Hugo's rejected chapters. Les Miserables

In 1815, Charles-François Myriel was the bishop of the city of Digne. He was nicknamed Bienvenu the Desired for his good deeds. This unusual man had many love affairs when he was young. He led a social life, but the Revolution changed everything. Mister Miriel went to Italy, from where he returned as a priest. At the whims of Napoleon, the old parish priest occupied the throne of the bishop. He began his career as a pastor by ceding the building of the bishop's palace to the local hospital, and he himself moved into a small, cramped house. He distributed his large salary entirely to the local poor residents. Rich and poor alike knocked on his door. Some came for alms, while others brought it. This pure man was widely respected because he had the gift of forgiveness and healing.
In October, a dusty traveler entered the city of Digne.

He was a stocky, stocky man in the prime of his life. His poor clothes and weathered, gloomy face made a repulsive impression. First he went to the city hall, and then tried to settle down somewhere for the night. However, he was persecuted from everywhere, even though he was ready to pay in full coin. This man's name is Jean Valjean. He was in hard labor for nineteen years because he once stole a loaf of bread for the hungry seven children of his widowed sister. When he became embittered, he turned into a hunted wild animal. With his yellow passport, he could not find a place for himself in this world. Finally, one woman took pity on him and advised him to turn to the bishop. Bishop Bienvenu listened to his grim confession and ordered him to be fed in the guest room. In the middle of the night Jean woke up. He was haunted by 6 silver cutlery, because this was the only wealth of the bishop that was kept in the bedroom. On tiptoe, Valjean approached the bishop's bed, broke open the cabinet with silver and wanted to crush the good shepherd's head with a massive candlestick, but some inexplicable force held him back. And he escaped through the window.

In the morning, the gendarmes brought a fugitive with stolen silver to the bishop. Monseigneur has the right to send Valjean to hard labor for life. Instead, Mr. Miriel brought out 2 silver candlesticks, which yesterday’s guest allegedly forgot. The bishop's final advice was to use the gift to become a decent person. The convict hastily left the city. A painful, complex work was taking place in his coarsened soul. At sunset, he took a 40 sou coin from a boy he met. It was only when the boy began to cry bitterly and ran away that Valjean realized how vile his act was. He sits down on the ground and for the first time in 19 years begins to cry bitterly.

In 1818, the city of Montreal began to prosper, and it owes this to one person: 3 years ago, an unknown person settled here, who managed to improve the local traditional craft - the production of fake jet. D. Madeleine not only became rich himself, but also helped many others increase their wealth. Just recently, unemployment was raging in the city - now everyone has forgotten about the need. D. Madeleine is distinguished by unusual modesty. He was not interested in either his Order of the Legion of Honor or his parliamentary seat. However, in 1820 he happened to become the mayor of the city: an ordinary old woman put him to shame. She told him that it was shameful to back down when there was an opportunity to do good. And D. Madeleine turns into Mr. Madeleine. Everyone was in awe of him. He was a man who was suspicious of him - policeman Javert. He had room in his soul for only two feelings, which he carried to the extreme - hatred of rebellion and respect for authority. In his eyes, a judge could never miss, and a criminal could never correct himself. He himself was blameless to the point of disgust. All his life he followed - this was the meaning in Javert's life.

