The Bishop did not omit his pastoral visits because he had converted his carriage into alms.

The diocese of D---- 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.