Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real substance of what we are about to rela
te, it will not be superfluous, if merely for the sake of exactness in all points, to mention here t
he various rumors and remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very moment when he a
rrived in the diocese.
True or false, that which is said of men often occupies as important a placein their lives, and abov
e all in their destinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of acouncillor of the Parliam
ent of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility of the bar. It was said thathis father, destining him
to be the heir of his own post, had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, in accordan
ce with a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary families. In spite of this marria
ge, 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, dec
imated, pursued, hunted down, were dispersed. M. Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy at the very begin
ning of the Revolution. There his wife died of a malady of the chest, from which she had long suffer
ed. He had no children. What took place next in the fate of M. Myriel? The ruin of the French societ
y of the olden days, the fall of his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps,e
ven more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance, with the magnifying powers of te
rror,--did these cause the ideas of renunciation and solitude to germinate in him? Was he, in the mi
dst of these distractions, these affections which absorbed his life, suddenly smitten with one of th
ose mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm, by striking to his heart, a man whom pu
blic catastrophes would not shake, by striking at his existence and his fortune? No one could haveto
ld: all that was known was, that when he returned from Italy he was a priest.
In 1804, M. Myriel was the Cure of B-- [Brignolles]. He was already advanced in years, and lived ina
very retired manner.
About the epoch of the coronation, some petty affair connected with his curacy--just what, is not pr
ecisely known--took him to Paris. Among other powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for hi
s parishioners was M. le Cardinal Fesch.One day, when the Emperor had come to visit his uncle, the w
orthy Cure, 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 abrupt
ly:--
"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 profitb
y it."
That very evening, the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the Cure, and some time afterwards M.M
yriel 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 ha
d
to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town, where there are many mouths which talk, an
d very few heads which think.He was obliged to undergo it although he was a bishop, and because he w
as a bishop. But after all, the rumors with which his name was connected were rumors only,--noise, s
ayings, words; less than words-- palabres, as the energetic language of the South expresses it.Howev
er that may be, after nine years of episcopal power and of residence in D----, all the storiesand su
bjects of conversation which engross petty towns and petty people at the outset had fallen into prof
ound oblivion. No one would have dared to mention them; no one would have dared to recall them.M. My
riel had arrived at D---- accompanied by an elderly spinster, Mademoiselle Baptistine, who washis si
ster, and ten years his junior.Their only domestic was a female servant of the same age as Mademoise
lle Baptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been the servant of M. le Cure, now ass
umed 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 bythe 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, hadfinally conferred upon h
er a sort of pallor and transparency; and as she advanced in years she hadacquired what may be calle
d the beauty of goodness. What had been leanness in her youth had become transparency in her maturit
y; 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 sufficientbody to provide for sex; a little matter enclos
ing a light; large eyes forever drooping;-- a mere pretext for a soul's remaining on the earth.Madam
e 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. Myr
iel was installed in the episcopal palace with the honors required by the Imperial decrees, which cl
ass a bishop immediately after a major-general. The mayor and the president paid the first call on h
im, and he, in turn, paid the first call on the general and the prefect.The installation over, the t
own waited to see its bishop at work.