame Maglore continued,
Speaker 6: as though there had been no protest. We say that
Speaker 6: this house is not safe at all, that if Monseigneur
Speaker 6: will permit, I will go and tell Poulainemuspoil, the locksmith,
Speaker 6: to come and replace the ancient locks on the door.
Speaker 6: We have them. And it knows only the word of
Speaker 6: a moment. For I say that nothing is more terrible
Speaker 6: than a door which can be opened from the outside
Speaker 6: with a latch. But the first passer by and I
Speaker 6: say that we need bolts, Monseigneur, if only for this night. Moreover,
Speaker 6: Monseigneur has the habit of always saying come in. And besides,
Speaker 6: even in the middle of the night, Omen dieu, there
Speaker 6: is no need to ask permission. At that moment there
Speaker 6: came a tolerably violent knock on the door. Come in,
Speaker 6: said the bishop. And of book two, Book two, The Fall,
Speaker 6: Chapter three, the Heroism of passive Obedience, the door opened.
Speaker 6: It opened wide with a rapid move, as though some
Speaker 6: one had given it an energetic and resolute push. A
Speaker 6: man entered. We already know the man it was the
Speaker 6: wayfarer whom we have seen wandering about in search of shelter.
Speaker 6: He entered, advanced a step and halted, leaving the door
Speaker 6: open behind him. He had his knapsack on his shoulders,
Speaker 6: his cudgel in his hand, a rough, audacious, weary and
Speaker 6: violent expression in his eyes. The fire on the hearth
Speaker 6: lighted him up. He was hideous. It was a sinister apparition.
Speaker 6: Madame Magliore had not even the strength to utter a cry.
Speaker 6: She trembled and stood with her mouth wide open. Mademoiselle
Speaker 6: Baptistine turned round, beheld the man entering, and half started
Speaker 6: up in terror. Then turning her head by degrees towards
Speaker 6: the fireplace again, she began to observe brother, and her
Speaker 6: failures became once more profoundly calm and serene. The bishop
Speaker 6: fixed a tranquil eye on the man as he opened
Speaker 6: his mouth, doubtless to ask the newcomer what he desired.
Speaker 6: The man rested both hands on his staff, directed his
Speaker 6: gaze at the old man and the two women, and
Speaker 6: without waiting for the bishop to speak, he said, in
Speaker 6: a loud voice, see here. My name is Jean Valjean
Speaker 6: I am a convict from the Galleys. I have passed
Speaker 6: nineteen years in the Galleys. I was liberated four days
Speaker 6: ago and am on my way to Pontarlier, which is
Speaker 6: my destination. I have been walking for four days since
Speaker 6: I left Toulon. I have traveled a dozen leagues to
Speaker 6: day on foot. This evening, when I arrived in these parts,
Speaker 6: I went to an inn and they turned me out
Speaker 6: because of my yellow passport, which I had shown at
Speaker 6: the town hall. I had to do it. I went
Speaker 6: to an inn. They said to me be off. At
Speaker 6: both places no one would take me. I went to
Speaker 6: the prison. The jailer would not admit me. I went
Speaker 6: into a dog's kennel. The dog bit me and chased
Speaker 6: me off. As though he had been a man. No
Speaker 6: one would have said that he knew who I was.
Speaker 6: I went into the fields, intending to sleep in the
Speaker 6: open air beneath the stars. There were no stars. I
Speaker 6: thought it was going to rain, and I re entered
Speaker 6: the town to seek the recess of a doorway yonder.
Speaker 6: In the square, I meant to sleep on a stone bench.
Speaker 6: A good woman pointed out your house to me and said,
Speaker 6: knock there. I have knocked. What is this place do
Speaker 6: you keep an inn? I have money, savings one hundred
Speaker 6: and nine francs fifteen sous, which I earned in the
Speaker 6: galleys by my labor in the course of nineteen years.
Speaker 6: I will pay What is that to me? I have money.
Speaker 6: I am very weary, twelve leagues on foot, I am
Speaker 6: very hungry. Are you willing that I should remain? Madame
Speaker 6: macleore said the bishop, you will set another place. The
Speaker 6: man advanced three paces and approached the lamp, which was
Speaker 6: on the table. Stop. He resumed, as though he had
Speaker 6: not quite understood. That's not it, did you hear? I'm
Speaker 6: a galley slave, a convict. I come from the galleys.
Speaker 6: He drew from his pocket a large sheet of yellow paper,
Speaker 6: which he unfolded. Here is my passport yellow. As you see,
Speaker 6: this serves to expel me from every place where I go.
Speaker 6: Will you read it? I know how to read. I
Speaker 6: learned in the galleys. There is a school there for
Speaker 6: those who choose to learn. Hold. This is what they
Speaker 6: put on this passport. Jean Valjean, convicted Conde native of
Speaker 6: that is nothing to you, has been nineteen years in
Speaker 6: the galleys, five years for house breaking and burglary fourteen
Speaker 6: years for having attempted to escape on four occasions. He
Speaker 6: is a very dangerous man. There everyone has cast me out.
Speaker 6: Are you willing to receive me? Is this an inn?
Speaker 6: Will you give me something to eat and a bed?
Speaker 6: Have you a stable, Madame Maglory said the bishop. You
Speaker 6: will put white sheets on the bed in the alcove.
Speaker 6: We have already explained to the character of the two
Speaker 6: women's obedience. Madame Magleory retired to execute these orders. The
Speaker 6: bishop turned to the man. Sit down, sir, and warm yourself.
Speaker 6: We are going to sup in a few moments, and
Speaker 6: your bed will be prepared while you are supping. At
Speaker 6: this point, the man suddenly comprehended The expression on his
Speaker 6: face up to that time saw and harsh bore the
Speaker 6: imprint of stupefication, of doubt, of joy, and became extraordinary.
Speaker 6: He began stammering like a crazy man. Really, what you
Speaker 6: will keep me? You do not drive me forth a convict.
Speaker 6: You call me sir. You do not address me as thou.
Speaker 6: Get out of here, you dog. Is what people always
Speaker 6: say to me. I felt sure that you would expel me,
Speaker 6: so I told you what once. So I am Oh,
Speaker 6: what a good woman that was who directed me hither.
Speaker 6: I am going to sup a bed with a mattress
Speaker 6: in sheets, like the rest of the world. A bed.
Speaker 6: It is nineteen years since I have slept in a bed.
Speaker 6: You actually do not want me to go. You are
Speaker 6: good people. Besides, I have money. I will pay well.
Speaker 6: Pardon me, monsieur the innkeeper. But what is your name?
Speaker 6: I will pay anything you ask. You are a fine man.
Speaker 6: You are an innkeeper, are you not? I am, replied
Speaker 6: the bishop. A priest who lives here. A priest replied
Speaker 6: the man, Oh, what a fine priest. Then you are
Speaker 6: not going to demand any money of me. You are
Speaker 6: the curee? Are you not the curee of this big church? Well,
Speaker 6: I am a fool, truly, I have not perceived your
Speaker 6: school cap. As he spoke, he deposited his knapsack and
Speaker 6: his cudgel in a corner, replaced his passport in his pocket,
Speaker 6: and seated himself. Mademoiselle Baptistine gazed mildly at him. He continued,
Speaker 6: you are humane, monsieur le curee. You have not scorned me.
Speaker 6: A good priest is a very good thing. Then you
Speaker 6: do not require me to pay no, said the bishop.
Speaker 6: Keep your money. How much have you? Did you not
Speaker 6: tell me? One hundred and nine francs and fifteen sous,
Speaker 6: added the man, one hundred and nine francs fifteen sous.
Speaker 6: And how long did it take you to earn that?
Speaker 6: Nineteen years? Nineteen years. The bishop sighed deeply. The man continued,
Speaker 6: I have still the whole of my money. In four days,
Speaker 6: I have spent only twenty five sous, which I earned
Speaker 6: by helping unloads some wagons at gross. Since you are
Speaker 6: in Abbe, I will tell you that we had a
Speaker 6: chaplain in the galleys and one day I saw a
Speaker 6: bishop there. Monseigneur is what they call him. He was
Speaker 6: the bishop of mahore at Marseillaes. He is the cure
Speaker 6: who rules over the other cures. You understand, Pardon me,
Speaker 6: I say that very badly, but it is such a
Speaker 6: far off thing to me. You understand what we are,
Speaker 6: he said masses. In the middle of the galleys on
Speaker 6: an altar, he had a pointed thing made of gold
Speaker 6: on his head. It glittered in the bright light of
Speaker 6: mid day. We were all arranged in on the three
Speaker 6: sides with cannons with lighted matches facing us, we could
Speaker 6: not see very well. He spoke, but he was too
Speaker 6: far off, and we did not hear. That is what
Speaker 6: a bishop is like. While he was speaking, the bishop
Speaker 6: had gone and shut the door, which had remained wide open.
Speaker 6: Madame Magliori returned. She brought a silver fork and spoon,
Speaker 6: which she placed on the table. Madame Magliore said, the
Speaker 6: bishop placed those things as near the fire as possible,
Speaker 6: and turning to his guest, the night wind is harsh
Speaker 6: on the Alps. You must be cold, sir. Every time
Speaker 6: that he uttered the words sir in his voice, which
Speaker 6: was so gently grave and polished, the man's face lighted up.
Speaker 6: Monseigneur to a convict is like a glass of water
Speaker 6: to one of the shipwrecked of the Medusa. Ignomy thirsts
Speaker 6: for consideration. This lamp gives a very bad light to
Speaker 6: the buship. Madame Maglieri understood him and went to get
Speaker 6: the two silver candlesticks from the chimney piece in Monseigneur's
Speaker 6: bed chamber, and placed them lighted on the table. Monsieur
Speaker 6: le Curae said the man, you are good. You do
Speaker 6: not despise me. You receive me and your house. You
Speaker 6: light your candles for me. Yet I have not concealed
Speaker 6: from you whence I come, and that I am an
Speaker 6: unfortunate man. The bishop, who was sitting close to him,
Speaker 6: gently touched his hand. You could not help telling me
Speaker 6: who you were. This is not my house. It is
Speaker 6: the house of Jesus Christ. This storage does not demand
Speaker 6: of him who enters, whether he has a name, but
Speaker 6: whether he has a grief you suffer. You are hungry
Speaker 6: and thirsty. You are welcome, and do not think me.
Speaker 6: Do not say that I receive you in my house.
Speaker 6: No one is at home here except the man who
Speaker 6: needs a refuge. I say to you who are passing by,
Speaker 6: that you are much more at home than I am myself.
Speaker 6: Everything here is yours. What need have I to know
Speaker 6: your name? Besides before you told me you had one
Speaker 6: which I knew. The man opened his eyes in astonishment.
Speaker 6: Really you knew what I was called? Yes, replied the bishop.
Speaker 6: You are called my brother. Stop Monsieur le curee, exclaimed
Speaker 6: the man. I was very hungry when I entered here,
Speaker 6: but you are so good that I no longer know
Speaker 6: what has happened to me. The bishop looked at him
Speaker 6: and said, you have suffered much. Oh, the red coat,
Speaker 6: the ball on the ankle, a plank to sleep on, heat, cold, toil,
Speaker 6: the convicts, the thrashings, the double chain for nothing, the
Speaker 6: cell for one word, even sick and in bed still
Speaker 6: the dogs, dogs are happier. Nineteen years I am forty six.
Speaker 6: Now there is the yellow passport. That is what it
Speaker 6: is like. Yes, resumed, the Bishop. You have come from
Speaker 6: a very sad place. Listen. There will be more joy
Speaker 6: in Heaven over the tear bathed face of a repentant
Speaker 6: sinner than over the white robes of an hundred just men.
Speaker 6: If you emerge from that sad place with thoughts of
Speaker 6: hatred and of wrath against mankind, you are deserving of pity.
Speaker 6: If you emerge with thoughts of good will and of peace,
Speaker 6: you are more worthy than any one of us. In
Speaker 6: the meantime, Madame Magliore had served supper soup made with water, oil,
Speaker 6: bread and salt, a little bacon, a bit of mutton figs,
Speaker 6: a fresh cheese, and a large loaf of rye bread.
Speaker 6: She had of her own accord, added to the bishop's
Speaker 6: ordinary fare a bottle of his old mauve wine. The
Speaker 6: bishop's face at once assumed that expression of gaiety, which
Speaker 6: is peculiar to hospitable natures, to table. He cried vivaciously,
Speaker 6: as was his custom. When a stranger supped with him,
Speaker 6: he made the man sit on his right. Mademoiselle back
Speaker 6: to steam, perfectly peaceable and natural, took her seat at
Speaker 6: his left. The bishop asked a blessing that helped the
Speaker 6: soup himself, according to his custom. The man began to
Speaker 6: eat with avidity. All at once. The Bishop says, it
Speaker 6: strikes me there is something missing on this table. Madame
Speaker 6: Magliore had, in fact, only placed the three sets of
Speaker 6: forks and spoons, which were absolutely necessary. Now it was
Speaker 6: the usage of the house when the Bishop had anyone
Speaker 6: to supper, to lay out the whole six sets of
Speaker 6: silver on the tablecloth in innocent ostentation. This graceful semblance
Speaker 6: of luxury was a kind of child's play, which was
Speaker 6: full of charm in that gentle and severe household, which
Speaker 6: raised poverty into dignity. Madam Macleori understood the remark, went
Speaker 6: out without saying a word, and a moment later the
Speaker 6: three sets of silver forks and spoons demanded by the
Speaker 6: bishop were glittering upon the cloth symmetrically arranged before the
Speaker 6: three persons seated at the table. End of Book two.