One day a policeman informed the mayor that he needed to leave for the neighboring city of Arras. There will be a trial in the case of Jean Valjean, a former convict who, after his release, committed a robbery of a boy. Previously, Javert believed that Jean Valjean was hiding under the guise of Mr. Madeleine - but this turned out to be a mistake. The mayor, having released Javert, fell into deep thoughts and then left the city. In Arras, during the trial, the defendant stubbornly refused to admit that he was Jean Valjean and claimed that his name was D. Chanmathieu and there was no guilt behind him. The judge was ready to pronounce a sentence, but at that moment an unknown man stood up and announced that he was Jean Valjean. It soon turned out that the mayor, Mr. Madeleine, was the escaped convict. Javert was triumphant as he had cleverly set a snare for the criminal.
The court pronounced its verdict: Valjean should be sent for life to Toulon on the galleys. When he found himself on the Orion ship, he saved the life of a sailor who fell from the yard, and then threw himself from a great height into the sea. A message appeared in the newspapers of Toulon that Jean Valjean had drowned. But after some period of time he showed up in Montfermeil. When he was mayor, he treated very strictly a woman who gave birth to an illegitimate child, and repented when he remembered the merciful Bishop Miriel. Before his death, Fantine asked him to take care of Cosette. The Thenardier family embodied the malice and cunning that went together in marriage. They all tortured the girl in their own way: they beat her, forced her to work until she died. It was all my wife's fault. The girl walked barefoot and in rags in winter - her husband was to blame for this. Jean Valjean takes Cosette and moves in with her on the remote outskirts of Paris. He taught the baby to read and write and allowed her to play to her heart's content. Soon she became his meaning of life. However, Inspector Javert did not give him peace here either. He staged a night raid and Jean Valjean miraculously escaped by jumping unnoticed into the garden through a blank wall. It turned out that there was a convent there. Cosette was taken to a monastery boarding house, and her stepfather became an assistant gardener.

Mr. Gillenormand lived at that time with his grandson, who had a different surname - the boy's name was Marius Pontmercy. Marius's mother died, and he never saw his father. Georges Pontmercy rose to the rank of colonel and almost died in the battle of Waterloo. Marius learned about all this from the dying message of the pope, who for him turned into a titanic figure. The former royalist became a passionate admirer of the emperor himself and almost hated his grandfather. Marius left home with a scandal. Now he lived very poorly, but this brought him a sense of freedom and independence. Walking through the garden of Luxembourg, Marius noticed an old man accompanied by a girl of fifteen years old. Marius fell passionately in love with a stranger, but his natural shyness prevented him from meeting her. The elder noticed Marius’s close attention and therefore moved out of the apartment and stopped coming to the garden.

An unhappy young man thinks that he has lost his beloved forever. But one day he heard a familiar voice behind the wall. It was the apartment of the large Jondrette family. He looked through the crack and saw the same old man from the garden. He promised to bring money in the evening. Most likely, Jondrette had the opportunity to blackmail him. Marius was an interested party, so he overheard the scoundrel conspiring with a gang called the Cock Hour. In the conversation, he hears how they want to set a trap for the old man and take everything from him. Marius notified the police about this. Inspector Javert thanked him for his participation and handed him pistols just in case. The young man sees a terrible scene - the innkeeper Thenardier, hiding under the name Jondrette, managed to track down Jean Valjean. Marius is about to intervene, but the police, led by Javert, burst into the room. While the inspector was dealing with the bandits, Jean Valjean jumped out the window.

In 1832, there was fermentation in Paris. Marius's friends were delirious with the ideas of revolution, but the young man was interested in something completely different - he continued to persistently look for the girl from the garden in Luxembourg. Finally, luck smiled on him. With the help of Thénardier's daughter, he found Cosette and confessed his love to her. It turned out that Cosette had also been in love with Marius for a long time. Jean Valjean suspected nothing. What bothered the former convict more was that Thenardier was watching their neighborhood. In June, an uprising broke out in the city. Marius could not leave his friends. Cosette wanted to send a message for him, and then Jean Valjean's eyes finally opened: his girl had already matured and found her love. Despair, along with jealousy, choked the convict, and he decided to go to the barricade, which was defended by the Republicans along with Marius. They fall into the hands of a disguised Javert - the detective is captured, and Jean Valjean again meets his enemy. He had the opportunity to deal with him, but the noble convict preferred to free the policeman. At that moment, government troops were advancing: one after another, the defenders of the barricade died. Among them was a nice boy named Gavroche. Marius's collarbone was crushed by a rifle shot and he found himself at the mercy of Jean Valjean.

