Les Misérables (novel)/Source/Volume 1/Book 1/Chapter 2: Difference between revisions

 

The episcopal palace of D—— adjoins the hospital.

M. Myriel had no property, his family having been ruined by the Revolution. His sister was in receipt of a yearly income of five hundred francs, which sufficed for her personal wants at the vicarage. M. Myriel received from the State, in his quality of bishop, a salary of fifteen thousand francs. On the very day when he took up his abode in the hospital, M. Myriel settled on the disposition of this sum once for all, in the following manner. We transcribe here a note made by his own hand:—

 

 

For the little seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 livres

My personal expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000 ”

———

M. Myriel made no change in this arrangement during the entire period that he occupied the see of D—— As has been seen, he called it regulating his household expenses.

That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a memorandum conceived in the following terms:—

 

 

For furnishing meat soup to the patients in the hospital. 1,500 livres

For orphans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 ”

——-

Such was M. Myriel’s budget.

 

We do not claim that the portrait herewith presented is probable; we confine ourselves to stating that it resembles the original.

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