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Comment (by cypherpunks):

 LES MISÉRABLES





 VOLUME I.—FANTINE.





 PREFACE

 So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of
 damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the
 civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine
 destiny; so long as the three great problems of the century—the
 degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through
 hunger, the crippling of children through lack of light—are unsolved; so
 long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;—in other
 words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and
 poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les Misérables cannot fail
 to be of use.

 HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862.




 FANTINE





 BOOK FIRST—A JUST MAN





 CHAPTER I—M. MYRIEL

 In 1815, M. Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of D—— He was an
 old man of about seventy-five years of age; he had occupied the see of D——
 since 1806.

 Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real substance of
 what we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely for the
 sake of exactness in all points, to mention here the various rumors and
 remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very moment when
 he arrived in the diocese. True or false, that which is said of men often
 occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their
 destinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of a councillor of
 the Parliament of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility of the bar. It
 was 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 accordance
 with a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary families.
 In spite of this marriage, however, it was said that Charles Myriel
 created a great deal of talk. He was well formed, though rather short in
 stature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the whole of the first portion of
 his life had been devoted to the world and to gallantry.

 The Revolution came; events succeeded each other with precipitation; the
 parliamentary families, decimated, pursued, hunted down, were dispersed.
 M. Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy at the very beginning of the
 Revolution. There his wife died of a malady of the chest, from which she
 had long suffered. He had no children. What took place next in the fate of
 M. Myriel? The ruin of the French society of the olden days, the fall of
 his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, even
 more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance, with the
 magnifying powers of terror,—did these cause the ideas of renunciation and
 solitude to germinate in him? Was he, in the midst of these distractions,
 these affections which absorbed his life, suddenly smitten with one of
 those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm, by striking
 to his heart, a man whom public catastrophes would not shake, by striking
 at his existence and his fortune? No one could have told: all that was
 known was, that when he returned from Italy he was a priest.

 In 1804, M. Myriel was the Curé of B—— [Brignolles]. He was already
 advanced in years, and lived in a very retired manner.

 About the epoch of the coronation, some petty affair connected with his
 curacy—just what, is not precisely known—took him to Paris. Among other
 powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for his parishioners was
 M. le Cardinal Fesch. One day, when the Emperor had come to visit his
 uncle, the worthy Curé, who was waiting in the anteroom, found himself
 present when His Majesty passed. Napoleon, on finding himself observed
 with a certain curiosity by this old man, turned round and said abruptly:—

 "Who is this good man who is staring at me?"

 "Sire," said M. Myriel, "you are looking at a good man, and I at a great
 man. Each of us can profit by it."

 That very evening, the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the Curé,
 and some time afterwards M. Myriel was utterly astonished to learn that he
 had been appointed Bishop of D——

 What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as to
 the early portion of M. Myriel's life? No one knew. Very few families had
 been acquainted with the Myriel family before the Revolution.

 M. Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town,
 where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think. He
 was obliged to undergo it although he was a bishop, and because he was a
 bishop. But after all, the rumors with which his name was connected were
 rumors only,—noise, sayings, words; less than words—palabres, as the
 energetic language of the South expresses it.

 However that may be, after nine years of episcopal power and of residence
 in D——, all the stories and subjects of conversation which engross petty
 towns and petty people at the outset had fallen into profound oblivion. No
 one would have dared to mention them; no one would have dared to recall
 them.

 M. Myriel had arrived at D—— accompanied by an elderly spinster,
 Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was his sister, and ten years his junior.

 Their only domestic was a female servant of the same age as Mademoiselle
 Baptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been the servant
 of M. le Curé, now assumed the double title of maid to Mademoiselle and
 housekeeper to Monseigneur.

 Mademoiselle Baptistine was a long, pale, thin, gentle creature; she
 realized the ideal expressed by the word "respectable"; for it seems that
 a woman must needs be a mother in order to be venerable. She had never
 been pretty; her whole life, which had been nothing but a succession of
 holy deeds, had finally conferred upon her a sort of pallor and
 transparency; and as she advanced in years she had acquired what may be
 called the beauty of goodness. What had been leanness in her youth had
 become transparency in her maturity; and this diaphaneity allowed the
 angel to be seen. She was a soul rather than a virgin. Her person seemed
 made of a shadow; there was hardly sufficient body to provide for sex; a
 little matter enclosing a light; large eyes forever drooping;—a mere
 pretext for a soul's remaining on the earth.