The convict carried Marius on his shoulders from the battlefield. Punishers were prowling everywhere, and Valjean descended into the underground sewers. The detective allowed Valjean to take Marius to his grandfather and go to say goodbye to Cosette. Valjean was very surprised when he realized that the policeman had let him go. The most tragic moment came for Javert: he broke the law for the first time and released a criminal.

Marius remained for a long time between death and life. Finally, youth has won. He met Cosette and their love blossomed. They received the blessing of Jean Valjean and M. Gillenormand, who completely forgave his grandson. In February 1833 the marriage took place. Valjean admitted to Marius that he was an escaped convict. Pontmercy was horrified, since nothing should have overshadowed Cosette’s happiness, so the criminal should gradually disappear from her life. At first, Cosette was a little surprised, but then she got used to the rare visits of her former patron. Soon the old man stopped coming completely, and the girl forgot about him. Jean Valjean began to fade and waste away. They invited a doctor for him, but he just threw up his hands - medicines are not able to help here. Marius thinks that the convict deserves such treatment. He already began to believe that it was he who robbed Mr. Madeleine and killed Javert, who saved him from the bandits. Then Thenardier revealed all the secrets: Jean Valjean is neither a thief nor a murderer. besides, it was he who carried Marius out of the barricade. The young man paid the innkeeper generously. The scoundrel once did a good deed, rummaging in the pockets of the dead and wounded. And the man he saved was named Georges Pontmercy. Marius and Cosette went to see Jean Valjean. They wanted to ask him for forgiveness. The convict died happy - his beloved children finally took his last breath. A young couple ordered a touching epitaph for the grave of the sufferer.

A summary of the novel “Les Miserables” was retold by A. S. Osipova.

Please note that this is only a summary of the literary work “Les Miserables”. This summary omits many important points and quotes.

The action takes place at the beginning of the 19th century. After 19 years of hard labor for stealing bread for his sister's family, Jean Valjean is freed. Only “freedom” is an elastic concept. Every month he has to report to a lawyer, they don’t hire him and even despise him. But one day, Archbishop Dinsky took him in and treated him like a brother. Jean Valjean, still disbelieving in love, steals all the silver in the house and runs away. In the morning he is brought to the archbishop, beaten half to death. According to law enforcement officers, the man said that the archbishop himself gave him the silver. He agrees with this and finally gives two silver candlesticks, which Jean Valjean keeps until his death. He was so touched by the care that he tore up all his documents and started a new life. Jean Valjean sells all the silver and 8 years later becomes the mayor of the city.

At this time, a worker at a garment factory (owned by Valjean), Fantine, is subjected to the advances of the foreman and the contempt of her colleagues. She has a secret: several years ago a man deceived her and left, and she became pregnant and gave birth to a daughter from him. The girl, Cosette (real name Ephrazi), grows up with an innkeeper and his wife, who have a daughter, Eponine (according to the book, they have two daughters - Eponine and Azelma). They treat the girl cruelly, and write to her mother that she is often sick. Fantine sends them a lot of money, thinking that she is saving her daughter. Soon her secret is revealed and she is fired from her job. In desperation, a woman sells her hair and teeth in order to save her “sick” daughter. Then she becomes a prostitute.

One night, when a client comes to her, she refuses to work, but the man was very persistent, and Fantine hit him. At this moment, law enforcement officers appear, including Javert, a former guard at the penal servitude. Jean Valjean saves Fantine from prison and takes her to the hospital. The woman asks him to take care of her daughter and dies. Javert realizes that the mayor is Jean Valjean and wants to put him in prison, since he has been looking for a fugitive for many years. Jean Valjean is running.

At this time, Cosette is sent into the winter forest to fetch water, where Valjean finds her. He buys the girl from the innkeepers and, pursued by Javert, asks for shelter from the church gardener. The girl grows up in a monastery.

