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LES MISÃRABLES
VOLUME I.âFANTINE.
PREFACE
So long as there shall exist, by virtue of law and custom, decrees of
damnation pronounced by society, artificially creating hells amid the
civilization of earth, and adding the element of human fate to divine
destiny; so long as the three great problems of the centuryâthe
degradation of man through pauperism, the corruption of woman through
hunger, the crippling of children through lack of lightâare unsolved;
so
long as social asphyxia is possible in any part of the world;âin other
words, and with a still wider significance, so long as ignorance and
poverty exist on earth, books of the nature of Les MisÃrables cannot
fail
to be of use.
HAUTEVILLE HOUSE, 1862.
FANTINE
BOOK FIRSTâA JUST MAN
CHAPTER IâM. MYRIEL
In 1815, M. Charles-Francois-Bienvenu Myriel was Bishop of Dââ He was
an
old man of about seventy-five years of age; he had occupied the see of
Dââ
since 1806.
Although this detail has no connection whatever with the real
substance of
what we are about to relate, it will not be superfluous, if merely for
the
sake of exactness in all points, to mention here the various rumors
and
remarks which had been in circulation about him from the very moment
when
he arrived in the diocese. True or false, that which is said of men
often
occupies as important a place in their lives, and above all in their
destinies, as that which they do. M. Myriel was the son of a
councillor of
the Parliament of Aix; hence he belonged to the nobility of the bar.
It
was said that his father, destining him to be the heir of his own
post,
had married him at a very early age, eighteen or twenty, in accordance
with a custom which is rather widely prevalent in parliamentary
families.
In spite of this marriage, however, it was said that Charles Myriel
created a great deal of talk. He was well formed, though rather short
in
stature, elegant, graceful, intelligent; the whole of the first
portion of
his life had been devoted to the world and to gallantry.
The Revolution came; events succeeded each other with precipitation;
the
parliamentary families, decimated, pursued, hunted down, were
dispersed.
Charles Myriel emigrated to Italy at the very beginning of the
Revolution. There his wife died of a malady of the chest, from which she
had long suffered. He had no children. What took place next in the fate of
Myriel? The ruin of the French society of the olden days, the fall of
his own family, the tragic spectacles of '93, which were, perhaps, even
more alarming to the emigrants who viewed them from a distance, with the
magnifying powers of terror,âdid these cause the ideas of renunciation and
solitude to germinate in him? Was he, in the midst of these distractions,
these affections which absorbed his life, suddenly smitten with one of
those mysterious and terrible blows which sometimes overwhelm, by striking
to his heart, a man whom public catastrophes would not shake, by striking
at his existence and his fortune? No one could have told: all that was
known was, that when he returned from Italy he was a priest.
In 1804, M. Myriel was the Curà of Bââ [Brignolles]. He was already
advanced in years, and lived in a very retired manner.
About the epoch of the coronation, some petty affair connected with
his
curacyâjust what, is not precisely knownâtook him to Paris. Among
other
powerful persons to whom he went to solicit aid for his parishioners
was
le Cardinal Fesch. One day, when the Emperor had come to visit his
uncle, the worthy CurÃ, who was waiting in the anteroom, found himself
present when His Majesty passed. Napoleon, on finding himself observed
with a certain curiosity by this old man, turned round and said abruptly:â
"Who is this good man who is staring at me?"
"Sire," said M. Myriel, "you are looking at a good man, and I at a
great
man. Each of us can profit by it."
That very evening, the Emperor asked the Cardinal the name of the
CurÃ,
and some time afterwards M. Myriel was utterly astonished to learn
that he
had been appointed Bishop of Dââ
What truth was there, after all, in the stories which were invented as
to
the early portion of M. Myriel's life? No one knew. Very few families
had
been acquainted with the Myriel family before the Revolution.
Myriel had to undergo the fate of every newcomer in a little town,
where there are many mouths which talk, and very few heads which think. He
was obliged to undergo it although he was a bishop, and because he was a
bishop. But after all, the rumors with which his name was connected were
rumors only,ânoise, sayings, words; less than wordsâpalabres, as the
energetic language of the South expresses it.
