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Comment (by cypherpunks_backup):

 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.

     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
     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

     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.

     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.

     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.

     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 "

     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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