Solution Pour Les Miserables Le Destin De Cosette
Dorothy Rassmussen
Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real substance ofwhat we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely for thesake of exactness in all points, to mention here the various rumors andremarks which had been in circulation about him from the very moment whenhe arrived in the diocese. True or false, that which is said of men oftenoccupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in theirdestinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of a councillor ofthe Parliament of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility of the bar. Itwas said that his father, destining him to be the heir of his own post,had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, in accordancewith a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary families.In spite of this marriage, however, it was said that Charles Myrielcreated a great deal of talk. He was well formed, though rather short instature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the whole of the first portion ofhis life had been devoted to the world and to gallantry.
Their only domestic was a female servant of the same age as MademoiselleBaptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been theservant of M. le Cur, now assumed the double title of maid toMademoiselle and housekeeper to Monseigneur.
On his arrival, M. Myriel was installed in the episcopal palace with thehonors required by the Imperial decrees, which class a bishop immediatelyafter a major-general. The mayor and the president paid the first call onhim, and he, in turn, paid the first call on the general and the prefect.
Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand underconsideration, and voted him an annual sum of three thousand francs, underthis heading: Allowance to M. the Bishop for expenses of carriage,expenses of posting, and expenses of pastoral visits.
As for the chance episcopal perquisites, the fees for marriage bans,dispensations, private baptisms, sermons, benedictions, of churches orchapels, marriages, etc., the Bishop levied them on the wealthy with allthe more asperity, since he bestowed them on the needy.
Far from it. As there is always more wretchedness below than there isbrotherhood above, all was given away, so to speak, before it wasreceived. It was like water on dry soil; no matter how much money hereceived, he never had any. Then he stripped himself.
The usage being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at thehead of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people of thecountry-side had selected, with a sort of affectionate instinct, among thenames and prenomens of their bishop, that which had a meaning for them;and they never called him anything except Monseigneur Bienvenu [Welcome].We will follow their example, and will also call him thus when we haveoccasion to name him. Moreover, this appellation pleased him.
The Bishop managed to do it. He went on foot when it was in theneighborhood, in a tilted spring-cart when it was on the plain, and on adonkey in the mountains. The two old women accompanied him. When the tripwas too hard for them, he went alone.
Thus he discoursed gravely and paternally; in default of examples, heinvented parables, going directly to the point, with few phrases and manyimages, which characteristic formed the real eloquence of Jesus Christ.And being convinced himself, he was persuasive.
Man has upon him his flesh, which is at once his burden and histemptation. He drags it with him and yields to it. He must watch it, checkit, repress it, and obey it only at the last extremity. There may be somefault even in this obedience; but the fault thus committed is venial; itis a fall, but a fall on the knees which may terminate in prayer.
One day he heard a criminal case, which was in preparation and on thepoint of trial, discussed in a drawing-room. A wretched man, being at theend of his resources, had coined counterfeit money, out of love for awoman, and for the child which he had had by her. Counterfeiting was stillpunishable with death at that epoch. The woman had been arrested in theact of passing the first false piece made by the man. She was held, butthere were no proofs except against her. She alone could accuse her lover,and destroy him by her confession. She denied; they insisted. Shepersisted in her denial. Thereupon an idea occurred to the attorney forthe crown. He invented an infidelity on the part of the lover, andsucceeded, by means of fragments of letters cunningly presented, inpersuading the unfortunate woman that she had a rival, and that the manwas deceiving her. Thereupon, exasperated by jealousy, she denounced herlover, confessed all, proved all.
On the following day, when they came to fetch the unhappy wretch, theBishop was still there. He followed him, and exhibited himself to the eyesof the crowd in his purple camail and with his episcopal cross upon hisneck, side by side with the criminal bound with cords.
Like all old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he slept little. Thisbrief slumber was profound. In the morning he meditated for an hour, thenhe said his mass, either at the cathedral or in his own house. His masssaid, he broke his fast on rye bread dipped in the milk of his own cows.Then he set to work.