Speaker 6: Book two the Fall, Chapter four details concerning the cheese
Speaker 6: dairies of Pontarliers. Now, in order to convey an idea
Speaker 6: of what happened at that table, we cannot do better
Speaker 6: than to transcribe here a passage from one of Mademoiselle
Speaker 6: Baptiste's to Madame Boi Chervran, wherein the conversation between the
Speaker 6: convict and the bishop is described with ingenious minuteness. This
Speaker 6: man paid no attention to any one. He ate with
Speaker 6: the veracity of a starving man. However, after supper, he said,
Speaker 6: Monsieur le cure of the Good God. All this is
Speaker 6: far too good for me. But I must say that
Speaker 6: the carters, who would not allow me to eat with them,
Speaker 6: keep a better table than you two between ourselves. The
Speaker 6: remark rather shocked me. My brother replied, they are more
Speaker 6: fatigued than I. No, returned the man, they have more money.
Speaker 6: You are poor. I see that. Plainly you cannot be
Speaker 6: even a curate. Are you really a curee? Ah? If
Speaker 6: the Good God were but just, you certainly ought to
Speaker 6: be a curee. The good God is more than just,
Speaker 6: said my brother. A moment later, he added, Monsieur Jean Valjean,
Speaker 6: is it to pont arlier? You are going with my
Speaker 6: road marked out for me? I think that is what
Speaker 6: the man said. Then he went on, I must be
Speaker 6: on my way by daybreak tomorrow. Traveling is hard. If
Speaker 6: the nights are cold the days are hot. You are
Speaker 6: going to a good country, said my brother. During the revolution,
Speaker 6: my family was ruined. I took refuge in franche Comte
Speaker 6: at first, and there I lived for some time. By
Speaker 6: the twil of my hands, my will was good. I
Speaker 6: found plenties occupy me. One has only to choose. There
Speaker 6: are paper mills, tanneries, distilleries, boil factories, watch factories on
Speaker 6: a large scale, steel mills, copper works, twenty iron foundries,
Speaker 6: at least four of which situated at Lodes, at Chatillon,
Speaker 6: at Anencour and at Beer are tolerably large. I think
Speaker 6: I am not mistaken in saying that those are the
Speaker 6: names which my brother mentioned. Then he interrupted himself and
Speaker 6: addressed me, have we not some relatives in those parts?
Speaker 6: My dear sister, I replied, we did have some, Among others.
Speaker 6: Monsieur de Lucignee, who was captain of the gates at
Speaker 6: Pontalier under the old regime. Yes, resumed, my brother, But
Speaker 6: in ninety three one had no longer any relatives, one
Speaker 6: had only one's arms. I worked. They have in the
Speaker 6: country of Pontalier, whither you are going, Monsieur Valjean, a
Speaker 6: truly patriarchal and truly charming industry. My sister, it is
Speaker 6: their cheese dairies, which they call fritier. Then my brother,
Speaker 6: while urging the man to eat, explained to him with
Speaker 6: great minuteness what these fritiers of Pontaralier were. That they
Speaker 6: were divided into two classes, the big barns, which belonged
Speaker 6: to the rich, and where there are forty or fifty cows,
Speaker 6: which produce from seven to eight thousand cheeses each summer,
Speaker 6: and the associated frutier, which belonged to the poor. These
Speaker 6: are the peasants of mid Mountain, who hold their cows
Speaker 6: in common and share the proceeds. They engage the services
Speaker 6: of cheesemaker, whom they call the gruam. The gruround perceives
Speaker 6: the milk of the associates three times a day and
Speaker 6: marks the quantity on a double tally. It is towards
Speaker 6: the end of April that the work of the cheese
Speaker 6: dairs begins. It is towards the middle of June that
Speaker 6: the cheesemakers drive their cows to the mountain. The man
Speaker 6: recovered his animation as he ate. My brother made him
Speaker 6: drink that good mauve of wine, which he does not
Speaker 6: drink himself, because he says that wine is expensive. My
Speaker 6: brother imparted all these details with that easy gayety of
Speaker 6: his with which you are acquainted, interspersing his words with
Speaker 6: graceful attentions. To me, he recurred frequently to that comfortable
Speaker 6: trade of grura, as though he wished the men to understand,
Speaker 6: without advising him directly and harshly, that this would award
Speaker 6: him a refuge. One thing struck me this man was
Speaker 6: what I have told you well. Neither during supper, nor
Speaker 6: during the entire evening did my brother utter a single word,
Speaker 6: with the exception of a few words about Jesus when
Speaker 6: he entered, which could remind the man of what he was,
Speaker 6: nor of what my brother was. To all appearances, it
Speaker 6: was the occasion for preaching him a little sermon, and
Speaker 6: of impressing the bishop on the convict, so that the
Speaker 6: mark of the passage might remain behind. This might have
Speaker 6: appeared to any one else who had this unfortunate man
Speaker 6: in his hands, to afford a chance to nourish his
Speaker 6: soul as well as his body, and to bestow upon
Speaker 6: him some reproach, seasoned with moralizing and advice, were a
Speaker 6: little commiseration, with an exhortation to conduct himself better in
Speaker 6: the future. My brother did not even ask him from
Speaker 6: what country he came, nor what was his history. For
Speaker 6: in his history there was a fault, and my brother
Speaker 6: seemed to avoid everything which could remind him of it.
Speaker 6: To such a point did he carry it that at
Speaker 6: one time, when my brother, who was speaking of the
Speaker 6: mountaineers of Pontalier, who exercises gentle labor near heaven, and
Speaker 6: who he added, are happy because they are innocent, he
Speaker 6: stopped short, fearing lest in this remark there might have
Speaker 6: escaped him something which might wound the man. By dint
Speaker 6: of reflection, I think I have comprehended what was passing
Speaker 6: in my brother's heart. He was thinking, no doubt that
Speaker 6: this man, whose name is Jean Valjean, had his misfortune
Speaker 6: only too vividly present in his mind, and that the
Speaker 6: best thing was to divert him from it, and to
Speaker 6: make him believe, if only momentarily, that he was a
Speaker 6: person like any other, by treating him in just his
Speaker 6: ordinary way. Is this not indeed to understand charity?
Speaker 4: Well?
Speaker 6: Is there not, dear Madame, something truly evangelical in this delicacy,
Speaker 6: which abstains from sermon, from moralizing, from allusions, and is
Speaker 6: not the truest pity when a man has a sore
Speaker 6: point not to touch it at all. It seemed to
Speaker 6: me that this might have been my brother's private thought.
Speaker 6: In any case, what I can say is that if
Speaker 6: he entertained all these ideas, he gave no sign of
Speaker 6: them from beginning to end. Even to me. He was
Speaker 6: the same as he is every evening, And he sucked
Speaker 6: with a Jean Valjean, with the same air and in
Speaker 6: the same manner in which he might have sucked with
Speaker 6: Monsieur gettyon the provost, or with the curates of the parish.
Speaker 6: Towards the end, when he had reached the figs, there
Speaker 6: came a knock at the door. It was Mother Grabaudt,
Speaker 6: with her little one in her arms. My brother kissed
Speaker 6: the child on the brow and borrowed fifteen sous which
Speaker 6: I had about me to give to mother Gerbeaud. The
Speaker 6: man was not paying much heed to anything. Then he
Speaker 6: was no longer talking, and he seemed very much fatigued.
Speaker 6: After poor old gerbeaut had taken her departure, my brother
Speaker 6: said grace. Then he turned to the man and said
Speaker 6: to him, you must be in great need of your bed.
Speaker 6: Madame MAGLIORI cleared the table very promptly. I understood that
Speaker 6: we must retire in order to allow this traveler to
Speaker 6: go to sleep, and we both went upstairs. Nevertheless, I
Speaker 6: sent Madame Magliore down a moment later to carry to
Speaker 6: the man's bed a goatskin from the black forest, which
Speaker 6: was in my room. The knights are frigid, and that
Speaker 6: keeps one warm. It is a pity that this skin
Speaker 6: is old. All the hair is falling out. My brother
Speaker 6: bought it while he was in Germany at Totlingen, near
Speaker 6: the sources of the Danube, as well as the little
Speaker 6: ivory handled knife which I use at table. Madame Maglory
Speaker 6: returned immediately. We set our prayers in the drawing room,
Speaker 6: where we hang up the linen, and then we each
Speaker 6: retired to our own chambers without saying a word to
Speaker 6: each other. And of Book two, Chapter four.
Speaker 10: Book two The Fall, Chapter five, Tranquility. After bidding his
Speaker 10: sister good night, Monseigneur Bienvenu took one of the two
Speaker 10: silver candlesticks from the table, handed the other to his guest,
Speaker 10: and said to him, Monsieur, I will conduct you to
Speaker 10: your room. The man followed him. As might have been
Speaker 10: observed from what has been said above, the house was
Speaker 10: so arranged that in order to pass into the oratory
Speaker 10: where the alcove was situated, or to get out of it,
Speaker 10: it was necessary to traverse the bishop's bedroom. At the
Speaker 10: moment when he was crossing this apartment, Madame mc glor
Speaker 10: was putting away the silverware in the cupboard near the
Speaker 10: head of the bed. This was her last care every
Speaker 10: evening before she went to bed. The Bishop installed his
Speaker 10: guest in the alcove. A fresh white bed had been
Speaker 10: prepared there. The man set the candle down on a
Speaker 10: small table well, said the Bishop. May you pass a
Speaker 10: good night Tomorrow morning. Before you set out, you shall
Speaker 10: drink a cup of warm milk from our cows. Thanks
Speaker 10: Monsieur le Bay, said the man hardly had he pronounced
Speaker 10: these words full of peace, when all of a sudden
Speaker 10: and without transition, he made a strange movement which would
Speaker 10: have frozen the two sainted women with horror had they
Speaker 10: witnessed it. Even at this day, it is difficult for
Speaker 10: us to explain what inspired him at that moment. Did
Speaker 10: he intend to convey a warning or to throw out
Speaker 10: a menace? Was he simply obeying a sort of instinctive
Speaker 10: impulse which was obscure even to himself. He turned abruptly
Speaker 10: to the old man, folded his arms and bending upon
Speaker 10: his host a savage gaze, he exclaimed in a hoarse voice. Ah, really,
Speaker 10: you lodge me in your house close to yourself like this?
Speaker 10: He broke off, and added, with a laugh in which
Speaker 10: there looked something monstrous. Hah, have you really reflected? Well?
Speaker 10: How do you know that I have not been an assassin?
Speaker 10: The bishop replied, that is the concern of the good God. Then, gravely,
Speaker 10: and moving his lips like one who is praying or
Speaker 10: talking to himself, he raised two fingers of his right
Speaker 10: hand and bestowed his benediction on the man, who did
Speaker 10: not bow, and without turning his head or looking behind him.
Speaker 10: He returned to his bedroom. When the alcove was in use,
Speaker 10: a large serge curtain drawn from wall to wall concealed
Speaker 10: the altar. The bishop knelt before this curtain as he passed,
Speaker 10: and said a brief prayer. A moment later, he was
Speaker 10: in his garden, walking, meditating, contemplating, his heart and soul
Speaker 10: wholly absorbed in those grand and mysterious things which God
Speaker 10: shows at night to the eyes which remain open. As
Speaker 10: for the man, he was actually so fatigued that he
Speaker 10: did not even profit by the nice white sheets. Snuffing
Speaker 10: out his candle with his nostrils after the manner of convicts,
Speaker 10: he dropped, all dressed as he was, upon the bed
Speaker 10: where he he immediately fell into a profound sleep midnight struck.
Speaker 10: As the bishop returned from his garden to his apartment.
Speaker 10: A few minutes later, all were asleep in the little house.
Speaker 10: End of book two, Book two, The Fall, Chapter six,
Speaker 10: Jean Valjean. Towards the middle of the night, Jean Valjean woke.
Speaker 10: Jean Valjean came from a poor peasant family of bris.
Speaker 10: He had not learned to read in his childhood. When
Speaker 10: he reached Man's estate, he became a tree pruner at Favroles.
Speaker 10: His mother was named Jeanne Meteau. His father was called
Speaker 10: Jean Valjean or Valjean, probably a sobriquet and a contraction
Speaker 10: of Villet Jean. Here's Jean Jean Valjean was of that
Speaker 10: thoughtful but not gloomy disposition which constitutes the peculiarity of
Speaker 10: affectionate natures. On the whole. However, there was something decidedly
Speaker 10: sluggish and insignificant about Jean Valjean in appearance. At least,
Speaker 10: he had lost his father and mother at a very
Speaker 10: early age. His mother had died of a milk fever
Speaker 10: which had not been properly attended. To his father, a
Speaker 10: tree pruner, like himself, had been killed by a fall
Speaker 10: from a tree. All that remained to Jean Valjean was
Speaker 10: a sister older than himself, a widow with seven children,
Speaker 10: boys and girls. This sister had brought up Jean Valjean,
Speaker 10: and so long as she had had a husband, she
Speaker 10: lodged and fed her young brother. The husband died, the
Speaker 10: eldest of the seven children was eight years old. The
Speaker 10: youngest one, Jean Valjean, had just attained his twenty fifth year.
Speaker 10: He took the father's place, and in his turn supported
Speaker 10: the sister who had brought him up. This was done
Speaker 10: simply as a duty, and even a little churlishly on
Speaker 10: the part of Jean Valjean. Thus his youth had been
Speaker 10: spent in rude and ill paid toil. He had never
Speaker 10: known a kind woman friend in his native parts. He
Speaker 10: had not had the time to fall in love. He
Speaker 10: returned at night weary and ate his broth without uttering
Speaker 10: a word. His sister mother Jeanne, often took the best
Speaker 10: part of his repast from his bowl while he was eating,
Speaker 10: a bit of meat, a slice of bacon, the heart
Speaker 10: of the cabbage, to give to one of her children.
