Chapter 28 twelve bishops work

At dawn the next day Bienvenu took a walk in his garden.Madame Magloire ran to him in a panic. "My Bishop, my Bishop," she cried, "does your lord know where that silver basket is?" "I know," said the Bishop. "Jesus God is alive!" she said. "I just said where it went." The Bishop had just picked up the basket at the foot of the flower-bed, and had given it to Madame Magloire. "Here is the basket." "How?" she said. "There's nothing in there! Where's the silver?" "Well," replied the bishop, "you mean the silver? I don't know where."

"Good God! It was stolen! It was the man who stole it last night!" In a second Madame Magloire had run with all the quickness of a fretful old woman into the chapel, through the alcove, and back to the Bishop. The Bishop was bending over to mourn a begonia that had been crushed by the basket when it fell from the flower-bed to the ground.The bishop stood up again at Madame Magloire's cry. "My Bishop, that man has gone! The silver has been stolen." As she yelled, her eyes fell on a corner of the garden, where traces of the wall could still be seen.One of the stacks on the wall was also missing.

"You see! That's where he got away. He jumped into Carnet Alley! Oh! What a shame! He stole our silver!" The bishop was silent for a while, then he opened his serious eyes and said softly to Madame Magloire: "First of all, is the silver really ours?" Madame Magloire dared not continue.There was another silence.Then the bishop continued: "Madame Magloire, I have had the silver for a long time. It belongs to the poor. Who is that man? A poor man, of course." "Jesus," Madame Magloire went on, "not for me, nor for the girl, we have nothing to do with each other. But I am for the sake of my bishop. What does my bishop serve now?"

The bishop looked at her in amazement. "Ah! How do you say that! Don't we have tinware?" Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders. "The pewter stinks." "Then, iron is fine too." Madame Magloire made a strange face: "Ironware has a strange smell." "Then," said the bishop, "it will be of wood." After a while, he sat down to breakfast at the table where Jean Valjean had sat the previous night.The Bienvenu ate, with joy calling the attention of his speechless sister and the chattering Madame Magloire, and dipping a loaf of bread in milk without even using a wooden spoon or fork.

"How wonderful!" said Madame Magloire to herself, as she walked up and down, "to entertain such a man, and to make him sleep next to her! Fortunately, he only stole a little! My God! Think! It makes the hair stand on end." Just as the siblings were about to leave the table, someone knocked on the door. "Come in," said the bishop. The door opened, and a group of ruthless strangers appeared by the door.Three men hold another man's collar.Those three were policemen, and the other was Jean Valjean. A captain of the police, who seemed to be leading the crowd, stood at first by the door.He came in, gave a military salute, and walked up to the bishop.

"My bishop..." he said. Jean Valjean, who at first seemed to be dejected, raised his head suddenly at this address, with an air of astonishment. "My bishop," he whispered, "then he is no longer curate..." "Shut up!" said one of the policemen. "This is Monsieur Bishop." But Bishop Bienvenu went on as fast as his seniority allowed. "Ah! you are here!" cried he, looking at Jean Valjean. "I am so glad to see you. Why! I have given you the pair of candlesticks, which are silver like the rest. You can sell it for two hundred francs. Why didn't you take the pair of candlesticks and the tableware with you?"

Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide and looked at the old and venerable bishop.There is absolutely no human language that can express his complexion. "My Bishop," said the captain of the police, "is it true what this man said? We met him. He walked as if he were trying to run away. We stopped him to see. He had these silverware……" "He also told you," said the bishop, with a smile on his side, "that the silver was given to him by an old priest, who spent the night at his house. I know what it is. You again Bring him back here. Right? You are mistaken."

"In that case," said the captain, "shall we let him go?" "Of course," replied the bishop. The police released Jean Valjean, who stepped back. "Are you really letting me go?" he said, as if in a dream, and the words were barely pronounced. "Yes, we let you go, are you deaf?" said a policeman. "My friend," continued the Bishop, "before you go, take your pair of candlesticks." He went to the fireplace, took the two silver candlesticks, and presented them to Jean Valjean.The two women did not say a word, make a gesture, or show the slightest air to hinder the Bishop, they watched him move.

Jean Valjean trembled all over.He took the two candlesticks mechanically, not knowing what to do. "Now," said the bishop, "you can go away in peace. Ah! One more thing, my friend, when you come again, you don't have to go through the garden. You can go in and out by the door in the street at any time. Day and night , it's all on a deadbolt." He turned to the policemen: "Gentlemen, you can go back." Those cops are gone. At this moment Jean Valjean looked like a man about to faint. The bishop came up to him and said to him in a low voice: "Don't forget, never forget, that you promised me that you spent the money to be an honest man."

Jean Valjean could never recall any promise he had made, and he remained silent.The bishop said those words were exhorted word by word, and he solemnly said: "Jean Valjean, my brother, you are no longer on the side of evil, but on the side of good. It is your soul that I have redeemed, I have rescued it from dark thoughts and self-defeating spirits." , give it back to God."