Bishop
Bienvenu forgives Jean Valjean.
[BACKGROUND NOTE]:
Don’t use this reading unless you truly agree with the
values it implies, and unless you are willing to put up with some difficult
questioning. It is a story that calls into question what some of us would call
our most cherished values. It is not appropriate for young Scouts, but it
will be helpful to more mature Scouts who are starting to think seriously about
the meaning of life.
Christian scripture accompanying this story might be Romans 5:12-21.
This story sets the stage for Victor Hugo’s great
French novel, Les Misèralbes. Many preachers have told this story in
their own words, but Victor Hugo’s account is so well told that we recommend
that you read it to the Scouts. The question for Scouts is, what points on the
Scout law is the Bishop demonstrating? The Bishop is helpful and friendly. He is
obedient to his understanding of God’s will. He is brave, because he doesn’t
know what Jean Valjean might do. But maybe the strongest demonstration of the
Scout law is his courtesy and kindness.
It is easy to be courteous to “good” people, but do we have what it
takes to be courteous to everyone? It is also easy to be kind to “good”
people, but do we have what it takes to be kind to everyone?
Here is another point that is harder to understand. “A Scout is thrifty.” According to the Bishop’s understanding of what is important in this world, he was being “thrifty.” It’s not the kind of “thrift” we usually think about, but if you agree with the Bishop’s sense of values, then you can see that the Bishop was being “thrifty.”
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[HOW THE STORY BEGINS. YOU DON’T HAVE TO READ THIS PART ALOUD, YOU CAN “TELL” IT]: After giving us some background on the Bishop, Hugo introduces Jean Valjean, a man who was orphaned and taken in by his elder sister, Jeanne, who had seven children. They were a poor family without enough to eat. The children would sometimes get a pint of milk from a neighbor lady, claiming that their mother needed it. Then the children would go to an alley and greedily share it. Hugo tells us that “Jean Valjean gruffly and grumblingly paid Marie-Claude for the pint of milk behind their mother's back, and the children were not punished.” Thus Hugo gives us an insight into Jean Valjean’s character.
Jean Valjean was a laborer, and tried to provide for his sister and her children, but his wages didn’t go very far. “A very hard winter came. Jean had no work. The family had no bread. No bread literally. Seven children!” Jean broke a baker’s store window and stole a loaf of bread, but he was caught and sentenced to five years rowing a ship as a galley slave. He made numerous escape attempts, sometimes actually getting out, but was always caught and given an additional sentence, so that he served 19 years before he was freed in 1814.
During his time in prison, Jean was earning a prisoner’s wages for his work, and he had calculated that he should get 171 francs, but the prison bureaucrats paid him only 109 francs and 15 sous, because he earned no pay for Sundays and holidays, and there were deductions to be made. A 36% loss! Jean felt cheated. As soon as he left prison, he found a job as a day laborer for 30 sous per day, but the person hiring him paid only 15 sous, and threatened him with prison when he objected. The man was bitter.
The Bishop gave Jean a place to stay for the night, and Jean, who had not been used to much sleep during his years in prison, woke up at 2:00 am, after four hours of sleep. His thoughts turned to the Bishop’s silverware which was worth some money. He had seen it put away after supper, and he knew that it was stored in a cupboard over the Bishop’s bed. He had an iron candlestick in his knapsack which could be used as a weapon of death, and he entered the Bishop’s bedroom with that candlestick. The Bishop was sound asleep, and when he saw the bishop in the moonlight he could not kill him. Victor Hugo tells it this way at the end of Chapter XI:
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[FROM THAT POINT, HERE IS THE WAY VICTOR HUGO WROTE IT. READ THIS ALOUD TO THE SCOUTS]:
“The Bishop continued to sleep in profound peace beneath that terrifying gaze.
“The gleam of the moon rendered confusedly visible the crucifix over the chimney-piece, which seemed to be extending its arms to both of them, with a benediction for one and pardon for the other.
“Suddenly Jean Valjean replaced his cap on his brow; then stepped rapidly past the bed, without glancing at the Bishop, straight to the cupboard, which he saw near the head; he raised his iron candlestick as though to force the lock; the key was there; he opened it; the first thing which presented itself to him was the basket of silverware; he seized it, traversed the chamber with long strides, without taking any precautions and without troubling himself about the noise, gained the door, re-entered the oratory, opened the window, seized his cudgel, bestrode the window-sill of the ground-floor, put the silver into his knapsack, threw away the basket, crossed the garden, leaped over the wall like a tiger, and fled.
. . . . . . . . . . . .
“The next morning at sunrise Monseigneur Bienvenu was strolling in his garden. Madame Magloire ran up to him in utter consternation.
“‘Monseigneur, Monseigneur!’ she exclaimed, ‘does your Grace know where the basket of silver is?’
“‘Yes,’ replied the Bishop.
“‘Jesus the Lord be blessed!’ she resumed; ‘I did not know what had become of it.’
“The Bishop had just picked up the basket in a flower-bed. He presented it to Madame Magloire.
“‘Here it is.’
“‘Well!’ said she. ‘Nothing in it! And the silver?’
“‘Ah,’ returned the Bishop, ‘so it is the silver which troubles you? I don't know where it is.’
“‘Great, good God! It is stolen! That man who was here last night has stolen it.’
“In a twinkling, with all the vivacity of an alert old woman, Madame Magloire had rushed to the oratory, entered the alcove, and returned to the Bishop. The Bishop had just bent down, and was sighing as he examined a plant of cochlearia des Guillons, which the basket had broken as it fell across the bed. He rose up at Madame Magloire's cry.
