Nevertheless, people continued to say that no one ever got into the room, and that it was a hermit’s cave, a mysterious retreat, a hole, a tomb.

It was also whispered about that he had “immense” sums deposited with Laffitte, with this peculiar feature, that they were always at his immediate disposal, so that, it was added, M. Madeleine could make his appearance at Laffitte’s any morning, sign a receipt, and carry off his two or three millions in ten minutes. In reality, “these two or three millions” were reducible, as we have said, to six hundred and thirty or forty thousand francs.

M. Madeleine in Mourning

At the beginning of 1820 the newspapers announced the death of M. Myriel, Bishop of Digne, surnamed “Monseigneur Bienvenu,” who had died in the odor of sanctity at the age of eighty-two.