70 Les Miserables
tionless. It was there that the shadows held him fast. His
feet were cold and dead, but his head survived with all the
power of life, and seemed full of light. G——, at this solemn
moment, resembled the king in that tale of the Orient who
was flesh above and marble below.
There was a stone there. The Bishop sat down. The exor-
dium was abrupt.
‘I congratulate you,’ said he, in the tone which one uses
for a reprimand. ‘You did not vote for the death of the king,
after all.’
The old member of the Convention did not appear to no-
tice the bitter meaning underlying the words ‘after all.’ He
replied. The smile had quite disappeared from his face.
‘Do not congratulate me too much, sir. I did vote for the
death of the tyrant.’
It was the tone of austerity answering the tone of sever-
it y.
‘What do you mean to say?’ resumed the Bishop.
‘I mean to say that man has a tyrant,—ignorance. I voted
for the death of that tyrant. That tyrant engendered royalty,
which is authority falsely understood, while science is au-
thority rightly understood. Man should be governed only
by science.’
‘And conscience,’ added the Bishop.
‘It is the same thing. Conscience is the quantity of innate
science which we have within us.’
Monseigneur Bienvenu listened in some astonishment to
this language, which was very new to him.
The member of the Convention resumed:—