Page 85 - les-miserables

the former, because, holding a command in Provence at the
epoch of the disembarkation at Cannes, the general had put
himself at the head of twelve hundred men and had pursued
the Emperor as though the latter had been a person whom
one is desirous of allowing to escape. His correspondence
with the other brother, the ex-prefect, a fine, worthy man
who lived in retirement at Paris, Rue Cassette, remained
more affectionate.
Thus Monseigneur Bienvenu also had his hour of par-
ty spirit, his hour of bitterness, his cloud. The shadow of
the passions of the moment traversed this grand and gen-
tle spirit occupied with eternal things. Certainly, such a
man would have done well not to entertain any political
opinions. Let there be no mistake as to our meaning: we
are not confounding what is called ‘political opinions’ with
the grand aspiration for progress, with the sublime faith,
patriotic, democratic, humane, which in our day should
be the very foundation of every generous intellect. With-
out going deeply into questions which are only indirectly
connected with the subject of this book, we will simply say
this: It would have been well if Monseigneur Bienvenu had
not been a Royalist, and if his glance had never been, for a
single instant, turned away from that serene contemplation
in which is distinctly discernible, above the fictions and
the hatreds of this world, above the stormy vicissitudes of
human things, the beaming of those three pure radiances,
truth, justice, and charity.
While admitting that it was not for a political office that
God created Monseigneur Welcome, we should have un-

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