However that may be, after nine years of episcopal power and of
residence
in Dââ, all the stories and subjects of conversation which engross
petty
towns and petty people at the outset had fallen into profound
oblivion. No
one would have dared to mention them; no one would have dared to
recall
them.
Myriel had arrived at Dââ accompanied by an elderly spinster,
Mademoiselle Baptistine, who was his sister, and ten years his junior.
Their only domestic was a female servant of the same age as
Mademoiselle
Baptistine, and named Madame Magloire, who, after having been the
servant
of M. le CurÃ, now assumed the double title of maid to Mademoiselle
and
housekeeper to Monseigneur.
Mademoiselle Baptistine was a long, pale, thin, gentle creature; she
realized the ideal expressed by the word "respectable"; for it seems
that
a woman must needs be a mother in order to be venerable. She had never
been pretty; her whole life, which had been nothing but a succession
of
holy deeds, had finally conferred upon her a sort of pallor and
transparency; and as she advanced in years she had acquired what may
be
called the beauty of goodness. What had been leanness in her youth had
become transparency in her maturity; and this diaphaneity allowed the
angel to be seen. She was a soul rather than a virgin. Her person
seemed
made of a shadow; there was hardly sufficient body to provide for sex;
a
little matter enclosing a light; large eyes forever drooping;âa mere
pretext for a soul's remaining on the earth.
Madame Magloire was a little, fat, white old woman, corpulent and
bustling; always out of breath,âin 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.
CHAPTER IIâM. MYRIEL BECOMES M. WELCOME
The episcopal palace of Dââ adjoins the hospital.
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, Abbà of Simore, who had been Bishop of Dââ in 1712.
This
palace was a genuine seignorial residence. Everything about it had a
grand
air,âthe 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, Abbà 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."
"So it seems to me."
"And then, when there is a ray of sun, the garden is very small for
the
convalescents."
"That was what I said to myself."
"In case of epidemics,âwe have had the typhus fever this year; we had
the
sweating sickness two years ago, and a hundred patients at times,âwe
know
not what to do."
"That is the thought which occurred to me."
"What would you have, Monseigneur?" said the director. "One must
resign
one's self."
This conversation took place in the gallery dining-room on the ground-
floor.
The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to
the
director of the hospital.
"Monsieur," said he, "how many beds do you think this hall alone would
hold?"
"Monseigneur's dining-room?" exclaimed the stupefied director.
The Bishop cast a glance round the apartment, and seemed to be taking
measures and calculations with his eyes.
"It would hold full twenty beds," said he, as though speaking to
himself.
Then, raising his voice:â
"Hold, Monsieur the director of the hospital, I will tell you
something.
There is evidently a mistake here. There are thirty-six of you, in
five or
six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we have room for
sixty.
There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my house, and I have
yours.
Give me back my house; you are at home here."
On the following day the thirty-six patients were installed in the
Bishop's palace, and the Bishop was settled in the hospital.
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:â
NOTE ON THE REGULATION OF MY HOUSEHOLD EXPENSES.
For the little seminary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 livres
Society of the mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100 "
For the Lazarists of Montdidier . . . . . . . . . . 100 "
Seminary for foreign missions in Paris . . . . . . 200 "
Congregation of the Holy Spirit . . . . . . . . . . 150 "
Religious establishments of the Holy Land . . . . . 100 "
Charitable maternity societies . . . . . . . . . . 300 "
Extra, for that of Arles . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 "
Work for the amelioration of prisons . . . . . . . 400 "
Work for the relief and delivery of prisoners . . . 500 "
To liberate fathers of families incarcerated for debt 1,000 "
Addition to the salary of the poor teachers of the
diocese . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2,000 "
Public granary of the Hautes-Alpes . . . . . . . . 100 "
Congregation of the ladies of Dââ, of Manosque, and of
Sisteron, for the gratuitous instruction of poor
girls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,500 "
For the poor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6,000 "
My personal expenses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1,000 "
âââ
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15,000 "
Myriel made no change in this arrangement during the entire period
that he occupied the see of Dââ As has been seen, he called it regulating
his household expenses.