Speaker 10: As he went on eating, with his head bent over
Speaker 10: the table and almost into his soup, his long hair
Speaker 10: falling about his bowl and concealing his eyes, he had
Speaker 10: the air of perceiving nothing and allowing it. There was
Speaker 10: at Favoles, not far from the Valjean thatched cottage on
Speaker 10: the other side of the lane, a farmer's wife named
Speaker 10: Marie Claude. The Valjean children, habitually famished, sometimes went to
Speaker 10: borrow from Marie Claude a pint of milk in their
Speaker 10: mother's name, which they drank behind a hedge or in
Speaker 10: some alley corner, snatching the jug from each other so
Speaker 10: hastily that the little girls spilled it on their aprons
Speaker 10: and down their necks. If their mother had known of
Speaker 10: this marauding, she would have punished the delinquents severely. Jean
Speaker 10: Valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid Marie Claude for the pint
Speaker 10: of milk behind their mother's back, and the children were
Speaker 10: not punished. In pruning season, he earned eighteen sous a day.
Speaker 10: Then he hired out as a haymaker, as laborer, as
Speaker 10: neat herd on a farm, as a drudge. He did
Speaker 10: whatever he could. His sister worked also, but what could
Speaker 10: she do with seven little children. It was a sad group,
Speaker 10: enveloped in misery, which was being gradually annihilated. A very
Speaker 10: hard winter came. Jean had no work, the family had
Speaker 10: no bread, no bread, literally seven children. One Sunday evening,
Speaker 10: Maubert Isabeau, the baker on the church square at Favrole's,
Speaker 10: was preparing to go to bed when he heard a
Speaker 10: violent blow on the grated front of his shop. He
Speaker 10: arrived in time to see an arm passed through the
Speaker 10: hole made by a blow from a fist through the
Speaker 10: grating and the glass. The arm seized a loaf of
Speaker 10: bread and carried it off. Isabeau ran out in haste.
Speaker 10: The robber fled at the full speed of his legs.
Speaker 10: Isabeau ran after him and stopped him. The thief had
Speaker 10: flung away the loaf, but his arm was still bleeding.
Speaker 10: It was Jean Valjean. This took place in seventeen ninety five.
Speaker 10: Jean Valjean was taken before the tribunals of the time
Speaker 10: for theft and breaking and entering an inhabited house at night.
Speaker 10: He had a gun, which he had used better than
Speaker 10: any one else in the world. He was a bit
Speaker 10: of a poacher, and this injured his case. There exists
Speaker 10: a legitimate prejudice against poachers. The poacher, like the smuggler,
Speaker 10: smacks too strongly of the Brigand nevertheless, WI remark cursorily,
Speaker 10: there is still an abyss between these races of men
Speaker 10: and the hideous assassin of the towns. The poacher lives
Speaker 10: in the forest. The smuggler lives in the mountains or
Speaker 10: on the sea. The cities make ferocious men because they
Speaker 10: make corrupt men. The mountain, the sea, the forest makes
Speaker 10: savage men. They develop the fierce side, but often without
Speaker 10: destroying the humane side. Jean Valjean was pronounced guilty. The
Speaker 10: terms of the code were explicit. There occur formidable hours
Speaker 10: in our civilization. There are moments when the penal laws
Speaker 10: decree a shipwreck. What an ominous minute is that in
Speaker 10: which society draws back and consummates the irreparable abandonment of
Speaker 10: a sentient being. Jean Valjean was condemned to five years
Speaker 10: in the galleys. On the twenty second of April seventeen
Speaker 10: ninety six, the victory of Montennaut, won by the General
Speaker 10: in Chief of the Army of Italy, whom the message
Speaker 10: of the Directory to the five hundred of the second
Speaker 10: efflorial yearfore calls Buonaparte, was announced in Paris. On that
Speaker 10: same day, a great gang of galley slaves was put
Speaker 10: in chains at the Cetre. Jean Valjean formed a part
Speaker 10: of that gang. An old turnkey of the prison, who
Speaker 10: is now nearly eighty years old, still recalls perfectly that
Speaker 10: unfortunate wretch who was chained to the end of the
Speaker 10: fourth line in the north angle of the courtyard. He
Speaker 10: was seated on the ground like the others. He did
Speaker 10: not seem to comprehend his position, except that it was horrible.
Speaker 10: It is probable that he also was disentangling from amid
Speaker 10: the vague ideas of a poor man ignorant of everything,
Speaker 10: something excessive. While the bolt of his iron collar was
Speaker 10: being riveted behind his head with heavy blows from the hammer,
Speaker 10: he wept. His tears stifled him. They impeded his speech.
Speaker 10: He only managed to say from time to time, I
Speaker 10: was a tree bruner. At Favrole's, then still sobbing, he
Speaker 10: raised his right hand and lowered it gradually seven times,
Speaker 10: as though he were touching in succession seven heads of
Speaker 10: unequal heights. And from this gesture it was divine that
Speaker 10: the thing which he had done, whatever it was, had
Speaker 10: been done for the sake of clothing and nourishing seven
Speaker 10: little children. He set out for Toulon. He arrived there
Speaker 10: after a journey of twenty seven days, on a cart
Speaker 10: with a chain on his neck. At Toulon he was
Speaker 10: clothed in the red cassock. All that had constituted his
Speaker 10: life even to his name was effaced. He was no
Speaker 10: longer even Jean Valjean. He was number twenty four thousand,
Speaker 10: six hundred one. What became of his sister? What became
Speaker 10: of the seven children who troubled himself about that? What
Speaker 10: becomes of a handful of leaves from the young tree
Speaker 10: which is sawed off at the root. It is always
Speaker 10: the same story. These poor living beings, these creatures of God, henceforth,
Speaker 10: without support, without guide, without refuge, wandered away at random,
Speaker 10: Who even knows each in his own direction? Perhaps, and
Speaker 10: little by little buried themselves in that cold mist which
Speaker 10: engulf's solitary destinies, gloomy shades into which disappear in succession,
Speaker 10: so many unlucky heads in the somber march of the
Speaker 10: human race. They quitted the country. The clock tower of
Speaker 10: what had been their village forgot them, The boundary line
Speaker 10: of what had been their field forgot them. After a
Speaker 10: few years residence in the galleys, Jean Valjean himself forgot them.
Speaker 10: In that heart where there had been a wound, there
Speaker 10: was a scar, that is all, only once, during all
Speaker 10: the time which he spent at Toulon did he hear
Speaker 10: his sister mentioned. This happened I think towards the end
Speaker 10: of the fourth year of his captivity. I know not
Speaker 10: through what channels the news reached him. Some one who
Speaker 10: had known them in their own country had seen his sister.
Speaker 10: She was in Paris. She lived in a poor street
Speaker 10: rear Sanselpice, in the Rue du Gendre. She had with
Speaker 10: her only one child, a little boy, the youngest. Where
Speaker 10: were the other six? Perhaps she did not know herself.
Speaker 10: Every morning she went to a printing office number three
Speaker 10: Rue des Sabot, where she was a folder and stitcher.
Speaker 10: She was obliged to be there at six o'clock in
Speaker 10: the morning, long before daylight in winter. In the same
Speaker 10: building with the printing office, there was a school, and
Speaker 10: to this school she took her little boy, who was
Speaker 10: seven years old. But as she entered the printing office
Speaker 10: at six and the school only opened at seven, the
Speaker 10: child had to wait in the courtyard for the school
Speaker 10: to open for an hour one hour of a winter
Speaker 10: night in the open air. They would not allow the
Speaker 10: child to come into the printing office because he was
Speaker 10: in the way. They said, when the workmen passed in
Speaker 10: the morning, they beheld this poor little being seated on
Speaker 10: the pavement, overcome with drowsiness and often fast asleep in
Speaker 10: the shadow, crouched down and doubled up over his basket.
Speaker 10: When it rained. An old woman, the portress, took pity
Speaker 10: on him. She took him into her den, where there
Speaker 10: was a pallet, a spinning wheel, and two wooden chairs,
Speaker 10: And the little one slumbered in a corner, pressing himself
Speaker 10: close to the cat, that he might suffer less from cold.
Speaker 10: At seven o'clock the school opened and he entered. This
Speaker 10: is what was told to Jean Valjean. They talked to
Speaker 10: him about it for one day. It was a moment,
Speaker 10: a flash, as though a window had suddenly been opened
Speaker 10: upon the destiny of those things whom he had loved.
Speaker 10: Then all closed again. He heard nothing more. Forever, nothing
Speaker 10: from them ever reached him again. He never held them,
Speaker 10: he never met them again, and in the continuation of
Speaker 10: this mournful history, they will not be met with any more.
Speaker 10: Towards the end of this fourth year, Jean Valjean's turn
Speaker 10: to escape arrived. His comrades assisted him, as is the
Speaker 10: custom in that sad place.
Speaker 2: He escaped.
Speaker 10: He wandered for two days in the fields at liberty,
Speaker 10: if being at liberty is to be hunted, to turn
Speaker 10: the head every instant, to quake at the slightest noise,
Speaker 10: to be afraid of everything, of a smoking roof, of
Speaker 10: a passing man, of a barking dog, of a galloping horse,
Speaker 10: of a striking clock, of the day, because one can
Speaker 10: see of the night, because one cannot see of the highway,
Speaker 10: of the path, of a bush of sleep. On the
Speaker 10: evening of the second day he was captured, he had
Speaker 10: neither eaten nor slept for thirty six hours. The maritime
Speaker 10: tribunal condemned him for this crime to a prolongation of
Speaker 10: his term for three years, which made eight years. In
Speaker 10: the sixth year, his turn to escape occurred again. He
Speaker 10: availed himself of it, but could not accomplish his flight fully.
Speaker 10: He was missing at roll call, the cannon were fired,
Speaker 10: and at night the patrol found him hidden under the
Speaker 10: keel of a vessel in process of construction. He resisted
Speaker 10: the galley guards who seized him. Escape and rebellion. This case,
Speaker 10: provided for by a special code, was punished by an
Speaker 10: addition of five years, two of them in the double
Speaker 10: chain thirteen years. In the tenth year, his turn came
Speaker 10: round again, he again profited by it. He succeeded no
Speaker 10: better three years for this fresh attempt, sixteen years. Finally,
Speaker 10: I think it was during his thirteenth year he made
Speaker 10: a last attempt and only succeeded in getting retaken at
Speaker 10: the end of four hours of absence. Three years. For
Speaker 10: those four hours nineteen years. In October eighteen fifteen he
Speaker 10: was released. He had entered there in seventeen ninety six
Speaker 10: for having broken a pane of glass and taken a
Speaker 10: loaf of bread. Room for a brief parenthesis, this is
Speaker 10: the second time during his studies on the penal question
Speaker 10: and Damnation by Law, that the author of this book
Speaker 10: has come across the theft of a loaf of bread
Speaker 10: as the point of departure for the disaster of a destiny.
Speaker 10: Claude Gaux had stolen a loaf. Jean Valjean had stolen
Speaker 10: a loaf. English statistics prove the fact that four thefts
Speaker 10: out of five in London have hunger for their immediate cause.
Speaker 10: Jean Valjean had entered the galleys sobbing and shuddering. He
Speaker 10: emerged impassive. He had entered in despair. He emerged gloomy.
Speaker 10: What had taken place in that soul?
Speaker 12: Of Book two, Book two, Chapter seven, The interior of despair?
Speaker 12: Let us try to say it. It is necessary that
Speaker 12: society should look at these things, because it is itself
Speaker 12: which creates them. He was, as we have said, an
Speaker 12: ignorant man, but he was not a fool. The light
Speaker 12: of nature was ignited in him. Unhappiness, which also possesses
Speaker 12: a clearness of vision of its own, augmented the small
Speaker 12: amount of daylight which existed in this mind. Beneath the cudgel,
Speaker 12: beneath the chain, in the cell in hardship, beneath the
Speaker 12: burning sun of the galleys, upon the plank bed of
Speaker 12: the convict, he withdrew into his own consciousness and meditated.
Speaker 12: He constituted himself the tribunal. He began by putting himself
Speaker 12: on trial. He recognized the fact that he was not
Speaker 12: an innocent man unjustly punished. He admitted that he had
Speaker 12: committed an extreme and blameworthy act, that that loaf of
Speaker 12: bread would probably not have been refused to him had
Speaker 12: he asked for it, that in any case, it would
Speaker 12: have been better to wait until he could get it
Speaker 12: through compassion or through work. That it is not an
Speaker 12: unanswerable argument to say, can one wait when one is hungry,
Speaker 12: That in the first place, it is very rare for
Speaker 12: anyone to die of hunger literally, And next that fortunately
Speaker 12: or unfortunately, man is so constituted that he can suffer
Speaker 12: long and much, both morally and physically, without dying, That
Speaker 12: it is therefore necessary to have patience. That that would
Speaker 12: even have been better for those poor little children, That
Speaker 12: it had been an act of madness for him, a miserable,
Speaker 12: unfortunate wretch, to take society at large violently by the collar,
Speaker 12: and to imagine that one can escape from misery through theft,
Speaker 12: that that is, in any case, a poor door through
Speaker 12: which to escape from misery through which infamy enters. In short,
Speaker 12: that he was in the wrong. Then he asked himself
Speaker 12: whether he had been the only one in fault in
Speaker 12: his life fatal history. Whether it was not a serious
Speaker 12: thing that he a laborer out of work, that he,
Speaker 12: an industrious man, should have lacked bread, and whether the fault,
Speaker 12: once committed and confessed, the chastisement had not been ferocious
Speaker 12: and disproportioned, whether there had not been more abuse on
Speaker 12: the part of the law in respect to the penalty
Speaker 12: than there had been on the part of the culprit
Speaker 12: in respect to his fault. Whether there had not been
Speaker 12: an excess of weights in one balance of this scale
Speaker 12: in the one which contains expiation. Whether the overweight of
Speaker 12: the penalty was not equivalent to the annihilation of the crime,
Speaker 12: and did not result in reversing the situation, of replacing
Speaker 12: the fault of the delinquent by the fault of the repression,
Speaker 12: of converting the guilty man into the victim and the
Speaker 12: debtor into the creditor, and of ranging the law definitely
Speaker 12: on the side of the man who had violated it.