Many years pass, the times of the June Uprising. In the center of the plot, Friends of the ABC are students who started a revolution. They are also helped by little Gavroche, the son of impoverished innkeepers. Marius, one of the community members, notices Cosette on the street and immediately falls in love with her. The girl also liked the young man. With the help of Eponine, who is in love with him, Marius finds the house where Cosette lives, and secretly from everyone they meet.

Because of Javert's arrival, Jean Valjean and his daughter are forced to flee, but Gavroche brings a note from the barricades. In order to save Cosette's lover, the man goes into the thick of the uprising. Just at this moment, the students detained Javert, so they let Jean Valjean kill him. He agrees, but does not kill Javert, but releases him. At this time, the “massacre” begins again at the barricades. During the battle, Gavroche and Eponine are killed. Everyone is in mourning when the battle resumes. This time the law enforcement officers kill everyone: Enjolras, Grantaire, Courfeyrac, Jean Prouvaire, Joly, Feilly, Combeferre, Baorel and Bossuet. Jean Valjean rescues the wounded Marius through the sewer, meeting an innkeeper along the way. The latter stole the family ring from Marius. At the exit from the sewer, Javert is waiting for Valjean and the half-dead Marius, claiming that in any case he will bring the fugitive to justice for all the crimes he has committed, but he does not dare to shoot the man who recently saved his life. The guardian of justice suffers from remorse and commits suicide.

Marius recovers, he and Cosette get married. Jean Valjean tells the guy his story and leaves for the monastery to die. The Thenardiers (the innkeeper and his wife) come to the wedding and tell Marius nasty things about Jean Valjean, not realizing that they are explaining to him who saved him. Marius and Cosette flee to the monastery, catching the last moments of Jean Valjean's life.

When he dies, he is met by Fantine, the archbishop and all those who died on the barricades. The last song is playing.

As long as by the force of laws and morals there will be a social curse, which, in the midst of the flourishing of civilization, artificially creates hell and aggravates the fate depending on God with fatal human predestination; until the three main problems of our age are resolved - the humiliation of man due to his belonging to the proletarian class, the fall of woman due to hunger, the withering of the child due to the darkness of ignorance; as long as there is social suffocation in some sections of society; in other words, and from an even broader point of view - as long as need and ignorance reign on earth, books like this will perhaps not be useless.

Hauteville House, 1862

Mister Miriel

In 1815, Charles-François-Bienvenue Myriel was the bishop of the city of Digne. He was an old man of about seventy-five; He occupied the episcopal throne in Dina since 1806.

Although this circumstance does not in any way affect the essence of what we are about to talk about, it will, perhaps, be useful, in order to maintain complete accuracy, to mention here the rumors and gossip caused in the diocese by the arrival of Mr. Miriel. Whether people's rumors are true or false, they often play in a person's life, and especially in his future destiny, no less important a role than his own actions. Monsieur Myriel was the son of a councilor of the court at Aix and therefore belonged to the judicial aristocracy. They said that his father, wanting to inherit his position and adhering to a custom that was very widespread at that time among judicial officials, married his son very early, when he was eighteen or twenty years old. However, if rumors are to be believed, Charles Miriel provided plenty of food for conversation even after his marriage. He was well built, although somewhat short in stature, graceful, dexterous, and witty; The first half of his life he devoted entirely to the world and love affairs.

But then the revolution came; events quickly replaced one another; the families of judicial officials, thinned out, persecuted, persecuted, scattered in different directions. Charles Miriel emigrated to Italy in the very first days of the revolution. There his wife died of a chest illness that she had suffered from for a long time. They had no children. What was the further fate of Miriel? The collapse of the old French society, the death of his own family, the tragic events of 1993, perhaps even more terrible for the emigrants who followed them from afar through the prism of their despair - was it not this that first planted in his soul the idea of renunciation of the world and loneliness? ? Was he not, in the midst of some entertainment and hobbies that filled his life, suddenly struck by one of those mysterious and formidable blows that sometimes, hitting right in the heart, plunge into the dust a person who is able to withstand the social catastrophe that breaks his existence and destroying material well-being? No one could answer these questions; they only knew that Miriel had returned from Italy as a priest.