 Madame Magloire was a little, fat, white old woman, corpulent and
 bustling; always out of breath,—in the first place, because of her
 activity, and in the next, because of her asthma.

 On his arrival, M. Myriel was installed in the episcopal palace with the
 honors required by the Imperial decrees, which class a bishop immediately
 after a major-general. The mayor and the president paid the first call on
 him, and he, in turn, paid the first call on the general and the prefect.

 The installation over, the town waited to see its bishop at work.





 CHAPTER II—M. MYRIEL BECOMES M. WELCOME

 The episcopal palace of D—— adjoins the hospital.

 The episcopal palace was a huge and beautiful house, built of stone at the
 beginning of the last century by M. Henri Puget, Doctor of Theology of the
 Faculty of Paris, Abbé of Simore, who had been Bishop of D—— in 1712. This
 palace was a genuine seignorial residence. Everything about it had a grand
 air,—the apartments of the Bishop, the drawing-rooms, the chambers, the
 principal courtyard, which was very large, with walks encircling it under
 arcades in the old Florentine fashion, and gardens planted with
 magnificent trees. In the dining-room, a long and superb gallery which was
 situated on the ground-floor and opened on the gardens, M. Henri Puget had
 entertained in state, on July 29, 1714, My Lords Charles Brulart de
 Genlis, archbishop; Prince d'Embrun; Antoine de Mesgrigny, the capuchin,
 Bishop of Grasse; Philippe de Vendome, Grand Prior of France, Abbé of
 Saint Honore de Lerins; Francois de Berton de Crillon, bishop, Baron de
 Vence; Cesar de Sabran de Forcalquier, bishop, Seignor of Glandeve; and
 Jean Soanen, Priest of the Oratory, preacher in ordinary to the king,
 bishop, Seignor of Senez. The portraits of these seven reverend personages
 decorated this apartment; and this memorable date, the 29th of July, 1714,
 was there engraved in letters of gold on a table of white marble.

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

 Three days after his arrival, the Bishop visited the hospital. The visit
 ended, he had the director requested to be so good as to come to his
 house.

 "Monsieur the director of the hospital," said he to him, "how many sick
 people have you at the present moment?"

 "Twenty-six, Monseigneur."

 "That was the number which I counted," said the Bishop.

 "The beds," pursued the director, "are very much crowded against each
 other."

 "That is what I observed."

 "The halls are nothing but rooms, and it is with difficulty that the air
 can be changed in them."

 "So it seems to me."

 "And then, when there is a ray of sun, the garden is very small for the
 convalescents."

 "That was what I said to myself."

 "In case of epidemics,—we have had the typhus fever this year; we had the
 sweating sickness two years ago, and a hundred patients at times,—we know
 not what to do."

 "That is the thought which occurred to me."

 "What would you have, Monseigneur?" said the director. "One must resign
 one's self."

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

 The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the
 director of the hospital.

 "Monsieur," said he, "how many beds do you think this hall alone would
 hold?"

 "Monseigneur's dining-room?" exclaimed the stupefied director.

 The Bishop cast a glance round the apartment, and seemed to be taking
 measures and calculations with his eyes.

 "It would hold full twenty beds," said he, as though speaking to himself.
 Then, raising his voice:—

 "Hold, Monsieur the director of the hospital, I will tell you something.
 There is evidently a mistake here. There are thirty-six of you, in five or
 six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we have room for sixty.
 There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my house, and I have yours.
 Give me back my house; you are at home here."

 On the following day the thirty-six patients were installed in the
 Bishop's palace, and the Bishop was settled in the hospital.

 M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the
 Revolution. His sister was in receipt of a yearly income of five hundred
 francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage. M. Myriel
 received from the State, in his quality of bishop, a salary of fifteen
 thousand francs. On the very day when he took up his abode in the
 hospital, M. Myriel settled on the disposition of this sum once for all,
 in the following manner. We transcribe here a note made by his own hand:—

 NOTE ON THE REGULATION OF MY HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.

