Join Host Bree Carlile as she reads the one hundred twenty-third chapter of Les Miserables.
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>> Brie Carlisle: Take a look in the book and let's see
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Welcome to bite at a time books where we read you your
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Values today well be
Speaker:continuing.
Speaker:Les Miserables by Victor
Speaker:Hugo chapter
Speaker:five distractions
Speaker:above the door of the refectory
Speaker:this prayer, which was called the White
Speaker:Paternoster and which possessed the property
Speaker:of bearing people straight to paradise, was
Speaker:inscribed in large black letters
Speaker:little white paternoster, which God made,
Speaker:which God said. Which God placed in
Speaker:paradise. In the evening when I went to
Speaker:bed, I found three angels sitting on my bed,
Speaker:one at the foot, two at the head, a
Speaker:good Virgin Mary in the middle, who told me to lie down without
Speaker:hesitation. The good God is my
Speaker:father. The good virgin is my
Speaker:mother. The three apostles are my brothers.
Speaker:The three virgins are my sisters. The
Speaker:shirt in which God was born envelops my body.
Speaker:St. Margaret's cross is written on my breast.
Speaker:Madame the Virgin was walking through the meadows, weeping for
Speaker:God when she met Monsieur Saint John.
Speaker:Monsieur Saint John, whence come you? I come
Speaker:from Absalom. You have not seen the good God.
Speaker:Where is he? He is on the tree of the cross,
Speaker:his feet hanging, his hands nailed, a
Speaker:little cap of white thorns on his head.
Speaker:Whoever shall say this thrice, at eventide, thrice
Speaker:in the morning, shall win paradise at last.
Speaker:In 1827, this characteristic
Speaker:orison had disappeared from the wall under a triple coating of
Speaker:daubing paint. At the present time, it is finally
Speaker:disappearing from the memories of several who were young girls then,
Speaker:and who are old women now. A large
Speaker:crucifix fastened to the wall completed the decoration of this
Speaker:refectory, whose only door, as we
Speaker:think weve mentioned, opened on the garden.
Speaker:Two narrow tables, each flanked by two wooden
Speaker:benches, formed two long parallel lines
Speaker:from one end to the other of the refectory.
Speaker:The walls were white, the tables were black.
Speaker:These two morning colors constitute the only variety in
Speaker:convents. The meals were plain and the food of
Speaker:the children themselves severe. A single dish
Speaker:of meat and vegetables combined, or salt fish, such
Speaker:was their luxury. this maager fare, which was reserved for the
Speaker:pupils alone, was nevertheless an exception.
Speaker:The children ate in silence under the
Speaker:eye of the mother whose turn it was,
Speaker:who, if a fly took a notion to fly or to hum against
Speaker:the rule, opened and shut a wooden book. From time
Speaker:to time. This silence was
Speaker:seasoned with the lives of the saints. Read aloud from
Speaker:a little pulpit with a desk which was situated at the foot of the
Speaker:crucifix. The reader was one of the big
Speaker:girls. In weekly turn, at, regular
Speaker:distances, on the bare tables, there were large
Speaker:varnished bowls, in which the pupils washed their own silver
Speaker:cups and knives and forks, and into
Speaker:which they sometimes threw some scrap of tough meat or spoiled
Speaker:fish. This was punished.
Speaker:These bowls were called ronsdieu.
Speaker:The child who broke the silence made a cross with
Speaker:her tongue, where on the
Speaker:ground she licked the pavement.
Speaker:The dust that end of all joys was
Speaker:charged with a chastisement of those poor little rose leaves which had
Speaker:been guilty of chirping. There was in the
Speaker:convent a book which has never been printed, except as a
Speaker:unique copy in which it is forbidden to
Speaker:read. It is the rule of Saint Benoit
Speaker:an hyrcanum which no profane eye must penetrate.
Speaker:Nemo regulus siu
Speaker:constitutionis nostras
Speaker:externis communicabethe.
Speaker:The peoples one day succeeded in getting possession of this
Speaker:book and set to reading it with avidity,
Speaker:a reading which was often interrupted by the fear of
Speaker:being caught, which caused them to close the volume
Speaker:precipitately. From the great danger
Speaker:thus incurred, they derived but a very moderate amount of
Speaker:pleasure. The most interesting
Speaker:thing they found were some unintelligible pages about the sins
Speaker:of young boys. They played in an alley of
Speaker:the garden bordered with a few shabby fruit trees.
Speaker:In spite of the extreme surveillance and the severity of the punishments
Speaker:administered when the wind had taken the
Speaker:trees, they sometimes succeeded in
Speaker:picking up a green apple or a spoiled apricot or an
Speaker:inhabited pear on the sly.