In 1804 Mr. Miriel was parish priest at Brignole. He was already old and lived in deep solitude.

Shortly before the coronation, some minor matter concerning his arrival - it is now difficult to establish which one - brought him to Paris. Among other people in power, to whom he petitioned on behalf of his parishioners, he had to visit Cardinal Fesch. One day, when the Emperor came to visit his uncle, the venerable priest, waiting in the reception room, found himself face to face with His Majesty. Noticing that the old man was looking at him with curiosity, Napoleon turned around and asked sharply:

- Why are you, good man, looking at me like that?

“Sire,” answered Miriel, “you see a good man, and I see a great one.” Each of us can gain some benefit from this.

That same evening the Emperor asked the cardinal for the name of this curé, and a short time later M. Myriel learned with amazement that he had been appointed bishop of Digne.

However, no one knew how reliable the stories about the first half of Mr. Miriel’s life were. Miriel's family was little known before the revolution.

Mister Miriel had to experience the fate of every new person who finds himself in a small town, where there are many tongues that chatter, and very few heads that think. He had to experience this, although he was a bishop, and precisely because he was a bishop. However, the rumors that people associated with his name were just rumors, hints, buzzwords, empty speeches, simply put - nonsense, resorting to the expressive language of the southerners.

Be that as it may, after the bishop’s nine-year stay in Dina, all these tales and rumors that always occupy a small town and small people at first were consigned to deep oblivion. No one would dare to repeat them now, no one would even dare to remember them.

Monsieur Miriel arrived in Digne with an elderly girl, Mlle Baptistine, his sister, who was ten years younger than him.

Their only maid, Madame Magloire, the same age as Mlle Baptistine, who had previously been “Mr. Curé’s maid,” now received the double title of “Mlle Baptistine’s maid” and “His Eminence’s housekeeper.”

Mademoiselle Baptistine was a tall, pale, thin and meek person. She personified the ideal of everything that is contained in the word “venerable,” for, as it seems to us, motherhood alone gives a woman the right to be called “venerable.” She was never pretty, but her life, which was an unbroken chain of good deeds, eventually gave her appearance some kind of whiteness, some kind of clarity, and, as she grew old, she acquired what could be called “the beauty of kindness.” . What was thin in youth turned into airiness in adulthood, and an angel shone through this transparent shell. It was a virgin, moreover, it was the soul itself. She seemed made of shadow; just enough flesh to lightly outline the floor; a lump of matter glowing from within; large eyes, always lowered, as if her soul was looking for an excuse for its stay on earth.

Madame Magloire was a little old lady, gray-haired, plump, even fat, busy, always out of breath, firstly, from constant running, and secondly, because of the asthma that tormented her.

When Monsieur Miriel arrived in the city, he was installed with honors in the episcopal palace, in accordance with the imperial decree, which places the bishop immediately after the major general in the list of ranks and titles. The mayor and the chief justice were the first to pay him a visit; Mr. Miriel was the first to go to the general and prefect.

When the bishop took office, the city began to wait to see what he would turn out to be like.

Monsieur Miriel turns into Monsignor Bienvenu

The Bishop's Palace at Digne was adjacent to the hospital.

It was a huge and beautiful stone building, built at the beginning of the last century by Monsignor Henri Puget, Doctor of Theology at the University of Paris, Abbot of Seymours, who occupied the episcopal throne in Digne in 1712. It was truly a princely palace. Everything here had a majestic appearance: the bishop’s apartments, the living rooms, the state chambers, the courtyard, which was very extensive, with vaulted galleries in the ancient Florentine style, and the gardens with magnificent trees. In the dining room - a long and luxurious gallery, which was located on the ground floor and overlooked the garden - Monsignor Henri Puget gave a ceremonial dinner on July 29, 1714, where the following monsignors were present: Charles Brulard de Genlis, Archbishop Prince of Ambren; Antoine de Megrigny, Capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philip of Vendôme, Grand Prior of France; Abbot Saint-Honoré of Lerens; François de Berton of Crillon, bishop, Baron of Van; Cesar de Sabran of Forcalquiere, sovereign bishop of Glandevsky, and Jean Soanin, presbyter of the oratory, royal court preacher, sovereign bishop of Senese. Portraits of these seven dignitaries adorned the walls of the dining room, and the significant date - July 29, 1714 - was engraved in gold letters on a white marble board.