Speaker 12: Whether this penalty, complicated by successive aggravations for attempts at escape,
Speaker 12: had not ended in becoming a sort of outrage perpetrated
Speaker 12: by the stronger upon the feebler, a crime of society
Speaker 12: against the individual, a crime which was being committed afresh
Speaker 12: every day, a crime which had lasted nineteen years. He
Speaker 12: asked himself whether human society could have the right to
Speaker 12: force its members to suffer equally in one case for
Speaker 12: its own unreasonable lack of foresight, and in the other
Speaker 12: case for its pitiless foresight, and to seize a poor
Speaker 12: man forever between a defect and an excess, a default
Speaker 12: of work and an excess of punishment. Whether it was
Speaker 12: not outrageous for society to treat thus precisely those of
Speaker 12: its members who were the least well endowed in the
Speaker 12: division of goods made by chance, and consequently the most
Speaker 12: deserving of consideration. These questions put an answered. He judged
Speaker 12: society and condemned it. He condemned it to his hatred.
Speaker 12: He made it responsible for the fate which he was suffering.
Speaker 12: And he said to himself that it might be that
Speaker 12: one day he should not hesitate to call it to account.
Speaker 12: He declared to himself that there was no equilibrium between
Speaker 12: the harm which he had caused and the harm which
Speaker 12: was being done to him. He finally arrived at the
Speaker 12: conclusion that his punishment was not, in truth unjust, but
Speaker 12: that it most assuredly was iniquitous. Anger may be both
Speaker 12: foolish and absurd. One can be irritated wrongfully. One is
Speaker 12: exasperated only when there is some show of right on
Speaker 12: one side. At bottom, Jean Valjean felt himself exasperated, and besides,
Speaker 12: human society had done him nothing but harm. He had
Speaker 12: never seen anything of it save that angry face which
Speaker 12: it calls justice, and which it shows to those whom
Speaker 12: it strikes. Men had only touched him to bruise him.
Speaker 12: Every contact with them had been a blow. Never since
Speaker 12: his infancy, since the days of his mother, of his sister,
Speaker 12: had he ever encountered a friendly word and a kindly glance.
Speaker 12: From suffering to suffering. He had gradually arrived at the
Speaker 12: conviction that life is a war, and that in this
Speaker 12: war he was the conquer He had no other weapon
Speaker 12: than his hate. He resolved to wet it in the galleys,
Speaker 12: and to bear it away with him when he departed.
Speaker 12: There was it Toulon, a school for the convicts, kept
Speaker 12: by the ignorantine Friars, where the most necessary branches were
Speaker 12: taught to those of the unfortunate men who had a
Speaker 12: mind for them. He was of the number who had
Speaker 12: a mind. He went to school at the age of forty,
Speaker 12: and learned to read, to write, to cipher. He felt
Speaker 12: that to fortify his intelligence was to fortify his hate.
Speaker 12: In certain cases, education and enlightenment can serve to eke
Speaker 12: out evil. This is a sad thing to say, after
Speaker 12: having judged society which had caused his unhappiness. He judged providence,
Speaker 12: which had made society, and he condemned it also. Thus,
Speaker 12: during nineteen years of torture and slavery, this soul mounted
Speaker 12: and at the same time fell, Light entered it on
Speaker 12: one side, and darkness on the other. Jean Valjean had not,
Speaker 12: as we have seen in evil nature. He was still
Speaker 12: good when he arrived at the galleys. He there condemned
Speaker 12: society and felt that he was becoming wicked. He there
Speaker 12: condemned Providence and was conscious that he was becoming impious.
Speaker 12: It is difficult not to indulge in meditation at this point.
Speaker 12: Does human nature thus change utterly and from top to bottom?
Speaker 12: Can the man, created good by God be rendered wicked
Speaker 12: by man? Can the soul be completely made over by
Speaker 12: fate and become evil? Fate being evil? Can the heart
Speaker 12: become misshapen and contract incurable deformities and infirmities under the
Speaker 12: oppression of a disproportionate unhappiness? As a verbal column beneath
Speaker 12: too low a vault? Is there not in every human soul?
Speaker 12: Was there not in the soul of Jean Valjean? In particular?
Speaker 12: A first spark a divine element, incorruptible in this world,
Speaker 12: immortal in the other, which good can develop, fan ignite,
Speaker 12: and make to glow with splendor, and which evil can
Speaker 12: never wholly extend. Grave and obscure questions to the last
Speaker 12: of which every physiologist would probably have responded no, and
Speaker 12: that without hesitation, had he beheld it Toulon during the
Speaker 12: hours of repose, which were for Jean Valjean hours of revery,
Speaker 12: this gloomy galley slave seated with folded arms upon the
Speaker 12: bar of some capstan, with the end of his chain
Speaker 12: thrust into his pocket to prevent its dragging, serious, silent
Speaker 12: and thoughtful, a pariah of the laws, which regarded the
Speaker 12: man with wrath, condemned by civilization, and regarding heaven with severity. Certainly,
Speaker 12: and we make no attempt to dissimulate the fact the
Speaker 12: observing physiologist would have beheld an irremediable misery. He would
Speaker 12: perchance have pitied this sick man of the laws making,
Speaker 12: but he would not have even assayed any treatment. He
Speaker 12: would have turned aside his gaze from the caverns of
Speaker 12: which he would have caught a glimpse within this soul, And,
Speaker 12: like Dante at the portals of hell, he would have
Speaker 12: effaced from this existence the word which the finger of
Speaker 12: God has nevertheless inscribed upon the brow of every man. Hope.
Speaker 12: Was this state of his soul which we have attempted
Speaker 12: to analyze, as perfectly clear to Jean Valjean as we
Speaker 12: have tried to render it for those who read us.
Speaker 12: Did Jean Valjean distinctly perceive after their formation, and had
Speaker 12: he seen distinctly during the process of their formation, all
Speaker 12: the elements of which his moral misery was composed, Had
Speaker 12: this rough and unlettered man gathered a perfectly clear perception
Speaker 12: of the succession of ideas through which he had, by
Speaker 12: degrees mounted and descended to the lugubrious aspects which had
Speaker 12: for so many years formed the inner horizon of his spirit?
Speaker 12: Was he conscious of all that passed within him and
Speaker 12: of all that was working there? That is something which
Speaker 12: we do not presume to state. It is something which
Speaker 12: we do not even believe. There was too much ignorance
Speaker 12: in Jean Valjean, even after his misfortune, to prevent much
Speaker 12: vagueness from still lingering there. At times he did not
Speaker 12: rightly know himself what he felt. Jean Valjean was in
Speaker 12: the shadows. He suffered in the shadows. He hated in
Speaker 12: the shadows. One might have said that he hated in
Speaker 12: advance of himself. He dwelt habitually in this shadow, feeling
Speaker 12: his way, like a blind man and a dreamer. Only
Speaker 12: at intervals. Therec suddenly came to him, from without and
Speaker 12: from within, an access of wrath, a surcharge of suffering,
Speaker 12: a livid and rapid flash, which illuminated his whole soul,
Speaker 12: and caused to appear abruptly all around him, in front, behind,
Speaker 12: amid the gleams of a frightful light, the hideous precipices,
Speaker 12: and the somber perspective of his destiny. The flash passed,
Speaker 12: the night closed in again, and where was he? He
Speaker 12: no longer knew the peculiarity of pains of this nature,
Speaker 12: in which that which is pitiless, that is to say,
Speaker 12: that which his brutalizing predominates, is to transform a man,
Speaker 12: little by little, by a sort of stupid transfiguration, into
Speaker 12: a wild beast, sometimes into a ferocious beast. Jean Valjean's
Speaker 12: successive and obstinate attempts at escape would alone suffice to
Speaker 12: prove this strange working of the law upon the human soul.
Speaker 12: Jean Valjean would have renewed these attempts utterly useless and
Speaker 12: foolish as they were, as often as the opportunity had
Speaker 12: presented itself, without reflecting for an instant on the result,
Speaker 12: nor on the experiences which he had already gone through.
Speaker 12: He escaped impetuously, like the wolf who finds his cage open.
Speaker 12: Instincts said to him, flee. Reason would have said, remain.
Speaker 12: But in the presence of so violent a temptation, reason vanished.
Speaker 12: Nothing remained but instinct. The beast alone acted. When he
Speaker 12: was recaptured, the fresh severities inflicted on him only served
Speaker 12: to render him still more wild. One detail which we
Speaker 12: must not omit is that he possessed a physical strength
Speaker 12: which was not approached by a single one one of
Speaker 12: the denizens of the galleys. At work at paying out
Speaker 12: cable or winding up a capstan, Jean Valjean was worth
Speaker 12: four men. He sometimes lifted and sustained enormous weights on
Speaker 12: his back, and when the occasion demanded it, he replaced
Speaker 12: that implement which is called a jack screw and was
Speaker 12: formerly called urguile pride. Whence we may remark in passing
Speaker 12: is derived the name of the rue Montguile near the
Speaker 12: holly fish market in Paris. Once, when they were repairing
Speaker 12: the balcony of the town hall at Toulon, one of
Speaker 12: those admirable carriatids of Pouget which support the balcony, became
Speaker 12: loosened and was on the point of falling. Jean Valjean,
Speaker 12: who was present, supported the carriatid with his shoulder and
Speaker 12: gave the workmen time to arrive. His suppleness even exceeded
Speaker 12: his strength. Certain convicts, who were forever dreaming of escape,
Speaker 12: ended by making a veritable science of force and skill combined.
Speaker 12: It is the science of muscles. An entire system of
Speaker 12: mysterious statics is daily practiced by prisoners men who are
Speaker 12: forever envious of the flies and birds. To climb a
Speaker 12: vertical surface, and to find points of support where hardly
Speaker 12: a projection was visible, was play to Jean Valjean, an
Speaker 12: angle of the wall. Being given, with a tension of
Speaker 12: his back and legs, with his elbows and his heels
Speaker 12: fitted into the unevenness of the stone, he raised himself,
Speaker 12: as if by magic, to the third story. He sometimes
Speaker 12: mounted thus even to the roof of the galley prison.
Speaker 12: He spoke but little. He laughed not at all. An
Speaker 12: excessive emotion was required to wring from him once or
Speaker 12: twice a year, that lugubrious laugh of the convict, which
Speaker 12: is like the echo of the laugh of a demon.
Speaker 12: To all appearance, he seemed to be occupied in the
Speaker 12: constant contemplation of something terrible. He was absorbed, in fact,
Speaker 12: athwart the unhealthy perceptions of an incomplete nature and a
Speaker 12: crushed intelligence. He was confusedly conscious that some monstrous thing
Speaker 12: was resting on him in that obscure and wan shadow
Speaker 12: within which he crawled. Each time that he turned his
Speaker 12: neck and essayed to raise his glance, he perceived with terror,
Speaker 12: mingled with rage, a sort of frightful accumulation of things,
Speaker 12: collecting and mounting above him, beyond the range of his vision, laws, prejudices,
Speaker 12: men and deeds, whose outlines escaped him, whose mass terrified him,
Speaker 12: and which was nothing else than that prodigious pyramid which
Speaker 12: we call civilization. He distinguished here and there in that
Speaker 12: swarming and formless mass now near him, now afar off,
Speaker 12: and on inaccessible table lands, some group, some detail vividly
Speaker 12: illuminated here the galley sergeant in his cudgel. There the
Speaker 12: gendarme and his sword yonder the mitered archbishop away at
Speaker 12: the top, like a sort of sun. The Emperor crowned
Speaker 12: and dazzling. It seemed to him that these distant splendors,
Speaker 12: far from dissipating his night, rendered it more funereal and
Speaker 12: more black. All this laws, prejudices, deeds, men, things went
Speaker 12: and came above him, over his head, in accordance with
Speaker 12: a complicated and mysterious movement which God imparts to civilization,
Speaker 12: walking over him and crushing him with I know not
Speaker 12: what peacefulness, in its cruelty and inexorability in its indifference.
Speaker 12: Souls which have fallen to the bottom of all possible misfortune,
Speaker 12: unhappy men lost in the lowest of those limbos at
Speaker 12: which no one any longer looks the reproved of the law,
Speaker 12: feel the whole weight of this human society, so formidable
Speaker 12: for him who is without, so frightful for him who
Speaker 12: is beneath. Resting upon their heads in this situation, Jean
Speaker 12: Valjean meditated, And what could be the nature of his meditation?
Speaker 12: If the grain of millet beneath the millstone had thoughts,
Speaker 12: it would doubtless think that same thing which Jean Valjean thought.
Speaker 12: All these things, realities full of specters, phantasmagories full of realities,
Speaker 12: had eventually created for him a sort of interior state
Speaker 12: which is almost indescribable. At times, amid his convict toil,
Speaker 12: he paused, he fell to thinking his reason. At one
Speaker 12: and the same time, riper and more troubled than of yore,
Speaker 12: rose in revolt. Everything which had happened to him seemed
Speaker 12: to him absurd. Everything that surrounded him seemed to him impossible.