Towards midday, when the weather was fine, he went forth and took astroll in the country or in town, often entering lowly dwellings. He wasseen walking alone, buried in his own thoughts, his eyes cast down,supporting himself on his long cane, clad in his wadded purple garment ofsilk, which was very warm, wearing purple stockings inside his coarseshoes, and surmounted by a flat hat which allowed three golden tassels oflarge bullion to droop from its three points.
It was a perfect festival wherever he appeared. One would have said thathis presence had something warming and luminous about it. The children andthe old people came out to the doorsteps for the Bishop as for the sun. Hebestowed his blessing, and they blessed him. They pointed out his house toany one who was in need of anything.
At half-past eight in the evening he supped with his sister, MadameMagloire standing behind them and serving them at table. Nothing could bemore frugal than this repast. If, however, the Bishop had one of his cursto supper, Madame Magloire took advantage of the opportunity to serveMonseigneur with some excellent fish from the lake, or with some fine gamefrom the mountains. Every cur furnished the pretext for a good meal: theBishop did not interfere. With that exception, his ordinary diet consistedonly of vegetables boiled in water, and oil soup. Thus it was said in thetown, when the Bishop does not indulge in the cheer of a cur, heindulges in the cheer of a trappist.
After supper he conversed for half an hour with Mademoiselle Baptistineand Madame Magloire; then he retired to his own room and set to writing,sometimes on loose sheets, and again on the margin of some folio. He was aman of letters and rather learned. He left behind him five or six verycurious manuscripts; among others, a dissertation on this verse inGenesis, In the beginning, the spirit of God floated upon the waters.With this verse he compares three texts: the Arabic verse which says, Thewinds of God blew; Flavius Josephus who says, A wind from above wasprecipitated upon the earth; and finally, the Chaldaic paraphrase ofOnkelos, which renders it, A wind coming from God blew upon the face ofthe waters. In another dissertation, he examines the theological worksof Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemas, great-grand-uncle to the writer of thisbook, and establishes the fact, that to this bishop must be attributed thedivers little works published during the last century, under the pseudonymof Barleycourt.
Sometimes, in the midst of his reading, no matter what the book might bewhich he had in his hand, he would suddenly fall into a profoundmeditation, whence he only emerged to write a few lines on the pages ofthe volume itself. These lines have often no connection whatever with thebook which contains them. We now have under our eyes a note written by himon the margin of a quarto entitled Correspondence of Lord Germain withGenerals Clinton, Cornwallis, and the Admirals on the American station.Versailles, Poinot, book-seller; and Paris, Pissot, bookseller, Quai desAugustins.
The pharmacy of the hospital, a small building which had been added to thehouse, and abutted on the garden, had been transformed into a kitchen andcellar. In addition to this, there was in the garden a stable, which hadformerly been the kitchen of the hospital, and in which the Bishop kepttwo cows. No matter what the quantity of milk they gave, he invariablysent half of it every morning to the sick people in the hospital.
In this winter salon, as in the dining-room, there was no other furniturethan a square table in white wood, and four straw-seated chairs. Inaddition to this the dining-room was ornamented with an antique sideboard,painted pink, in water colors. Out of a similar sideboard, properly drapedwith white napery and imitation lace, the Bishop had constructed the altarwhich decorated his oratory.
In his oratory there were two straw prie-Dieu, and there was an armchair,also in straw, in his bedroom. When, by chance, he received seven or eightpersons at one time, the prefect, or the general, or the staff of theregiment in garrison, or several pupils from the little seminary, thechairs had to be fetched from the winter salon in the stable, theprie-Dieu from the oratory, and the armchair from the bedroom: in thisway as many as eleven chairs could be collected for the visitors. A roomwas dismantled for each new guest.
It sometimes happened that there were twelve in the party; the Bishop thenrelieved the embarrassment of the situation by standing in front of thechimney if it was winter, or by strolling in the garden if it was summer.
There was still another chair in the detached alcove, but the straw washalf gone from it, and it had but three legs, so that it was of serviceonly when propped against the wall. Mademoiselle Baptistine had also inher own room a very large easy-chair of wood, which had formerly beengilded, and which was covered with flowered pekin; but they had beenobliged to hoist this bergre up to the first story through the window, asthe staircase was too narrow; it could not, therefore, be reckoned amongthe possibilities in the way of furniture.
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