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In 1815, Charles-François Myriel was the bishop of the city of Digne. He was nicknamed Bienvenu the Desired for his good deeds. This unusual man had many love affairs when he was young. He led a social life, but the Revolution changed everything. Mister Miriel went to Italy, from where he returned as a priest. At the whims of Napoleon, the old parish priest occupied the throne of the bishop. He began his career as a pastor by ceding the building of the bishop's palace to the local hospital, and he himself moved into a small, cramped house. He distributed his large salary entirely to the local poor residents. Rich and poor alike knocked on his door. Some came for alms, while others brought it. This pure man was widely respected because he had the gift of forgiveness and healing. In October, a dusty traveler entered the city of Digne.

In 1818, Montreal began to prosper, and it owes this to one person: 3 years ago, an unknown person settled here, who managed to improve the local traditional craft - the production of fake jet. D. Madeleine not only became rich himself, but also helped many others increase their wealth. Just recently, unemployment was raging in the city - now everyone has forgotten about the need. D. Madeleine is distinguished by unusual modesty. He was not interested in either his Order of the Legion of Honor or his parliamentary seat. However, in 1820 he happened to become the mayor of the city: an ordinary old woman put him to shame. She told him that it was shameful to back down when there was an opportunity to do good. And D. Madeleine turns into Mr. Madeleine. Everyone was in awe of him. He was a man who was suspicious of him - the policeman Javert. He had room in his soul for only two feelings, which he carried to the extreme - hatred of rebellion and respect for authority. In his eyes, a judge could never miss, and a criminal could never correct himself. He himself was blameless to the point of disgust. All his life he followed - this was the meaning in Javert’s life.

One day a policeman informed the mayor that he needed to leave for the neighboring city of Arras. There will be a trial in the case of Jean Valjean, a former convict who, after his release, committed a robbery of a boy. Previously, Javert believed that Jean Valjean was hiding under the guise of Mr. Madeleine - but this turned out to be a mistake. The mayor, having released Javert, fell into deep thoughts and then left the city. In Arras, during the trial, the defendant stubbornly refused to admit that he was Jean Valjean and claimed that his name was D. Chanmathieu and there was no guilt behind him. The judge was ready to pronounce a sentence, but at that moment an unknown man stood up and announced that he was Jean Valjean. It soon turned out that the mayor, Mr. Madeleine, was the escaped convict. Javert was triumphant as he had cleverly set a snare for the criminal. The court pronounced its verdict: Valjean should be sent for life to Toulon on the galleys. When he found himself on the Orion ship, he saved the life of a sailor who fell from the yard, and then threw himself from a great height into the sea. A message appeared in the newspapers of Toulon that Jean Valjean had drowned. But after some period of time he showed up in Montfermeil. When he was mayor, he treated very strictly a woman who gave birth to an illegitimate child, and repented when he remembered the merciful Bishop Miriel. Before his death, Fantine asked him to take care of Cosette. The Thenardier family embodied the malice and cunning that went together in marriage. They all tortured the girl in their own way: they beat her, forced her to work until she died. It was all my wife's fault. The girl walked barefoot in winter... and in rags - her husband was to blame for this. Jean Valjean takes Cosette and moves in with her on the remote outskirts of Paris. He taught the baby to read and write and allowed her to play to her heart's content. Soon she became his meaning of life. However, Inspector Javert did not give him peace here either. He staged a night raid and Jean Valjean miraculously escaped by jumping unnoticed into the garden through a blank wall. It turned out that there was a convent there. Cosette was taken to a monastery boarding house, and her stepfather became an assistant gardener.