This arrangement was accepted with absolute submission by Mademoiselle
Baptistine. This holy woman regarded Monseigneur of Dââ as at one and
the
same time her brother and her bishop, her friend according to the
flesh
and her superior according to the Church. She simply loved and
venerated
him. When he spoke, she bowed; when he acted, she yielded her
adherence.
Their only servant, Madame Magloire, grumbled a little. It will be
observed that Monsieur the Bishop had reserved for himself only one
thousand livres, which, added to the pension of Mademoiselle
Baptistine,
made fifteen hundred francs a year. On these fifteen hundred francs
these
two old women and the old man subsisted.
And when a village curate came to Dââ, the Bishop still found means to
entertain him, thanks to the severe economy of Madame Magloire, and to
the
intelligent administration of Mademoiselle Baptistine.
One day, after he had been in Dââ about three months, the Bishop
said:â
"And still I am quite cramped with it all!"
"I should think so!" exclaimed Madame Magloire. "Monseigneur has not
even
claimed the allowance which the department owes him for the expense of
his
carriage in town, and for his journeys about the diocese. It was
customary
for bishops in former days."
"Hold!" cried the Bishop, "you are quite right, Madame Magloire."
And he made his demand.
Some time afterwards the General Council took this demand under
consideration, and voted him an annual sum of three thousand francs,
under
this heading: Allowance to M. the Bishop for expenses of carriage,
expenses of posting, and expenses of pastoral visits.
This provoked a great outcry among the local burgesses; and a senator
of
the Empire, a former member of the Council of the Five Hundred which
favored the 18 Brumaire, and who was provided with a magnificent
senatorial office in the vicinity of the town of Dââ, wrote to M.
Bigot de
Preameneu, the minister of public worship, a very angry and
confidential
note on the subject, from which we extract these authentic lines:â
"Expenses of carriage? What can be done with it in a town of less than
four thousand inhabitants? Expenses of journeys? What is the use of
these
trips, in the first place? Next, how can the posting be accomplished
in
these mountainous parts? There are no roads. No one travels otherwise
than
on horseback. Even the bridge between Durance and Chateau-Arnoux can
barely support ox-teams. These priests are all thus, greedy and
avaricious. This man played the good priest when he first came. Now he
does like the rest; he must have a carriage and a posting-chaise, he
must
have luxuries, like the bishops of the olden days. Oh, all this
priesthood! Things will not go well, M. le Comte, until the Emperor
has
freed us from these black-capped rascals. Down with the Pope! [Matters
were getting embroiled with Rome.] For my part, I am for Caesar
alone."
Etc., etc.
On the other hand, this affair afforded great delight to Madame
Magloire.
"Good," said she to Mademoiselle Baptistine; "Monseigneur began with
other
people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after all. He has
regulated all his charities. Now here are three thousand francs for
us! At
last!"
That same evening the Bishop wrote out and handed to his sister a
memorandum conceived in the following terms:â
EXPENSES OF CARRIAGE AND CIRCUIT.
For furnishing meat soup to the patients in the hospital. 1,500
livres
For the maternity charitable society of Aix . . . . . . . 250 "
For the maternity charitable society of Draguignan . . . 250 "
For foundlings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 "
For orphans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 500 "
ââ-
Total . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3,000 "
Such was M. Myriel's budget.
As for the chance episcopal perquisites, the fees for marriage bans,
dispensations, private baptisms, sermons, benedictions, of churches or
chapels, marriages, etc., the Bishop levied them on the wealthy with
all
the more asperity, since he bestowed them on the needy.
After a time, offerings of money flowed in. Those who had and those
who
lacked knocked at M. Myriel's door,âthe latter in search of the alms
which
the former came to deposit. In less than a year the Bishop had become
the
treasurer of all benevolence and the cashier of all those in distress.
Considerable sums of money passed through his hands, but nothing could
induce him to make any change whatever in his mode of life, or add
anything superfluous to his bare necessities.
Far from it. As there is always more wretchedness below than there is
brotherhood above, all was given away, so to speak, before it was
received. It was like water on dry soil; no matter how much money he
received, he never had any. Then he stripped himself.
