CHAPTER V--MONSEIGNEUR BIENVENU MADE HIS CASSOCKS LAST TOO LONG.
The private life of M.Myriel was filled with the same thoughts as his public life.

The voluntary poverty in which the Bishop of D---- lived, would have been a solemn and charming sight for any one who could have viewed it close at hand.
Like all old men, and like the majority of thinkers, he slept little.
This brief slumber was profound.

In the morning he meditated for an hour, then he said his mass, either at the cathedral or in his own house.

His mass said, he broke his fast on rye bread dipped in the milk of his own cows.

Then he set to work.
A Bishop is a very busy man: he must every day receive the secretary of the bishopric, who is generally a canon, and nearly every day his vicars-general.