   For the little seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1,500 livres
   Society of the  mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . .      100   "
   For the Lazarists of Montdidier . . . . . . . . . .      100   "
   Seminary for foreign missions in Paris  . . . . . .      200   "
   Congregation of the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . .      150   "
   Religious establishments of the Holy Land . . . . .      100   "
   Charitable maternity societies  . . . . . . . . . .      300   "
   Extra, for that of Arles  . . . . . . . . . . . . .       50   "
   Work for the amelioration of prisons  . . . . . . .      400   "
   Work for the relief and delivery of prisoners . . .      500   "
   To liberate fathers of families incarcerated for debt  1,000   "
   Addition to the salary of the poor teachers of the
        diocese  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    2,000   "
   Public granary of the Hautes-Alpes  . . . . . . . .      100   "
   Congregation of the ladies of D——, of Manosque, and of
        Sisteron, for the gratuitous instruction of poor
        girls  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1,500   "
   For the poor  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    6,000   "
   My personal expenses  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    1,000   "
                                                         ———
        Total  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   15,000   "

 M. Myriel made no change in this arrangement during the entire period that
 he occupied the see of D—— As has been seen, he called it regulating his
 household expenses.

 This arrangement was accepted with absolute submission by Mademoiselle
 Baptistine. This holy woman regarded Monseigneur of D—— as at one and the
 same time her brother and her bishop, her friend according to the flesh
 and her superior according to the Church. She simply loved and venerated
 him. When he spoke, she bowed; when he acted, she yielded her adherence.
 Their only servant, Madame Magloire, grumbled a little. It will be
 observed that Monsieur the Bishop had reserved for himself only one
 thousand livres, which, added to the pension of Mademoiselle Baptistine,
 made fifteen hundred francs a year. On these fifteen hundred francs these
 two old women and the old man subsisted.

 And when a village curate came to D——, the Bishop still found means to
 entertain him, thanks to the severe economy of Madame Magloire, and to the
 intelligent administration of Mademoiselle Baptistine.

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

 "And still I am quite cramped with it all!"

 "I should think so!" exclaimed Madame Magloire. "Monseigneur has not even
 claimed the allowance which the department owes him for the expense of his
 carriage in town, and for his journeys about the diocese. It was customary
 for bishops in former days."

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

 And he made his demand.

 Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand under
 consideration, and voted him an annual sum of three thousand francs, under
 this heading: Allowance to M. the Bishop for expenses of carriage,
 expenses of posting, and expenses of pastoral visits.

 This provoked a great outcry among the local burgesses; and a senator of
 the Empire, a former member of the Council of the Five Hundred which
 favored the 18 Brumaire, and who was provided with a magnificent
 senatorial office in the vicinity of the town of D——, wrote to M. Bigot de
 Preameneu, the minister of public worship, a very angry and confidential
 note on the subject, from which we extract these authentic lines:—

 "Expenses of carriage? What can be done with it in a town of less than
 four thousand inhabitants? Expenses of journeys? What is the use of these
 trips, in the first place? Next, how can the posting be accomplished in
 these mountainous parts? There are no roads. No one travels otherwise than
 on horseback. Even the bridge between Durance and Chateau-Arnoux can
 barely support ox-teams. These priests are all thus, greedy and
 avaricious. This man played the good priest when he first came. Now he
 does like the rest; he must have a carriage and a posting-chaise, he must
 have luxuries, like the bishops of the olden days. Oh, all this
 priesthood! Things will not go well, M. le Comte, until the Emperor has
 freed us from these black-capped rascals. Down with the Pope! [Matters
 were getting embroiled with Rome.] For my part, I am for Caesar alone."
 Etc., etc.

 On the other hand, this affair afforded great delight to Madame Magloire.
 "Good," said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine; "Monseigneur began with other
 people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after all. He has
 regulated all his charities. Now here are three thousand francs for us! At
 last!"

 That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a
 memorandum conceived in the following terms:—

 EXPENSES OF CARRIAGE AND CIRCUIT.

   For furnishing meat soup to the patients in the hospital. 1,500 livres
   For the maternity charitable society of Aix . . . . . . .   250   "
   For the maternity charitable society of Draguignan  . . .   250   "
   For foundlings  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   500   "
   For orphans   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .   500   "
                                                             ——-
        Total  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000   "

 Such was M. Myriel's budget.

 As for the chance episcopal perquisites, the fees for marriage bans,
 dispensations, private baptisms, sermons, benedictions, of churches or
 chapels, marriages, etc., the Bishop levied them on the wealthy with all
 the more asperity, since he bestowed them on the needy.

 After a time, offerings of money flowed in. Those who had and those who
 lacked knocked at M. Myriel's door,—the latter in search of the alms which
 the former came to deposit. In less than a year the Bishop had become the
 treasurer of all benevolence and the cashier of all those in distress.
 Considerable sums of money passed through his hands, but nothing could
 induce him to make any change whatever in his mode of life, or add
 anything superfluous to his bare necessities.

