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CHAPTER V
MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU
MADE HIS CASSOCKS
LAST TOO LONG
The private life of M. Myriel was filled with the same
thoughts as his public life. The voluntary poverty in which
the Bishop of D—— lived, would have been a solemn and
charming sight for any one who could have viewed it close
at hand.
Like all old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he
slept little. This brief slumber was profound. In the morning
he meditated for an hour, then he said his mass, either at the
cathedral or in his own house. His mass said, he broke his
fast on rye bread dipped in the milk of his own cows. Then
he set to work.
A Bishop is a very busy man: he must every day receive
the secretary of the bishopric, who is generally a canon, and
nearly every day his vicars-general. He has congregations
to reprove, privileges to grant, a whole ecclesiastical library
to examine,— prayer-books, diocesan catechisms, books of
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