Speaker:I will now cede the privilege of speech to a letter which lies
Speaker:before me, a letter written five and 20 years
Speaker:ago by an old pupil, now Madame La
Speaker:Duchesse day one of the most elegant women in
Speaker:Paris. I quote literally,
Speaker:one hides ones pears or ones apples as best 1
Speaker:may. When one goes upstairs to put the veil on the bed
Speaker:before supper, one stuffs them under ones
Speaker:pillow, and at night one eats them in bed,
Speaker:and when one cannot do that, one eats them in the
Speaker:closet. That was one of their greatest
Speaker:luxuries. Once
Speaker:it was at the epoch of the visit from the archbishop to the
Speaker:convent, one of the young girls, Mademoiselle
Speaker:Bouchard, who was connected with the Montmorency
Speaker:family, laid a wager that she would ask for a
Speaker:days leave of absence, an enormity, and so
Speaker:austere a community. The wager was
Speaker:accepted, but not one of those who
Speaker:bet believed that she would do it. When the
Speaker:moment came, as the archbishop was passing in front of the
Speaker:pupils, Mademoiselle Bouchard, to the
Speaker:indescribable terror of her companions, stepped out of
Speaker:the ranks and said, monseigneur, a days leave of
Speaker:absence. Mademoiselle Bouchard was
Speaker:tall, blooming, with the prettiest little
Speaker:rosy face in the world. Monsieur
Speaker:d'Aquillain smiled and said, what, my dear
Speaker:child? A days leave of absence? Three
Speaker:days, if you like. I grant you three days.
Speaker:The prioress could do nothing. The archbishop
Speaker:had spoken horror of the convent,
Speaker:but joy of the pupil. The effect may be
Speaker:imagined. The stern cloister was
Speaker:not so well walled off, however, but that the life of the
Speaker:passions, of the outside world, drama and even romance,
Speaker:did not make their way in. To prove this, we
Speaker:will confine ourselves to recording here and to briefly
Speaker:mentioning a real and incontestable
Speaker:fact, which, however, bears no reference
Speaker:in itself, too, and is not connected by any thread
Speaker:whatever with the story which we are relating. We
Speaker:mention the fact for the sake of completing the physiognomy of the convent.
Speaker:In the readers mind about this
Speaker:time, there was in the convent a mysterious person who
Speaker:was not a nun, who was treated with great respect,
Speaker:and who was addressed as Madame Albertine.
Speaker:Nothing was known about her, save that she was
Speaker:mad and that in the world she passed for dead.
Speaker:Beneath this history, it was said, there lay the arrangements of
Speaker:fortune necessary for great marriage.
Speaker:This woman, hardly 30 years of
Speaker:age, of dark complexion, intolerably
Speaker:pretty, had a vague look in her large black eyes.
Speaker:Could she see there was some doubt about
Speaker:this? She glided rather than
Speaker:walked. She never spoke.
Speaker:It was not quite known whether she breathed.
Speaker:Her nostrils were livid and pinched as after yielding up
Speaker:their last sigh, to touch her hand was like
Speaker:touching snow. She possessed a strange,
Speaker:spectral grace. Wherever she entered,
Speaker:people felt cold. One day, a sister,
Speaker:on seeing her pass, said to another, sister, she
Speaker:passes for a dead woman. Perhaps she is one,
Speaker:replied the other. A hundred tales were told
Speaker:of Madame Albertine. This arose from the
Speaker:eternal curiosity of the pupils. In the chapel,
Speaker:there was a gallery called Louis le de Bouve. It
Speaker:was in this gallery, which had only a circular bay
Speaker:in Le Boeuve, that Madame Albertine
Speaker:listened to the offices. She always
Speaker:occupied it alone because this gallery, being
Speaker:on the level of the first story, the preacher or the
Speaker:officiating priest could be seen which was
Speaker:interdicted to the nuns. One
Speaker:day, the pulpit was occupied by a young priest of high
Speaker:rank, Monsieur le duc de Rohan, peer of
Speaker:France, officer of the red Musketeers in
Speaker:1815 when he was prince de
Speaker:Lyonne, and who died afterward in
Speaker:1830 as cardinal and
Speaker:archbishop of Bis en Caen. It was the
Speaker:first time that Monsieur de Rohan had preached at the
Speaker:Petit Picpus convent. Madame
Speaker:Albertine usually preserved perfect calmness and
Speaker:complete immobility during the sermons and services
Speaker:that day. As soon as she caught sight of Monsieur de Rouen, she
Speaker:half rose and said in a loud voice amid the silence of the
Speaker:chapel, ah, Auguste. The whole
Speaker:community turned their heads in amazement. The
Speaker:preacher raised his eyes, but, Madame Albertine
Speaker:had relapsed into her immobility. A breath
Speaker:from the outer world. A flash of life had passed
Speaker:for an instant across that cold and lifeless phase,
Speaker:and it then vanished and the madwoman had become a corpse
Speaker:again. Those two words, however,
Speaker:had set everyone in the convent who had the privilege of
Speaker:speech to chattering. How many things
Speaker:were contained in that awe? Auguste?