 Far from it. As there is always more wretchedness below than there is
 brotherhood above, all was given away, so to speak, before it was
 received. It was like water on dry soil; no matter how much money he
 received, he never had any. Then he stripped himself.

 The usage being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at the
 head of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people of the
 country-side had selected, with a sort of affectionate instinct, among the
 names and prenomens of their bishop, that which had a meaning for them;
 and they never called him anything except Monseigneur Bienvenu [Welcome].
 We will follow their example, and will also call him thus when we have
 occasion to name him. Moreover, this appellation pleased him.

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

 We do not claim that the portrait herewith presented is probable; we
 confine ourselves to stating that it resembles the original.





 CHAPTER III—A HARD BISHOPRIC FOR A GOOD BISHOP

 The Bishop did not omit his pastoral visits because he had converted his
 carriage into alms. The diocese of D—— is a fatiguing one. There are very
 few plains and a great many mountains; hardly any roads, as we have just
 seen; thirty-two curacies, forty-one vicarships, and two hundred and
 eighty-five auxiliary chapels. To visit all these is quite a task.

 The Bishop managed to do it. He went on foot when it was in the
 neighborhood, in a tilted spring-cart when it was on the plain, and on a
 donkey in the mountains. The two old women accompanied him. When the trip
 was too hard for them, he went alone.

 One day he arrived at Senez, which is an ancient episcopal city. He was
 mounted on an ass. His purse, which was very dry at that moment, did not
 permit him any other equipage. The mayor of the town came to receive him
 at the gate of the town, and watched him dismount from his ass, with
 scandalized eyes. Some of the citizens were laughing around him. "Monsieur
 the Mayor," said the Bishop, "and Messieurs Citizens, I perceive that I
 shock you. You think it very arrogant in a poor priest to ride an animal
 which was used by Jesus Christ. I have done so from necessity, I assure
 you, and not from vanity."

 In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent, and talked rather
 than preached. He never went far in search of his arguments and his
 examples. He quoted to the inhabitants of one district the example of a
 neighboring district. In the cantons where they were harsh to the poor, he
 said: "Look at the people of Briancon! They have conferred on the poor, on
 widows and orphans, the right to have their meadows mown three days in
 advance of every one else. They rebuild their houses for them gratuitously
 when they are ruined. Therefore it is a country which is blessed by God.
 For a whole century, there has not been a single murderer among them."

 In villages which were greedy for profit and harvest, he said: "Look at
 the people of Embrun! If, at the harvest season, the father of a family
 has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in
 the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the cure recommends him to
 the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the
 inhabitants of the village—men, women, and children—go to the poor man's
 field and do his harvesting for him, and carry his straw and his grain to
 his granary." To families divided by questions of money and inheritance he
 said: "Look at the mountaineers of Devolny, a country so wild that the
 nightingale is not heard there once in fifty years. Well, when the father
 of a family dies, the boys go off to seek their fortunes, leaving the
 property to the girls, so that they may find husbands." To the cantons
 which had a taste for lawsuits, and where the farmers ruined themselves in
 stamped paper, he said: "Look at those good peasants in the valley of
 Queyras! There are three thousand souls of them. Mon Dieu! it is like a
 little republic. Neither judge nor bailiff is known there. The mayor does
 everything. He allots the imposts, taxes each person conscientiously,
 judges quarrels for nothing, divides inheritances without charge,
 pronounces sentences gratuitously; and he is obeyed, because he is a just
 man among simple men." To villages where he found no schoolmaster, he
 quoted once more the people of Queyras: "Do you know how they manage?" he
 said. "Since a little country of a dozen or fifteen hearths cannot always
 support a teacher, they have school-masters who are paid by the whole
 valley, who make the round of the villages, spending a week in this one,
 ten days in that, and instruct them. These teachers go to the fairs. I
 have seen them there. They are to be recognized by the quill pens which
 they wear in the cord of their hat. Those who teach reading only have one
 pen; those who teach reading and reckoning have two pens; those who teach
 reading, reckoning, and Latin have three pens. But what a disgrace to be
 ignorant! Do like the people of Queyras!"

 Thus he discoursed gravely and paternally; in default of examples, he
 invented parables, going directly to the point, with few phrases and many
 images, which characteristic formed the real eloquence of Jesus Christ.
 And being convinced himself, he was persuasive.

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