The usage being that bishops shall announce their baptismal names at
the
head of their charges and their pastoral letters, the poor people of
the
country-side had selected, with a sort of affectionate instinct, among
the
names and prenomens of their bishop, that which had a meaning for
them;
and they never called him anything except Monseigneur Bienvenu
[Welcome].
We will follow their example, and will also call him thus when we have
occasion to name him. Moreover, this appellation pleased him.
"I like that name," said he. "Bienvenu makes up for the Monseigneur."
We do not claim that the portrait herewith presented is probable; we
confine ourselves to stating that it resembles the original.
CHAPTER IIIâA HARD BISHOPRIC FOR A GOOD BISHOP
The Bishop did not omit his pastoral visits because he had converted
his
carriage into alms. The diocese of Dââ is a fatiguing one. There are
very
few plains and a great many mountains; hardly any roads, as we have
just
seen; thirty-two curacies, forty-one vicarships, and two hundred and
eighty-five auxiliary chapels. To visit all these is quite a task.
The Bishop managed to do it. He went on foot when it was in the
neighborhood, in a tilted spring-cart when it was on the plain, and on
a
donkey in the mountains. The two old women accompanied him. When the
trip
was too hard for them, he went alone.
One day he arrived at Senez, which is an ancient episcopal city. He
was
mounted on an ass. His purse, which was very dry at that moment, did
not
permit him any other equipage. The mayor of the town came to receive
him
at the gate of the town, and watched him dismount from his ass, with
scandalized eyes. Some of the citizens were laughing around him.
"Monsieur
the Mayor," said the Bishop, "and Messieurs Citizens, I perceive that
I
shock you. You think it very arrogant in a poor priest to ride an
animal
which was used by Jesus Christ. I have done so from necessity, I
assure
you, and not from vanity."
In the course of these trips he was kind and indulgent, and talked
rather
than preached. He never went far in search of his arguments and his
examples. He quoted to the inhabitants of one district the example of
a
neighboring district. In the cantons where they were harsh to the
poor, he
said: "Look at the people of Briancon! They have conferred on the
poor, on
widows and orphans, the right to have their meadows mown three days in
advance of every one else. They rebuild their houses for them
gratuitously
when they are ruined. Therefore it is a country which is blessed by
God.
For a whole century, there has not been a single murderer among them."
In villages which were greedy for profit and harvest, he said: "Look
at
the people of Embrun! If, at the harvest season, the father of a
family
has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service
in
the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the cure recommends him
to
the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all
the
inhabitants of the villageâmen, women, and childrenâgo to the poor
man's
field and do his harvesting for him, and carry his straw and his grain
to
his granary." To families divided by questions of money and
inheritance he
said: "Look at the mountaineers of Devolny, a country so wild that the
nightingale is not heard there once in fifty years. Well, when the
father
of a family dies, the boys go off to seek their fortunes, leaving the
property to the girls, so that they may find husbands." To the cantons
which had a taste for lawsuits, and where the farmers ruined
themselves in
stamped paper, he said: "Look at those good peasants in the valley of
Queyras! There are three thousand souls of them. Mon Dieu! it is like
a
little republic. Neither judge nor bailiff is known there. The mayor
does
everything. He allots the imposts, taxes each person conscientiously,
judges quarrels for nothing, divides inheritances without charge,
pronounces sentences gratuitously; and he is obeyed, because he is a
just
man among simple men." To villages where he found no schoolmaster, he
quoted once more the people of Queyras: "Do you know how they manage?"
he
said. "Since a little country of a dozen or fifteen hearths cannot
always
support a teacher, they have school-masters who are paid by the whole
valley, who make the round of the villages, spending a week in this
one,
ten days in that, and instruct them. These teachers go to the fairs. I
have seen them there. They are to be recognized by the quill pens
which
they wear in the cord of their hat. Those who teach reading only have
one
pen; those who teach reading and reckoning have two pens; those who
teach
reading, reckoning, and Latin have three pens. But what a disgrace to
be
ignorant! Do like the people of Queyras!"
Thus he discoursed gravely and paternally; in default of examples, he
invented parables, going directly to the point, with few phrases and
many
images, which characteristic formed the real eloquence of Jesus
Christ.
And being convinced himself, he was persuasive.
--
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