Speaker:What revelations? Monsieur de
Speaker:Rohans name really was August.
Speaker:It was evident that Madame Albertine belonged to the very
Speaker:highest society, since she knew Monsieur de
Speaker:Rohan, and that her own rank there was of the highest,
Speaker:since she spoke thus familiarly of so great a lord.
Speaker:Not there existed between them some connection of
Speaker:relationship, perhaps, but a very close
Speaker:one. In any case, since she knew his pet name.
Speaker:Two very severe duchesses, mistems de choisel,
Speaker:and de Sorrente, often visited the
Speaker:community whither they penetrated, no doubt in
Speaker:virtue of the privileged magnates milaris,
Speaker:and caused great consternation in the boarding school.
Speaker:When these two old ladies passed by. All
Speaker:the poor young girls trembled and dropped their eyes.
Speaker:Moreover, Monsieur de Rohan, quite unknown to
Speaker:himself, was an object of attention to the
Speaker:schoolgirls at that epoch. He had just
Speaker:been made while waiting for the episcopate. Like
Speaker:our general of the archbishop of Paris, it
Speaker:was one of his habits to come tolerably often to celebrate the
Speaker:offices in the chapel of the nuns of the petite picpus.
Speaker:Not one of the young recluses could see him
Speaker:because of the serge curtain. But he had a
Speaker:sweet and rather shrill voice
Speaker:which they had come to know and to distinguish.
Speaker:He had been a mouseketer. And then he was
Speaker:said to be very coquettish. That his handsome brown hair
Speaker:was very well dressed in a roll around his head. And that he
Speaker:had a broad girdle of magnificent moor. And, that his
Speaker:black cassock was of the most elegant cut in the world.
Speaker:He held a great place in all these imaginations of 16
Speaker:years. Not a sound from without made
Speaker:its way into the convent. But there
Speaker:was one year when the sound of a flute
Speaker:penetrated thither. This was an
Speaker:event, and the girls who were at school there at the time still recall
Speaker:it. It was a flute which was played in the
Speaker:neighborhood. This flute always
Speaker:played the same air, an air which is very far away
Speaker:nowadays. My, zeti birde,
Speaker:come rain o'er my soul. And it was heard
Speaker:two or three times a day. The young girls passed
Speaker:hours in listening to it. The vocal mothers were upset
Speaker:by it. Brains were busy. punishments
Speaker:descended in showers. This lasted for
Speaker:several months. The girls were all more or
Speaker:less in love with the unknown musician. Each
Speaker:one dreamed that she was Etolbe. The
Speaker:sound of the flute proceeded from the direction of the rude roit
Speaker:mirror. And they would have given anything,
Speaker:compromised everything, attempted anything
Speaker:for the sake of seeing, of catching a glance,
Speaker:if only for a second. Of the young man who played that
Speaker:flute so deliciously
Speaker:and who no doubt played on all these souls at the same
Speaker:time. There were some who made their escape by
Speaker:a back door and ascended to the third story on the ruderoit
Speaker:Merrside in order to attempt to catch a glimpse through the
Speaker:gaps. Impossible.
Speaker:One even went so far as to thrust her arm through the grating
Speaker:and to wave her white handkerchief. Two
Speaker:were still bolder they found means to climb on
Speaker:a roof and risk their lives there, and succeeded at
Speaker:last in seeing the young man. He was an old
Speaker:migraine gentleman, blind and
Speaker:penniless, who was playing his flute in his attic
Speaker:in order to pass the time.
Speaker:Thank you for joining Byte at a time books today while we
Speaker:read a bite of one of your favorite classics.
Speaker:Again, my name is Bree Carlisle, and I
Speaker:hope you come back tomorrow. for the next bite,
Speaker:don't forget.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: To sign up for our
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Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: Of the links for our show.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: we'd love to hear from you on social media as
Speaker:well.
Speaker:>> Brie Carlisle: M
Speaker:time
Speaker:so many adventures and
Speaker:mountains we can climb
Speaker:take your words go word line by
Speaker:line, one bite at a time.