Speaker 12: He said to himself, it is a dream. He gazed
Speaker 12: at the galley sergeant standing a few paces from him.
Speaker 12: The galley sergeant seemed a phantom to him. All of
Speaker 12: a sudden, the phantom dealt him a blow with his cudgel.
Speaker 12: Visible nature hardly existed for him. It would almost be
Speaker 12: true to say that there existed for Jean Valjean neither
Speaker 12: sun nor fine summer days, nor radiant sky, nor fresh
Speaker 12: april dawns. I know not what vent hol daylight habitually
Speaker 12: illumined his soul to sum up in conclusion, that which
Speaker 12: can be summed up and translated into positive results in
Speaker 12: all that we have just pointed out, we will confine
Speaker 12: ourselves to the statement that, in the course of nineteen
Speaker 12: years Jean Valjean, the inoffensive tree, pruner of Favarole, the
Speaker 12: formidable convict of Toulon, had become capable, thanks to the
Speaker 12: manner in which the Galleys had molded him, of two
Speaker 12: sorts of evil action. Firstly, of evil action, which was rapid, unpremeditated, dashing,
Speaker 12: entirely instinctive in the nature of reprisals for the evil
Speaker 12: which he had undergone. Secondly, of evil action, which was serious, grave,
Speaker 12: consciously argued out and premeditated, with the false ideas which
Speaker 12: such a misfortune can furnish. His deliberate deeds passed through
Speaker 12: three successive phases which natures of a certain stamp can
Speaker 12: alone traverse. Reasoning will, perseverance. He had for moving causes.
Speaker 12: His habitual wrath, bitterness of soul, a profound sense of
Speaker 12: indignities suffered the reaction even against the good, the innocent,
Speaker 12: and the just, if there are any such. The point
Speaker 12: of departure, like the point of arrival, for all his thoughts,
Speaker 12: was hatred of human law, that hatred which, if it
Speaker 12: be not arrested in its development, by some providential incident,
Speaker 12: becomes within a given time the hatred of society, then
Speaker 12: the hatred of the human race, then the hatred of creation,
Speaker 12: and which manifests itself by a vague, incessant and brutal
Speaker 12: desire to do harm to some living being, no matter
Speaker 12: whom it will be perceived that it was not without
Speaker 12: reason that Jean Valjean's passport described him as a very
Speaker 12: dangerous man. From year to year, this soul had dried away, slowly,
Speaker 12: but with fatal sureness. When the heart is dry, the
Speaker 12: eye is dry. On his departure from the galleys, it
Speaker 12: had been nineteen years since he had shed a tear.
Speaker 11: Book two The Fall, Chapter eight billows and shadows a
Speaker 11: man overboard. What matters it. The vessel does not halt.
Speaker 11: The wind blows. That somber ship has a path which
Speaker 11: it is forced to pursue. It passes on. The man disappears,
Speaker 11: then reappears. He plunges, he rises again to the surface.
Speaker 11: He calls, he stretches out his arms. He is not heard.
Speaker 11: The vessel, trembling under the hurricane, is wholly absorbed in
Speaker 11: its own workings. The passengers and sailors do not even
Speaker 11: see the drowning man. His miserable head is but a
Speaker 11: speck amid the immensity of the waves. He gives vent
Speaker 11: to desperate cries from out of the depths. What a
Speaker 11: specter is that retreating sail? He gazes and gazes at
Speaker 11: it frantically. It retreats, It grows dim, it diminishes in sighs.
Speaker 11: He was there, but just now he was one of
Speaker 11: the crew. He went and came along the deck with
Speaker 11: the rest. He had his part of breath and of sunlight.
Speaker 11: He was a living man. Now what has taken place?
Speaker 11: He has slipped, He has fallen. All is at an end.
Speaker 11: He is in the tremendous sea. Underfoot he has nothing
Speaker 11: but what flees and crumbles. The billows, torn and lashed
Speaker 11: by the wind, encompass him hideously. The tossings of the
Speaker 11: abyss bear him away. All the tongues of water dash
Speaker 11: over his head. A populace of waves spits upon him.
Speaker 11: Confused openings half devour him. Every time that he sinks,
Speaker 11: catches glimpses of precipices filled with night. Frightful and unknown
Speaker 11: vegetation sees him not about his feet draw him to them.
Speaker 11: He is conscious that he is becoming an abyss, that
Speaker 11: he forms part of the foam. The waves toss him
Speaker 11: from one to another. He drinks in the bitterness. The
Speaker 11: cowardly ocean attacks him furiously to drown him. The enormity
Speaker 11: plays with his agony. It seems as though all that
Speaker 11: water were hate. Nevertheless, he struggles, He tries to defend himself,
Speaker 11: He tries to sustain himself. He makes an effort, he swims.
Speaker 11: He his petty strength, all exhausted, instantly combats the inexhaustible.
Speaker 11: Where then, is the ship Yonder, barely visible in the
Speaker 11: pale shadows of the horizon. The wind blows in gusts.
Speaker 11: All the foam overwhelms him. He raises his eyes and
Speaker 11: beholds only the lividness of the clouds. He witnesses, amid
Speaker 11: his death pangs, the immense madness of the sea. He
Speaker 11: is tortured by this madness. He hears noises strange to man,
Speaker 11: which seem to come from beyond the limits of the earth,
Speaker 11: and from one knows not what frightful region beyond. There
Speaker 11: are birds in the clouds, just as there are angels
Speaker 11: above human distresses. But what can they do for him?
Speaker 11: They sing? And fly and float, and he he rattles
Speaker 11: in the death agony. He feels himself buried in those
Speaker 11: two in fisities, the ocean and the sky, at one
Speaker 11: and the same time. The one is a tomb, the
Speaker 11: other is a shroud. Night descends. He has been swimming
Speaker 11: for hours. His strength is exhausted. That ship, that distant
Speaker 11: thing in which there were men, has vanished. He is
Speaker 11: alone in the formidable twilight gulf. He sinks, He stiffens himself,
Speaker 11: He twists himself, He feels under him the monstrous billows
Speaker 11: of the invisible. He shouts, there are no more men.
Speaker 11: Where is God? He shouts, Help, Help, He still shouts
Speaker 11: on nothing on the horizon, nothing in heaven. He implores
Speaker 11: the expanse, the waves, the seaweed, the reef. They are deaf.
Speaker 11: He beseeches the tempest, the imperturbable tempest. Obeys only the
Speaker 11: infinite around him, darkness, fog, solitude, the stormy and non
Speaker 11: sentient tumult, the undefined curling of those wild waters in him,
Speaker 11: horror and fatigue beneath him, the depths not a point
Speaker 11: of support. He thinks of the gloomy adventures of the
Speaker 11: corpse in the limitless shadow. The bottomless cold paralyzes him.
Speaker 11: His hands contract convulsively. They close and grasp nothingness, winds, clouds, whirlwinds, gusts,
Speaker 11: useless stars. What is to be done? The desperate man
Speaker 11: gives up. He is weary. He chooses the alternative of death.
Speaker 11: He resists not, he lets himself go. He abandons his grip,
Speaker 11: and then he tosses for evermore in the lugubrious, dreary
Speaker 11: depths of engulfment, Oh, implacable march of human societies, O
Speaker 11: losses of men and of souls. On the way ocean
Speaker 11: into which falls all that the law lets slip, disastrous
Speaker 11: absence of help, Oh, moral death. The sea is the
Speaker 11: inexorable social night into which the penal laws fling their condemned.
Speaker 11: The sea is the immensity of wretchedness. The soul going
Speaker 11: downstream in the skulf may become a corpse. Who shall
Speaker 11: resuscitate it?
Speaker 8: Book two, Chapter nine, New Troubles. When the hour came
Speaker 8: for him to take his departure from the galleys, when
Speaker 8: Jean Valjean heard in his ear the strange words thou
Speaker 8: art free, the moment seemed improbable and unprecedented. A ray
Speaker 8: of vivid life. A ray of the true light of
Speaker 8: the living suddenly penetrated within him. But it was not
Speaker 8: long before this ray paled. Jean Valjean had been dazzled
Speaker 8: by the idea of liberty he had believed in a
Speaker 8: new life. He very speedily perceived what sort of liberty
Speaker 8: it is to which a yellow passport is provided, And
Speaker 8: this was encompassed with much bitterness. He had calculated that
Speaker 8: his earnings during his sojourn in the galleys ought to
Speaker 8: amount to one hundred and seventy one francs. It is
Speaker 8: but just to add that he had forgotten to include
Speaker 8: in his calculations the forced repose of Sundays and festival
Speaker 8: days during nineteen years, which entailed a diminution of about
Speaker 8: eighty francs. At all events. His hoard had been reduced
Speaker 8: by various local levies to the sum of one hundred
Speaker 8: and nine francs fifteen sous, which had been counted out
Speaker 8: to him on his departure. He had understood nothing of this,
Speaker 8: and had thought himself wronged. Let us say the word robbed.
Speaker 8: On the day following his liberation, he saw at grass
Speaker 8: in front of an orange flower distillery some men engaged
Speaker 8: in unloading bales. He offered his services. Business was pressing.
Speaker 8: They were accepted. He set to work. He was intelligent, robust, adroit.
Speaker 8: He did his best. The master's aim pleased. While he
Speaker 8: was at work, a gendarmes passed observed him and demanded
Speaker 8: his papers. It was necessary to show him the yellow passport.
Speaker 8: That done, Jean Valjean resumed his labor. A little while before,
Speaker 8: he had questioned one of the workmen as to the
Speaker 8: amount which they earned each day at this occupation, he
Speaker 8: had been told thirty sous. When evening arrived, as he
Speaker 8: was forced to set out again on the following day,
Speaker 8: he presented himself to the owner of the distillery and
Speaker 8: requested to be paid. The owner did not utter a word,
Speaker 8: but handed him fifteen sous. He objected, He was told
Speaker 8: that is enough for thee. He persisted. The master looked
Speaker 8: him straight between the eyes and said to him, beware
Speaker 8: of the prison. There again he considered that he had
Speaker 8: been robbed society, the state by diminishing his Hoarde had
Speaker 8: robbed him wholesale. Now it was the individual who was
Speaker 8: robbing him at retail. Liberation is not deliverance. One gets
Speaker 8: free from the galleys, but not from the sentence. That
Speaker 8: is what happened to him at Grasa. We have seen
Speaker 8: in what manner he was received at Dinna. End of
Speaker 8: Book two, Chapter nine, Book two The Fall, Chapter ten.
Speaker 8: The man aroused as the cathedral clock struck two in
Speaker 8: the morning, Jean Valjean awoke. What woke him was that
Speaker 8: his bed was too good. It was nearly twenty years
Speaker 8: since he had slept in a bed, and although he
Speaker 8: had not undressed, the sensation was too novel not to
Speaker 8: disturb his slumbers. He had slept more than four hours,
Speaker 8: his fatigue had passed away. He was accustomed not to
Speaker 8: devote me many hours to repose. He opened his eyes
Speaker 8: and stared into the gloom which surrounded him. Then he
Speaker 8: closed them again, with the intention of going to sleep
Speaker 8: once more. When many varied sensations have agitated the day,
Speaker 8: when various matters preoccupy the mind, one falls asleep once,
Speaker 8: but not a second time. Sleep comes more easily than
Speaker 8: it returns. This is what happened to Jean Valjean. He
Speaker 8: could not get to sleep again, and he fell to thinking.
Speaker 8: He was at one of those moments when the thoughts
Speaker 8: which one has in one's mind are troubled. There was
Speaker 8: a sort of dark confusion in his brain. His memories
Speaker 8: of the olden time and of the immediate present floated there,
Speaker 8: pell mell and mingled confusedly, losing their proper forms, becoming
Speaker 8: disproportionately large, then suddenly disappearing, as in a muddy and
Speaker 8: perturbed pool. Many thoughts occurred to him, But there was
Speaker 8: one which kept constantly presenting itself afresh, and which drove
Speaker 8: away all others. We will mention this thought. At once
Speaker 8: he had observed the six sets of silver forks and spoons,
Speaker 8: and the ladle which Madame mglois had placed on the table.
Speaker 8: Those six sets of silver haunted him. They were there
Speaker 8: a few paces distant, just as he was traversing the
Speaker 8: adjoining room to reach the one in which he then was.
Speaker 8: The old servant woman had been in the act of
Speaker 8: placing them in a little cupboard near the head of
Speaker 8: the bed. He had taken careful note of this cupboard
Speaker 8: on the right as you entered from the dining room.
Speaker 8: They were solid and old silver. From the ladle one
Speaker 8: could get at least two hundred francs, double what he
Speaker 8: had earned in nineteen years. It is true that he
Speaker 8: would have earned more if the administration had not robbed him.
Speaker 8: His mind wavered for a whole hour in fluctuations with
Speaker 8: which there was certainly mingled some struggle. Three o'clock struck,
Speaker 8: he opened his eyes again, drew himself up abruptly into
Speaker 8: a sitting posture, stretched out his arm and felt of
Speaker 8: his knapsack, which he had thrown down on a corner
Speaker 8: of the alcove. Then he hung his legs over the
Speaker 8: edge of the bed and placed his feet on the floor,
Speaker 8: and thus found himself, almost without knowing it, seated on
Speaker 8: his bed. He remained for a time thoughtfully in this attitude,
Speaker 8: which would have been suggestive of something sinister for any
Speaker 8: one who had seen him thus in the dark, the
Speaker 8: only person awakened that house where all was sleeping. All
Speaker 8: of a sudden he stooped down, removed his shoes, and
Speaker 8: placed them softly on the mat beside the bed. Then
Speaker 8: he resumed his thoughtful attitude and became motionless once more.
