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.
BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN
CHAPTER II
M. MYRIEL
BECOMES M. WELCOME
The
episcopal palace
of D----
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, Abbe 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, Abbe 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."
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