Marius remained for a long time between death and life. Finally, youth has won. He met Cosette and their love blossomed. They received the blessing of Jean Valjean and M. Gillenormand, who completely forgave his grandson. In February 1833 the marriage took place. Valjean admitted to Marius that he was an escaped convict. Pontmercy was horrified, since nothing was supposed to darken Cosette’s happiness, so the criminal should gradually disappear from her life. At first, Cosette was a little surprised, but then she got used to the rare visits of her former patron. Soon the old man stopped coming completely, and the girl forgot about him. Jean Valjean began to fade and waste away. They invited a doctor for him, but he just threw up his hands - medicines are not able to help here. Marius thinks that the convict deserves such treatment. He already began to believe that it was he who robbed Mr. Madeleine and killed Javert, who saved him from the bandits. Then Thenardier revealed all the secrets: Jean Valjean is neither a thief nor a murderer. besides, it was he who carried Marius out of the barricade. The young man paid the innkeeper generously. The scoundrel once did a good deed, rummaging in the pockets of the dead and wounded. And the man he saved was named Georges Pontmercy. Marius and Cosette went to see Jean Valjean. They wanted to ask him for forgiveness. The convict died happy - his beloved children finally took his last breath. A young couple ordered a touching epitaph for the grave of the sufferer.

Victor Hugo

Les Miserables

As long as, by the force of laws and morals, a social curse exists, which, in the midst of the flourishing of civilization, artificially creates hell and aggravates the fate depending on God with fatal human predestination; as long as the three main problems of our age continue to exist - the humiliation of man because of his belonging to the proletarian class, the fall of woman due to hunger, the withering away of the child due to the darkness of ignorance; as long as social suffocation is possible in some sections of society; in other words, and from an even broader point of view - as long as there is need and ignorance on earth, books like this will perhaps turn out to be quite useful.

Hauteville House, 1862

Part one

Book one

RIGHTEOUS

I. Bishop Miriel

In 1815, the Right Reverend Charles-François-Bienvenu Myriel was bishop of Digne. He was an old man of about seventy, who had occupied the episcopal throne in Digne since 1806. It may be useful, although this does not at all relate to the essence of our story, to convey here, for greater accuracy, those rumors and rumors that circulated about him upon his arrival in the diocese. What is said falsely or fairly about people often occupies the same place in their lives, and especially in their fate, as their actions. His Eminence Miriel was the son of a councilor of the court chamber of the city of Aix, and therefore belonged to the judicial aristocracy. They said that his father, who intended him to be his successor in office, married him very early, at the age of eighteen or twenty, which was a fairly common custom in parliamentary families. Despite his marriage, Charles Myriel was said to continue to provide fodder for gossip. He was well built, despite his short stature, graceful, elegant and witty; the first part of his life was devoted to light and success with women.

The revolution has arrived; events alternated; the magistracy, ruined, persecuted and expelled, scattered. Charles Miriel emigrated to Italy at the very beginning of the revolution. His wife died there from a chest illness that she had suffered from for a long time. They had no children. What revolution took place then in the life of Mr. Miriel? Was it the collapse of ancient French society, the fall of his own family, or the tragic events of 1993, which assumed even more threatening proportions in the eyes of the emigrants, looking at them from afar, through exaggerated fears, that instilled in him the idea of renunciation and withdrawal from the world? Or, in the midst of the entertainments and affections that filled his life, he was suddenly struck by one of the secret and all-crushing blows that, directly touching the heart, strikes a person who is able to stand calmly in the midst of social upheavals that destroy his existence and well-being. No one could give an answer to this. All they knew was that he had returned from Italy as a priest.

In 1804, Miriel took over the duties of curate in Brignoles. He was already old and lived in deep solitude.