Speaker 8: Throughout this hideous meditation, the thoughts which we have above
Speaker 8: indicated moved incessantly through his brain. Entered withdrew re entered,
Speaker 8: and in a manner oppressed him. And then he thought,
Speaker 8: also without knowing why, and with the mechanical persistence of revery,
Speaker 8: of a convict named Brevett, whom he had known in
Speaker 8: the galleys, and whose trousers had been upheld by a
Speaker 8: single suspender of knitted cotton. The checkered pattern of that
Speaker 8: suspender recurred incessantly to his mind. He remained in this situation,
Speaker 8: and would have so remained indefinitely even until daybreak, had
Speaker 8: not the clock struck want the half or a quarter hour.
Speaker 8: It seemed to him that that stroke said to him,
Speaker 8: come on. He rose to his feet, hesitated still another moment,
Speaker 8: and listened. All was quiet in the house. Then he
Speaker 8: walked straight ahead, with short steps, to the window, of
Speaker 8: which he caught a glimpse. The night was not very dark.
Speaker 8: There was a full moon across, which caused large clouds
Speaker 8: driven by the wind. This created outdoors alternate shadow and
Speaker 8: gleams of light eclipses, then bright openings of the clouds
Speaker 8: and indoors a sort of twilight. This twilight, sufficient to
Speaker 8: enable a person to see his way intermittent on account
Speaker 8: of the clouds, resembled the sort of livid light which
Speaker 8: falls through an air hole. In a cellar, before which
Speaker 8: the passer by come and go on. Arriving at the window,
Speaker 8: Jean Valjean examined it. It had no grating in the garden,
Speaker 8: and was fastened, according to the fashion of the country,
Speaker 8: only by a small pin. He opened it, but as
Speaker 8: a rush of cold and piercing air penetrated the room abruptly,
Speaker 8: he closed it again. Immediately he scrutinized the garden with
Speaker 8: that attentive gaze which studies rather than looks. The garden
Speaker 8: was enclosed by a tolerably low white wall, easy to climb.
Speaker 8: Far away. At the extremity he perceived tops of trees
Speaker 8: spaced at regular intervals, which indicated that the wall separated
Speaker 8: the garden from an avenue or lane planted with trees.
Speaker 8: Having taken this survey, he executed a movement like that
Speaker 8: of a man who has made up his mind. Strode
Speaker 8: to his alcove, grasped his knapsack, opened it, fumbled in it,
Speaker 8: pulled out of it something which he placed on the bed,
Speaker 8: put his shoes into one of his pockets, shut the
Speaker 8: whole thing up again, threw the knapsack on his shoulders,
Speaker 8: put on his cap, drew the visor down over his eyes,
Speaker 8: felt for his cudgel, went and placed it in the
Speaker 8: angle of the window, then returned to the bed and
Speaker 8: resolutely seized the object which he had deposited there. It
Speaker 8: resembled a short bar of iron, pointed like a pike
Speaker 8: at one end. It would have been difficult to distinguish
Speaker 8: in that darkness for what employment that bit of iron
Speaker 8: could have been designed. Perhaps it was a lever, possibly
Speaker 8: it was a club. In the daytime, it would have
Speaker 8: been possible to recognize it as nothing more than a
Speaker 8: miner's candlestick. Convicts were at that period sometimes employed in
Speaker 8: quarrying stone from the lofty hills which environ Toulon, and
Speaker 8: it was not rare for them to have miners tools
Speaker 8: at their command. These miner's candlesticks are of massive iron,
Speaker 8: terminated at the lower extremity by a point, by means
Speaker 8: of which they are stuck into the rock. He took
Speaker 8: the candlestick in his right hand, holding his breath and
Speaker 8: trying to deaden the sound of his tread, he directed
Speaker 8: his steps to the door of the adjoining room occupied
Speaker 8: by the bishop. As we already know, On arriving at
Speaker 8: this door, he founded Ajar the bishop had not closed it.
Speaker 8: End of Book two.
Speaker 4: Book two, Chapter eleven. What he does Jean Valjean listened,
Speaker 4: not a sound. He gave the door a push. He
Speaker 4: pushed it gently with the tip of his finger, lightly,
Speaker 4: with the furtive and uneasy gentleness of a cat which
Speaker 4: is desirous of entering. The door yielded to this pressure
Speaker 4: and made an imperceptib and silent movement, which enlarged the
Speaker 4: opening a little. He waited a moment, then gave the
Speaker 4: door a second and a bolder push. It continued to
Speaker 4: yield in silence. The opening was now large enough to
Speaker 4: allow him to pass. But near the door there stood
Speaker 4: a little table, which formed an embarrassing angle with it
Speaker 4: and barred the entrance. Jean Valjean recognized the difficulty it
Speaker 4: was necessary, at any cost to enlarge the aperture still further.
Speaker 4: He decided on his course of action and gave the
Speaker 4: door a third push, more energetic than the two preceding.
Speaker 4: This time, a badly oiled hinge suddenly emitted amid the silence,
Speaker 4: a hoarse and prolonged cry. Jean Valjean shuddered. The noise
Speaker 4: of the hinge rang in his ears with something of
Speaker 4: the piercing and formidable sound of the trumpet of the
Speaker 4: Day of Judgment. In the fantastic exaggerations of the first moment,
Speaker 4: he almost imagined that the hinge had just become animated
Speaker 4: and had suddenly assumed a terrible life, and that it
Speaker 4: was barking like a dog to arouse every one and warned,
Speaker 4: and to wake those who were asleep. He halted, shuddering, bewildered,
Speaker 4: and fell back from the tips of his toes upon
Speaker 4: his heels. He heard the arteries in his temples beating
Speaker 4: like two forge hammers, and it seemed to him that
Speaker 4: his breath issued from his breast with the roar of
Speaker 4: the wind issuing from a cavern. It seemed impossible to
Speaker 4: him that the horrible clamor of that irritated hinge should
Speaker 4: not have disturbed the entire household, like the shock of
Speaker 4: an earthquake. The door pushed by him had taken the
Speaker 4: alarm and had shouted. The old man would rise at once,
Speaker 4: the two old women would shriek out, people would come
Speaker 4: to their assistance. In less than a quarter of an hour,
Speaker 4: the town would be in an uproar, and the gendarmerie
Speaker 4: on hand for a moment he thought himself lost. He
Speaker 4: remained where he was, petrified, like the statue of salt,
Speaker 4: not daring to make a movement. Several minutes elapsed. The
Speaker 4: door had fallen wide open. He ventured to peep into
Speaker 4: the next room. Nothing had stirred.
Speaker 5: There.
Speaker 4: He lent an ear. Nothing was moving in the house.
Speaker 4: The noise made by the rusty hinge had not awakened
Speaker 4: any one. This first danger was past, but there still
Speaker 4: reigned a frightful tumult within him. Nevertheless, he did not retreat.
Speaker 4: Even when he had thought himself lost, he had not
Speaker 4: drawn back. His only thought now was to finish as
Speaker 4: soon as possible. He took a step and entered the room.
Speaker 4: This room was in a state of perfect calm. Here
Speaker 4: and there vague and confused forms were distinguishable, which in
Speaker 4: the daylight were papers scattered on a table, open folios,
Speaker 4: volumes piled upon a stool, an armchair heaped with clothing
Speaker 4: a pre dieu, and which at that hour were only
Speaker 4: shadowy corners and whitish spots. Jean Valjean advanced with precaution,
Speaker 4: taking care not to knock against the furniture. He could
Speaker 4: hear at the extremity of the room, the even and
Speaker 4: tranquil breathing of the sleeping bishop. He suddenly came to
Speaker 4: a halt. He was near the bed. He had arrived
Speaker 4: there sooner than he had thought. For Nature sometimes mingles
Speaker 4: her effects and her spectacles with our actions, with somber
Speaker 4: and intelligent appropriateness, as though she desired to make us reflect.
Speaker 4: For the last half hour, a large cloud had covered
Speaker 4: the heavens at that moment when Jean Valjean paused in
Speaker 4: front of the bed. This cloud parted as though on purpose,
Speaker 4: and a ray of light traversing the long window suddenly
Speaker 4: illuminated the bishop's pale face. He was sleeping peacefully. He
Speaker 4: lay in his bed, almost completely dressed on account of
Speaker 4: the cold of the beast's alps, in a garment of
Speaker 4: brown wool, in which covered his arms to the wrists.
Speaker 4: His head was thrown back on the pillow in the
Speaker 4: careless attitude of repose, his hand adorned with the pastoral ring,
Speaker 4: and whence had fallen so many good deeds and so
Speaker 4: many holy actions, was hanging over the edge of the bed.
Speaker 4: His whole face was illumined with a vague expression of
Speaker 4: satisfaction of hope and of felicity. It was more than
Speaker 4: a smile, and almost a radiance. He bore upon his brow,
Speaker 4: the indescribable reflection of a light which was invisible The
Speaker 4: soul of the just contemplates, in sleep a mysterious heaven.
Speaker 4: A reflection of that heaven rested on the Bishop. It was,
Speaker 4: at the same time a luminous transparency, for that heaven
Speaker 4: was within him. That heaven was his conscience. At the
Speaker 4: moment when the ray of moonlight superposed itself, so to speak,
Speaker 4: upon that inward radiance, the sleeping Bishop seemed as in
Speaker 4: a glory. It remained, however, gentle, and veiled in an
Speaker 4: ineffable half light, that moon in the sky, that slumbering nature,
Speaker 4: that garden without a quiver, that house, which was so
Speaker 4: calm the hour the moment. The silence added some solemn
Speaker 4: and unspeakable quality to the venerable repose of this man,
Speaker 4: and enveloped in a sort of serene and majestic aureole
Speaker 4: of white hair, those closed eyes, that face in which
Speaker 4: all was hope and all was confidence, that head of
Speaker 4: an old man, and that slumber of an infant. There
Speaker 4: was something almost divine in this man who was thus
Speaker 4: august without being himself aware of it. Jean Valjean was
Speaker 4: in the shadow and stood motionless, with his iron candlestick
Speaker 4: in his hand, frightened by this luminous old man. Never
Speaker 4: had he beheld anything like this. This confidence terrified him.
Speaker 4: The moral world has no grander spectacle than this, A troubled,
Speaker 4: an uneasy conscience, which has arrived on the brink of
Speaker 4: an evil action, contemplating the slumber of the just, that
Speaker 4: slumber in that isolation, and with a neighbor like himself,
Speaker 4: had about it something sublime of which he was vaguely
Speaker 4: but imperiously conscious. No one could have told what was
Speaker 4: passing within him, not even himself. In order to attempt
Speaker 4: to form an idea of it, it is necessary to
Speaker 4: think of the most violent of things in the presence
Speaker 4: of the most gentle. Even on his visage, it would
Speaker 4: have been impossible to distinguish anything with certainty. It was
Speaker 4: a sort of haggard astonishment. He gazed at it, and
Speaker 4: that was all. But what was his thought? It would
Speaker 4: have been impossible to divine it. What was evident was
Speaker 4: that he had been touched and astounded. But what was
Speaker 4: the nature of this emotion. His eye never quitted the
Speaker 4: old man. The only thing which was clearly to be
Speaker 4: inferred from his attitude and his signialmi was a strange indecision.
Speaker 4: One would have said that he was hesitating between the
Speaker 4: two abysses, the one in which one loses one's self
Speaker 4: and that in which one saves one's self. He seemed
Speaker 4: prepared to crush that skull or kiss that hand. At
Speaker 4: the expiration of a few minutes, his left arm rose
Speaker 4: slowly towards his brow, and he took off his cap.
Speaker 4: Then his arm fell back with the same deliberation, and
Speaker 4: Jean Valjean fell to meditating once more, his cap in
Speaker 4: his left hand, his club in his right hand, his
Speaker 4: hair bristling all over his savage head. The bishop continued
Speaker 4: to sleep in prof bound piece. Beneath that terrifying gaze.
Speaker 4: The gleam of the moon rendered confusedly visible the crucifix
Speaker 4: over the chimney piece, which seemed to be extending its
Speaker 4: arms to both of them, with a benediction for one
Speaker 4: and pardon for the other. Suddenly, Jean Valjean replaced his
Speaker 4: cap on his brow, then stepped rapidly past the bed,
Speaker 4: without glancing at this bishop straight to the cupboard, which
Speaker 4: he saw near the head. He raised his iron candlestick
Speaker 4: as though to force the lock. The key was there,
Speaker 4: he opened it. The first thing which presented itself to
Speaker 4: him was the basket of silverware. He seized it, traversed
Speaker 4: the chamber with long strides, without taking any precautions, and
Speaker 4: without troubling himself at the noise, gained the door, re
Speaker 4: entered the oratory, opened the window, seized his cudgel, bestrode
Speaker 4: the window sill of the ground floor, put the silver
Speaker 4: in his knapsack, threw away the basket, crossed the garden,
Speaker 4: leaped over the wall like a tiger, and fled. End
Speaker 4: of Book two, Book two, Chapter twelve, The Bishop works.
Speaker 4: The next morning, at sunrise, Monseigneur Bienvenu was strolling in
Speaker 4: his garden. Madame Magloire ran up to him in utter consternation. Monseigneur, monseigneur,
Speaker 4: she exclaimed, does your grace know where the basket of
Speaker 4: silver is? Yes, replied the bishop. Jesus the Lord be praised.
Speaker 4: She resumed, I did not know what had become of it.
