Chapter 44: Chapter 44

IV M. Madeleine in Mourning At the beginning of 1820 the newspapers announced the death of M. Myriel, Bishop of Digne, surnamed “Monseigneur Bienvenu,” who had died in the odor of sanctity at the age of eighty-two. The Bishop of Digne to supply here a detail which the papers omitted—had been blind for many years before his death, and content to be blind, as his sister was beside him. Let us remark by the way, that to be blind and to be loved, is, in fact, one of the most strangely …