During the era of the coronation, some insignificant matter upon his arrival, exactly what is unknown, forced him to come to Paris. Among other influential persons, he petitioned Cardinal Fesch (1) regarding the case of his parishioners. One day, when the Emperor came to visit his uncle, the venerable curé, who was waiting in the hall, met His Majesty. Napoleon, noticing the old man's gaze on himself, who was examining him with some curiosity, turned around and sharply asked:

Who is this good guy looking at me?

Your Majesty, - said Miriel, - you look at a good man, and I look at a great man. Each of us can find benefit in this.

The emperor that same evening asked the cardinal the name of this curé, and some time later Miriel was surprised by the news of his appointment as bishop of Digne.

No one could say positively how much truth there was in the stories concerning the first half of Bishop Miriel’s life. Few people knew the Miriel family before the revolution.

Miriel had to experience the fate of every newcomer to a small town, where there are many talking mouths and few thinking heads. He had to experience this even though he was a bishop and because he was a bishop. But in the end, the talk to which his name was mingled was nothing more than talk: noise, chatter, words, even less than words, “clangs,” in the energetic expression of the southern dialect.

Be that as it may, after nine years of his stay as bishop in Dina, all these tales, all these topics of conversation, which at first occupied the small town and small people, were completely forgotten. No one would dare to talk about them, no one would dare to remind them.

Bishop Miriel arrived in Digne, accompanied by an old maid, Mademoiselle Baptistine, and an old woman named Magloire, a former servant of Monsieur curé and now received a double title - the young lady's maid and housekeeper of his eminence.

Mademoiselle Baptistine was a tall, pale, thin and meek person; she personified the ideal expressed by the word “venerable,” since it seems necessary for a woman to be a mother in order to become “honorable.” She was never beautiful; her whole life, which represented a series of good deeds, left the stamp of purity and clarity on her; as she grew old she acquired what might be called the beauty of kindness. What was thin in youth seemed airy in mature years, and something angelic shone through this transparency. More of a spirit than a virgin. She seemed woven from shadow with a hint of flesh in order to recognize her as a woman; a ray of light clothed in the ghost of matter; large downcast eyes, an excuse for the soul to have something to keep on earth. Madame Magloire was a little old lady, white, plump, active, always out of breath, firstly, due to constant movement, and secondly, due to asthma.

Upon his arrival, the Right Reverend Miriel was installed in the episcopal palace with all the honors prescribed by imperial decrees, assigning a place to the bishop directly after the chief of staff. The mayor and the chairman of the council paid him the first visits, and he, for his part, went on his first visit to the general and the prefect.

When the arrangement in the new place was completed, the city began to wait for the bishop to show himself in action.

II. Bishop Miriel turns into the Reverend Bienvenu

The Bishop's Palace at Dina is adjacent to the hospital. The Bishop's Palace was a vast stone building, built at the end of the last century by the Right Reverend Henri Puget, Doctor of Theology of the Faculty of Paris, and Abbot Seymour, former bishop of Digne in 1712. The palace was truly the home of a nobleman. Everything in it was on a grand scale: the bishop's quarters, the reception rooms, the front courtyard with galleries under high arches, in the ancient Florentine taste, and gardens with magnificent trees. In the dining room, a long and majestic gallery opening onto the garden, the Right Reverend Henri Puget gave a ceremonial dinner on June 29, 1714 to their eminences: Charles Brulard de Genlis, Prince Archbishop of Ambrun; Antoine Megrigny, Capuchin, Bishop of Grasse; Philippe of Vendôme, Superior of the Order of Malta in France; to the Abbot of Saint-Honoré in Lerains; François de Berton Grillon, Bishop-Baron of Vienna; Caesar de Sabran de Forcalquier, sovereign bishop of Glandev, and Jean Soanin, presbyter of the Oratory, royal court preacher, sovereign bishop of Senese. Portraits of these seven archpastors decorated the walls of the chambers, and the memorable date of July 29, 1714 was inscribed in gold letters on a white marble board. The hospital was located in a small, low, one-story house with a small garden. Three days after his arrival, the bishop visited the hospital. After the visit, he invited the director to visit him.