“‘Monseigneur, the man is gone! The silver has been stolen!’
“As she uttered this exclamation, her eyes fell upon a corner of the garden, where traces of the wall having been scaled were visible. The coping of the wall had been torn away.
“‘Stay! yonder is the way he went. He jumped over into Cochefilet Lane. Ah, the abomination! He has stolen our silver!’
“The Bishop remained silent for a moment; then he raised his grave eyes, and said gently to Madame Magloire:--
“‘And, in the first place, was that silver ours?’
“Madame Magloire was speechless. Another silence ensued; then the Bishop went on:--
“‘Madame Magloire, I have for a long time detained that silver wrongfully. It belonged to the poor. Who was that man? A poor man, evidently.’
“‘Alas! Jesus!’ returned Madame Magloire. ‘It is not for my sake, nor for Mademoiselle's. It makes no difference to us. But it is for the sake of Monseigneur. What is Monseigneur to eat with now?’
The Bishop gazed at her with an air of amazement.
“‘Ah, come! Are there no such things as pewter forks and spoons?’
“Madame Magloire shrugged her shoulders.
“‘Pewter has an odor.’
“‘Iron forks and spoons, then.’
“Madame Magloire made an expressive grimace.
“‘Iron has a taste.’
“‘Very well,’ said the Bishop; ‘wooden ones then.’
“A few moments later he was breakfasting at the very table at which Jean Valjean had sat on the previous evening. As he ate his breakfast, Monseigneur Welcome remarked gayly to his sister, who said nothing, and to Madame Magloire, who was grumbling under her breath, that one really does not need either fork or spoon, even of wood, in order to dip a bit of bread in a cup of milk.
“‘A pretty idea, truly,’ said Madame Magloire to herself, as she went and came, ‘to take in a man like that! and to lodge him close to one's self! And how fortunate that he did nothing but steal! Ah, mon Dieu! it makes one shudder to think of it!’
“As the brother and sister were about to rise from the table, there came a knock at the door.
“‘Come in,’ said the Bishop.
“The door opened. A singular and violent group made its appearance on the threshold. Three men were holding a fourth man by the collar. The three men were gendarmes; the other was Jean Valjean.
“A brigadier of gendarmes, who seemed to be in command of the group, was standing near the door. He entered and advanced to the Bishop, making a military salute.
“‘Monseigneur—‘ said he.
“At this word, Jean Valjean, who was dejected and seemed overwhelmed, raised his head with an air of stupefaction.
“‘Monseigneur!’ he murmured. ‘So he is not the cure?’
“‘Silence!’ said the gendarme. ‘He is Monseigneur the Bishop.’
“In the meantime, Monseigneur Bienvenu had advanced as quickly as his great age permitted.
“‘Ah! here you are!’ he exclaimed, looking at Jean Valjean. ‘I am glad to see you. Well, but how is this? I gave you the candlesticks too, which are of silver like the rest, and for which you can certainly get two hundred francs. Why did you not carry them away with your forks and spoons?’
“Jean Valjean opened his eyes wide, and stared at the venerable Bishop with an expression which no human tongue can render any account of.
“‘Monseigneur,’ said the brigadier of gendarmes, ‘so what this man said is true, then? We came across him. He was walking like a man who is running away. We stopped him to look into the matter. He had this silver—‘
“‘And he told you,’ interposed the Bishop with a smile, ‘that it had been given to him by a kind old fellow of a priest with whom he had passed the night? I see how the matter stands. And you have brought him back here? It is a mistake.’
“‘In that case,’ replied the brigadier, ‘we can let him go?’
“‘Certainly,’ replied the Bishop.
The gendarmes released Jean Valjean, who recoiled.
“‘Is it true that I am to be released?’ he said, in an almost inarticulate voice, and as though he were talking in his sleep.
“‘Yes, thou art released; dost thou not understand?’ said one of the gendarmes.
“‘My friend,’ resumed the Bishop, ‘before you go, here are your candlesticks. Take them.’
“He stepped to the chimney-piece, took the two silver candlesticks, and brought them to Jean Valjean. The two women looked on without uttering a word, without a gesture, without a look which could disconcert the Bishop.
“Jean Valjean was trembling in every limb. He took the two candlesticks mechanically, and with a bewildered air.
“‘Now,’ said the Bishop, ‘go in peace. By the way, when you return, my friend, it is not necessary to pass through the garden. You can always enter and depart through the street door. It is never fastened with anything but a latch, either by day or by night.’
“Then, turning to the gendarmes:--
“‘You may retire, gentlemen.’
“The gendarmes retired.
“Jean Valjean was like a man on the point of fainting.
“The Bishop drew near to him, and said in a low voice:--
“‘Do not forget, never forget, that you have promised to use this money in becoming an honest man.’
“Jean Valjean, who had no recollection of ever having promised anything, remained speechless. The Bishop had emphasized the words when he uttered them. He resumed with solemnity:--
“‘Jean Valjean, my brother, you no longer belong to evil, but to good. It is your soul that I buy from you; I withdraw it from black thoughts and the spirit of perdition, and I give it to God.’
From this point forward in this massive novel, Hugo leads us through the life of Jean Valjean as he struggles to lead a life worthy of the gift he received from the Bishop. It is an epic tale of evil versus Jean’s attempts to live a life under the grace of God.
[SOURCE: Hugo, Victor. (translator not identified) Les Misèralbes, (volume I, book II, chapters VI-XII). Boston: Dana Estes & Co., Publishers, 1912, pp. 115-149.]