Speaker 4: The Bishop had just picked up the basket in a
Speaker 4: flower bed. He presented it to Madame Maglois. Here it
Speaker 4: is well, said she. Nothing in it and the silver, Ah,
Speaker 4: returned the Bishop. So it is the silver which troubles you.
Speaker 4: I don't know where it is, great, good God, it
Speaker 4: is stolen. That man who was here last night has
Speaker 4: stolen it. In a twinkling, with all the vivacity of
Speaker 4: an alert old woman, Madame Maglois had rushed to the oratory,
Speaker 4: entered the alcove, and returned to the Bishop. The Bishop
Speaker 4: had just bent down and was sighing as he examined
Speaker 4: a plant of Coco lailla de gion, which the basket
Speaker 4: had broken as it fell across the bed. He rose
Speaker 4: up at Madame Magloire's cry, monseigneur, the man is gone.
Speaker 4: The silver has been stolen. As she uttered this exclamation,
Speaker 4: her eyes fell upon a corner of the garden, where
Speaker 4: traces of the wall, having been scaled, were visible. The
Speaker 4: coping of the wall had been torn away. Stay yonder
Speaker 4: is the way he went. He jumped over into Couche
Speaker 4: fillet lane. Ah, the abomination, he has stolen our silver.
Speaker 4: The Bishop remained silent for a moment. Then he raised
Speaker 4: his grave eyes and said gently to Madame Magloire, and
Speaker 4: in the first place was that silver ours? Madame Magloire
Speaker 4: was speechless. Another silence ensued. Then the Bishop went on,
Speaker 4: Madame Maglois, I have for a long time detained that
Speaker 4: silver wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man?
Speaker 4: A poor man? Evidently alas Jesus returned Madame Magloire, it
Speaker 4: is not for my sake nor for Mademoiselle's. It makes
Speaker 4: no difference to us, but it is for the sake
Speaker 4: of monseigneur. What is monseigneur to eat with?
Speaker 1: Now?
Speaker 4: The Bishop gazed at her with an air of amazement. Ah, come,
Speaker 4: are there no such things as pewter, forks and spoons?
Speaker 4: Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders. Pewter has an odor, iron
Speaker 4: forks and spoons. Then Madame Maglois made an expressive grimace.
Speaker 4: Iron has a taste very well, said the Bishop wooden Ones. Then,
Speaker 4: a few moments later, as he was breakfasting at the
Speaker 4: very table at which Jean Valjean had sat on the
Speaker 4: previous evening. As he ate his breakfast, Monseigneur welcome, remarked
Speaker 4: gaily to his sister, who said nothing, and to Madame Maglois,
Speaker 4: who was grumbling under her breath that one really does
Speaker 4: not need either fork or spoon, even of wood, in
Speaker 4: order to dip a bit of bread in a cup
Speaker 4: of milk. A pretty idea, truly, said Madame Maglois to herself,
Speaker 4: as she came and went to take a man in
Speaker 4: like that, and to lodge him close to one's self.
Speaker 4: And how fortunate that he did nothing but steal ah,
Speaker 4: mon dieu, It makes one shut up to think of it.
Speaker 4: As the brother and sister were about to rise from
Speaker 4: the table, there came a knock at the door. Come in,
Speaker 4: said the bishop. The door opened, A singular and violent
Speaker 4: group made its appearance. On the threshold. Three men were
Speaker 4: holding a fourth man by the collar. The three men
Speaker 4: were gendarmes. The other was Jean Valjean, a brigadier of gendarmes,
Speaker 4: who seemed to be in command of the group, was
Speaker 4: standing near the door. He entered and advanced to the bishop,
Speaker 4: making a military salute. Monseigneur said he. At this word,
Speaker 4: Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, raised his
Speaker 4: head with an air of stupefication. Monseigneur, he murmured, so
Speaker 4: He is not the cure, silence, said the gendarmes. He
Speaker 4: is the monseigneur. The bishop. In the meantime, Monseigneur Bienvenue
Speaker 4: had advanced as quickly as his great age permitted. Ah
Speaker 4: here you are, he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. I
Speaker 4: am glad to see you well. But how is this?
Speaker 4: I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver
Speaker 4: like the rest, and for which you can certainly get
Speaker 4: two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away
Speaker 4: with your forks and spoons? Jean Valjean opened his eyes
Speaker 4: wide and stared at the venerable Bishop with an expression
Speaker 4: which no human tongue can render any account of monseigneur,
Speaker 4: said the brigadier of Gendarmes. So what this man said
Speaker 4: is true. Then we came across him. He was walking
Speaker 4: like a man who was running away. We stopped him
Speaker 4: to look into the matter. He had the silver, and
Speaker 4: he told you, interposed the Bishop, with a smile that
Speaker 4: had been given him by a kind old fellow of
Speaker 4: a priest with whom he had passed the night. I
Speaker 4: see how the matter stands, and you have brought him
Speaker 4: back here. It is a mistake in that case, replied
Speaker 4: the brigadier. We can let him go. Certainly, replied the bishop.
Speaker 4: The gendarmes released Jean Valjean, who recoiled. Is it true
Speaker 4: that I am to be released? He said, in an
Speaker 4: almost inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in
Speaker 4: his sleep. Yes, thou art released, dost thou not understand,
Speaker 4: said one of the gendarmes. My friend, resumed the bishop.
Speaker 4: Before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them. He
Speaker 4: stepped to the chimney piece, took the two silver candlesticks,
Speaker 4: and brought them to Jean Valjean. The two women looked
Speaker 4: on without uttering a word, without a gesture, with a
Speaker 4: look which could disconcert the bishop. Jean Valjean was trembling
Speaker 4: in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically and
Speaker 4: with a bewildered air. Now said the Bishop, go in peace.
Speaker 4: By the way. When you return, my friend, it is
Speaker 4: not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always
Speaker 4: enter and depart through the street door. It is never
Speaker 4: fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or
Speaker 4: by night. Then, returning to the gendarmes, you may retire, gentlemen,
Speaker 4: the Gendarmes retired. Jean Valjean was like a man on
Speaker 4: the point of fainting. The Bishop drew near to him
Speaker 4: and said, in a low voice, do not forget, never
Speaker 4: forget that you have promised to use this money in
Speaker 4: becoming an honest man. Jean Valjean, who had no reck
Speaker 4: collection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The bishop
Speaker 4: had emphasized the words. When he uttered them, he resumed
Speaker 4: with solemnity, Jean Valjean, my brother, you are no longer
Speaker 4: belonged to evil, but to good. It is your soul
Speaker 4: that I buy from you. I withdraw it from black
Speaker 4: thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it
Speaker 4: to God.
Speaker 13: Book two, chapter thirteen. Little Gervais Jean Valjean left the
Speaker 13: town as though he were fleeing from it. He set
Speaker 13: out at a very hasty pace through the fields, taking
Speaker 13: whatever roads and paths presented themselves to him, without perceiving
Speaker 13: that he was incessantly retracing his steps. He wondered thus
Speaker 13: the whole morning, without having eaten anything, and without feeling hungry.
Speaker 13: He was the prey of a throng of novel sensations.
Speaker 13: He was conscious of a sort of rage. He did
Speaker 13: not know against whom it was directed. He could not
Speaker 13: have told whether he was touched or humiliated. There came
Speaker 13: over him at moments, a strange emotion, which he resisted,
Speaker 13: and to which he opposed. The hardness acquired during the
Speaker 13: last twenty years of his life. This state of mind
Speaker 13: fatigued him. He perceived with dismay that the sort of
Speaker 13: frightful calm which the injustice of his misfortune had conferred
Speaker 13: upon him was giving way within him. He asked himself
Speaker 13: what would replace this? At times he would have actually
Speaker 13: preferred to be in prison with a gendarmes, and that
Speaker 13: things should not have happened in this way. It would
Speaker 13: have agitated him less. Although the season was tolerably far advanced,
Speaker 13: there were still a few late flowers in the hedge
Speaker 13: rows here and there, whose odor, as he passed through
Speaker 13: them in his march, recalled to him memories of his childhood.
Speaker 13: These memories were almost intolerable to him, it was so
Speaker 13: long since they had recurred to him. Unutterable thoughts assembled
Speaker 13: within him in this manner all day long, as the
Speaker 13: sun declined to its setting, casting long shadows athwart the
Speaker 13: soil from every pebble. Jean Valjean sat down behind a
Speaker 13: bush upon a large ruddy plain which was absolutely deserted.
Speaker 13: There was nothing on the horizon except the alps, not
Speaker 13: even the spire of a distant village. Jean Valjean might
Speaker 13: have been three leagues distant from d A path which
Speaker 13: intersected the plains passed a few paces from the bush.
Speaker 13: In the middle of this meditation, which would have contributed
Speaker 13: not a little to render his rags terrifying to any
Speaker 13: one who might have encountered him, a joyous sound became audible.
Speaker 13: He turned his head and saw a little savoyard about
Speaker 13: ten years of age, coming up the path and singing
Speaker 13: his hurdy gurdy on his hip and his marmo box
Speaker 13: on his back, one of those gay and gentle children
Speaker 13: who go from land to land, affording a view of
Speaker 13: their knees through the holes in their trousers. Without stopping
Speaker 13: his song. The lad halted in his march from time
Speaker 13: to time and played at knuckle bones with some coins
Speaker 13: which he had in his hand, his whole fortune. Probably
Speaker 13: among this money there was one forty sous piece. The
Speaker 13: child halted beside the bush without perceiving Jean Valjean and
Speaker 13: tossed up his handful of sous, which up to that
Speaker 13: time he had caught with a good deal of adroitness,
Speaker 13: on the back of his hand. This time the forty
Speaker 13: sou piece escaped him and went rolling toward the brushwood
Speaker 13: until it reached Jean Valjean. Jean Valjean set his foot
Speaker 13: upon it. In the meantime, the child had looked after
Speaker 13: his coin and had caught sight of him. He showed
Speaker 13: no astonishment, but walked straight up to the man. The
Speaker 13: spot was absolutely solitary. As far as the eye could see.
Speaker 13: There was not a person on the plain or on
Speaker 13: the path. The only sound was the tiny feeble cries
Speaker 13: of a flock of birds of passage, which was traversing
Speaker 13: the heavens at an immense height. The child was standing
Speaker 13: with his back to the sun, which cast threads of
Speaker 13: gold in his hair and empurpled with its blood red gleam.
Speaker 13: The savage face of Jean Valjean, sir, said the little savoyard,
Speaker 13: with that childish confidence which is composed of ignorance and innocence.
Speaker 13: My money, what is your name, said Jean Valjean. Little Gervais,
Speaker 13: Sir go away, said Jean Valjean, Sir, resumed the child,
Speaker 13: give me back my money. Jean Valjean dropped his head
Speaker 13: and made no reply. The child began again, my money, Sir.
Speaker 13: Jean Valjean's eyes remained fixed on the earth. My piece
Speaker 13: of money, cried the child, my white piece, my silver.
Speaker 13: It seemed as though Jean Valjean did not hear him.
Speaker 13: The child grasped him by the collar his blouse and
Speaker 13: shook him. At the same time, he made an effort
Speaker 13: to displace the big iron shod shoe which rested on
Speaker 13: his treasure. I want my piece of money, my piece
Speaker 13: of forty sous. The child wept. Jean Valjean raised his head.
Speaker 13: He still remained seated. His eyes were troubled. He gazed
Speaker 13: out at the child in a sort of amazement. Then
Speaker 13: he stretched out his hand towards his cudgel and cried,
Speaker 13: in a terrible voice. Who's there, I, sir, replied the child,
Speaker 13: little Gervais, I give me back my forty sous, if
Speaker 13: you please take your foot away, sir, if you please. Then, irritated,
Speaker 13: though he was so small and becoming almost menacing, come now,
Speaker 13: will you take your foot away? Take your foot away?
Speaker 13: Or we'll see. Ah, it's still you, said Jean Valjean,
Speaker 13: and rising abruptly to his feet, his foot still resting
Speaker 13: on the silver piece, he added, will you take yourself off?
Speaker 13: The frightened child looked at him, then began to tremble
Speaker 13: from head to foot, and after a few moments of stupor,
Speaker 13: he set out running at his top speed, without daring
Speaker 13: to turn his neck or to utter a cry. Nevertheless,
Speaker 13: lack of breath forced him to halt after a certain distance,
Speaker 13: as Jean Valjean heard him sobbing in the midst of
Speaker 13: his own reverie. At the end of a few moments,
Speaker 13: the child had disappeared, the sun had set, the shadows
Speaker 13: were descending around Jean Valjean. He had eaten nothing all day.
Speaker 13: It is probable that he was feverish. He had remained standing,
Speaker 13: and he had not changed his attitude after the child's flight.
Speaker 13: The breath heaved his chest at long and irregular intervals.
Speaker 13: His gaze, fixed ten or twelve paces in front of him,
Speaker 13: seemed to be scrutinizing with profound attention the shape of
Speaker 13: an ancient fragment of blue earthenware which had fallen in
Speaker 13: the grass all at once. She shivered. He had just
Speaker 13: begun to feel the chill of evening. He settled his
Speaker 13: cap more firmly on his brow, sought mechanically to cross
Speaker 13: and button his blouse, advanced a step, and stopped to
Speaker 13: pick up his cudgel. At that moment he caught sight
Speaker 13: of the forty sous piece which his foot had half
Speaker 13: ground into the earth, and which was shining among the pebbles.
Speaker 13: It was as though he had received a galvanic shock.
