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 II--M. MYRIEL BECOMES M. WELCOME

The episcopal palace of D---- 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, Abbe of Simore, who had been Bishop of D---- in
1712. This palace was a genuine seignorial residence. Everything about
it had a grand air,--the 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, Abbe 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