Speaker 13: What is this, he muttered between his teeth. He recoiled
Speaker 13: three paces, then halted, without being able to detach his
Speaker 13: gaze from the spot which his foot had trodden but
Speaker 13: an instant before, as though the thing which lay glittering
Speaker 13: there in the gloom had been an open eye riveted
Speaker 13: upon him. At the expiration of a few moments, he
Speaker 13: darted convulsively toward the silver coin, seized it, and straightened
Speaker 13: himself up again, and began to gaze afar off over
Speaker 13: the plain, at the same time, casting his eyes towards
Speaker 13: all points of the horizon. As he stood there, erect
Speaker 13: and shivering, like a terrified wild animal which is seeking refuge,
Speaker 13: he saw nothing. Night was falling The plain was cold
Speaker 13: and vague. Great banks of violet haze were rising in
Speaker 13: the gleam of the twilight. He said, ah, and set
Speaker 13: out rapidly in the direction in which the child had disappeared.
Speaker 13: After about thirty paces, he paused, looked about him, and
Speaker 13: saw nothing. Then he shouted with all his might, Little Gervais,
Speaker 13: Little Gervais. He paused and waited. There was no reply.
Speaker 13: The landscape was gloomy and deserted. He was encompassed by space.
Speaker 13: There was nothing around him but an obscurity in which
Speaker 13: his gaze was lost, and a silence which engulfed his voice.
Speaker 13: An icy north wind was blowing and imparted to things
Speaker 13: around him, a sort of lugubrious life. The bushes shook
Speaker 13: their thin little arms with incredible fury. One would have
Speaker 13: said that they were threatening and pursuing some one. He
Speaker 13: set out on his march again. Then he began to run,
Speaker 13: and from time to time he halted and shouted in
Speaker 13: that solitude, with a voice which was the most formidable
Speaker 13: and the most disconsolate, that it was possible to hear
Speaker 13: Little Gervais. Little Gervais assuredly, if the child had heard him,
Speaker 13: he would have been alarmed and would have taken good
Speaker 13: care not to show himself. But the child was, no
Speaker 13: doubt already far away. He encountered a priest on horseback.
Speaker 13: He stepped up to him and said, Monsieur le curee,
Speaker 13: have you seen a child pass No, said the priest,
Speaker 13: one named little Gervais. I have seen no one. He
Speaker 13: drew two five franc pieces from his money bag and
Speaker 13: handed them to the priest. Monsieur le cureye. This is
Speaker 13: for your poor people, Monsieur le couraye. He was a
Speaker 13: little lad, about ten years old, with a marma I think,
Speaker 13: and a hurdy gurdy, one of those savoyards you know.
Speaker 13: I have not seen him, little Gervais. There are no
Speaker 13: villages here. Can you tell me if he is like
Speaker 13: what you say? My friend, he is a little stranger.
Speaker 13: Such persons passed through these parts. We know nothing of them.
Speaker 13: Jean Valjean seized two more coins of five francs each
Speaker 13: with violence, and gave them to the priest for your
Speaker 13: poor he said. Then he added wildly, Monsieur l'abay have
Speaker 13: me arrested. I am a thief. The priest but spurs
Speaker 13: to his horse and fled in haste. Much alarmed, Jean
Speaker 13: Valjean set out in a run in the direction which
Speaker 13: he had first taken. In this way he traversed a
Speaker 13: tolerably long distance, gazing, calling, shouting, but he met no one.
Speaker 13: Two or three times he ran across the plain towards
Speaker 13: something which conveyed to him the effect of a human
Speaker 13: being reclining or crouching down. It turned out to be
Speaker 13: nothing but brushwood or rocks. Nearly on a level with
Speaker 13: the earth at length, at a spot where three paths
Speaker 13: intersected each other, he stopped. The moon had risen. He
Speaker 13: sent his gaze into the distance and shouted for the
Speaker 13: last time, Little Gervais, Little Gervais, Little Gervais. His shout
Speaker 13: died away in the midst without even awaking an echo.
Speaker 13: He murmured yet once more, Little Gervais, but in a
Speaker 13: feeble and almost inarticulate voice. It was his last effort,
Speaker 13: But his legs gave way abruptly under him, as though
Speaker 13: an invisible power had suddenly overwhelmed him with the weight
Speaker 13: of his evil conscience. He fell exhausted on a large stone,
Speaker 13: his fists clenched in his hair, and his face on
Speaker 13: his knees. And he cried, I am a wretch. Then
Speaker 13: his heart burst and he began to cry. It was
Speaker 13: the first time that he had wept in nineteen years.
Speaker 13: When Jean Valjean left the bishop's house, he was, as
Speaker 13: we have seen, quite thrown out of everything that had
Speaker 13: been his thought hitherto. He could not yield to the
Speaker 13: evidence of what was going on within him. He hardened
Speaker 13: himself against the angelic action and the gentle words of
Speaker 13: the old man. You have promised me to become an
Speaker 13: honest man. I buy your soul. I take it away
Speaker 13: from the spirit of perversity. I give it to the
Speaker 13: good God. This recurred to his mind unceasingly. To this
Speaker 13: celestial kindness, he opposed pride, which is the fortress of
Speaker 13: evil within us. He was indistinctly conscious that the pardon
Speaker 13: of this priest was the greatest assault and the most
Speaker 13: formidable attack which had moved him yet, that his obduracy
Speaker 13: was finally settled if he resisted this clemency, that if
Speaker 13: he yielded, he should be obliged to renounce that hatred
Speaker 13: with which the actions of other men had filled his
Speaker 13: soul through so many years, and which pleased him. That
Speaker 13: this time it was necessary to conquer or be conquered,
Speaker 13: And that a struggle, a colossal and final struggle, had
Speaker 13: been begun, between his viciousness and the goodness of that man.
Speaker 13: In the presence of these lights, he proceeded like a
Speaker 13: man who is intoxicated. As as he walked thus with
Speaker 13: haggard eyes, did he have a distinct perception of what
Speaker 13: might result to him from his adventure at d Did
Speaker 13: he understand all those mysterious murmurs which warn or importune
Speaker 13: the spirit at certain moments of life? Did a voice
Speaker 13: whisper in his ear that he had just passed the
Speaker 13: solemn hour of his destiny, That there were no longer
Speaker 13: remaining a middle course for him, That if he were
Speaker 13: not henceforth the best of men, he would be the worst.
Speaker 13: That it behooved him now so to speak, to mount
Speaker 13: higher than the bishop, or fall lower than the convict.
Speaker 13: That if he wished to become good, he must become
Speaker 13: an angel. That if he wished to remain evil, he
Speaker 13: must become a monster. Here again, some questions must be put,
Speaker 13: which we have already put to ourselves elsewhere Did he
Speaker 13: catch some shadow of all this in his thought? In
Speaker 13: a confused way. Misfortune, certainly, as we have said, does
Speaker 13: form the education of the intelligence. Nevertheless, it is doubtful
Speaker 13: whether Jean Valjean was in a condition to disentangle all
Speaker 13: that we have here indicated. If these ideas occurred to him,
Speaker 13: he but caught glimpses of rather than saw them, and
Speaker 13: they only succeeded in throwing him into an unutterable and
Speaker 13: almost painful state of emotion. On emerging from that black
Speaker 13: and deformed thing which is called the galleys, the bishop
Speaker 13: had hurt his soul, as too vivid a light would
Speaker 13: have hurt his eyes. On emerging from the dark. The
Speaker 13: future life, the possible life, which offered itself to him, henceforth,
Speaker 13: all pure and radiant, filled him with tremors and anxiety.
Speaker 13: He no longer knew where he really was, Like an
Speaker 13: owl who should suddenly see the sunrise. The convict had
Speaker 13: been dazzled and blinded, as it were, by virtue. That
Speaker 13: which was certain, that which he did not doubt, was
Speaker 13: that he was no longer the same man, that everything
Speaker 13: about him was changed, that it was no longer in
Speaker 13: his power to make it. As though the Bishop had
Speaker 13: not spoken to him, and had not touched him. In
Speaker 13: this state of mind, he had encountered little Gervais and
Speaker 13: had robbed him of his forty sous. Why he certainly
Speaker 13: could not have explained. It was this the last effect
Speaker 13: and the supreme effort, as it were, of the evil
Speaker 13: thoughts which he had brought away from the galleys, a
Speaker 13: remnant of impulse, a result of what is called in
Speaker 13: static's acquired force. It was that, and it was also
Speaker 13: perhaps even less than that. Let us say it simply.
Speaker 13: It was not he who stole. It was not the man.
Speaker 13: It was the beast, who, by habit and instinct, had
Speaker 13: simply placed his foot upon that money, while the intelligence
Speaker 13: was struggling amid so many novel and hitherto unheard of
Speaker 13: thoughts besetting it. When intelligence reawakened and beheld that action
Speaker 13: of the brute Jean Valjean recoiled with anguish and uttered
Speaker 13: a cry of terror. It was because strange phenomenon, and
Speaker 13: one which was possible only in the situation in which
Speaker 13: he found himself. In stealing that money from that child,
Speaker 13: he had done a thing of which he was no
Speaker 13: longer capable. However that may be, this last evil action
Speaker 13: had a decisive effect on him. It abruptly traversed that
Speaker 13: chaos which he bore in his mind, and dispersed it,
Speaker 13: placed on one side thick obscurity and on the other
Speaker 13: the light, and acted on his soul in the state
Speaker 13: in which it then was, as certain chemical reagents act
Speaker 13: upon a t troubled mixture by precipitating one element in
Speaker 13: clarifying the other first of all, even before examining himself
Speaker 13: and reflecting all bewildered, Like one who seeks to save himself,
Speaker 13: he tried to find the child in order to return
Speaker 13: his money to him. Then, when he recognized the fact
Speaker 13: that this was impossible, he halted in despair. At that
Speaker 13: moment when he exclaimed, I am a wretch, he had
Speaker 13: just perceived what he was, and he was already separated
Speaker 13: from himself to such a degree that he seemed to
Speaker 13: himself to be no longer anything more than a phantom,
Speaker 13: as if he had therefore before him in flesh and blood.
Speaker 13: The hideous Galley convict Jean Valjean Cudgel in hand, his
Speaker 13: blouse on his hips, his knapsack filled with stolen objects,
Speaker 13: on his back, with his resolute and gloomy visage, if
Speaker 13: his thoughts filled with abominable project excess of unhappiness, had,
Speaker 13: as we have remarked, made him in some sort of
Speaker 13: a visionary. This, then, was in the nature of a vision.
Speaker 13: He actually saw that Jean Valjean, that sinister face before him.
Speaker 13: He had almost reached the point of asking himself who
Speaker 13: that man was, and he was horrified by him. His
Speaker 13: brain was going through one of those violent and yet
Speaker 13: perfectly calm moments in which revery is so profound that
Speaker 13: it absorbs reality. One no longer beholds the object which
Speaker 13: one has before one, and one sees, as though apart
Speaker 13: from one's self, the figures which one has in one's
Speaker 13: own mind. Thus he contemplated himself, so to speak, face
Speaker 13: to face, and at the same time, athwart this hallucination,
Speaker 13: he perceived in a mysterious depth a sort of light,
Speaker 13: which he at first took for a torch. On scrutinizing
Speaker 13: this light, which appeared to his conscience, with more attention,
Speaker 13: he recognized the fact that it possessed a human form,
Speaker 13: and that this torch was the Bishop. His conscience weighed
Speaker 13: in turn. These two men thus placed before it, the
Speaker 13: Bishop and Jean Valjean, nothing less than the first was
Speaker 13: required to soften the second by one of those singular
Speaker 13: effects which are peculiar to this sort of ecstasies in proportion.
Speaker 13: As his reverie continued, as the Bishop grew great and
Speaker 13: resplendent in his eyes, so did Jean Valjean grow less
Speaker 13: and vanish. After a certain time, he was no longer
Speaker 13: anything more than a shade. All at once he disappeared.
Speaker 13: The Bishop alone remained. He filled the whole soul of
Speaker 13: this wretched man with a magnificent radiance. Jean Valjean wept
Speaker 13: for a long time. He wept, burning tears. He sobbed
Speaker 13: with more weakness than a woman, with more fright than
Speaker 13: a child. As he wept, daylight penetrated more and more
Speaker 13: clearly into his soul, an extraordinary light, a light at
Speaker 13: once ravishing and terrible. His past life, his first fault,
Speaker 13: his long expiation, his external brutishness, his internal hardness, his
Speaker 13: dismissal to liberty, rejoicing in manifold plans of vengeance. What
Speaker 13: had happened to him at the Bishop's The last thing
Speaker 13: that he had done, that theft of forty sous from
Speaker 13: a child, a crime all the more cowardly, and all
Speaker 13: the more monstrous, since it had come after the bishop's pardon.
Speaker 13: All this recurred to his mind and appeared clearly to him,
Speaker 13: but with a clearness which he had never hitherto witnessed.
Speaker 13: He examined his life, and it seemed horrible to him,
Speaker 13: his soul, and it seemed frightful to him. In the meantime,
Speaker 13: a gentle light rested over this life and this soul.
Speaker 13: It seemed to him that he had beheld satan by
Speaker 13: the light of paradise. How many hours did he weep? Thus?
Speaker 13: What did he do after he wept? Whither did he go?
Speaker 13: No one ever knew. The only thing which seems to
Speaker 13: be authenticated is that that same night the carrier who
Speaker 13: served Grenoble at that epoch, who arrived at d about
Speaker 13: three o'clock in the morning, saw, as he traversed the
Speaker 13: street in which the bishop's residence was situated, a man
Speaker 13: in the attitude of prayer, kneeling on that pavement in
Speaker 13: the shadow in front of the door of Monseigneur Welcome.
Speaker 13: End of book