Worn out with fatigue, and no longer entertaining any hope, he lay down on a stone bench which stands at the doorway of this printing office. At that moment an old woman came out of the church. She saw the man stretched out in the shadow. “What are you doing there, my friend?” said she. He answered harshly and angrily: “As you see, my good woman, I am sleeping.” The good woman, who was well worthy the name, in fact, was the Marquise de R—— “On this bench?” she went on. “I have had a mattress of wood for nineteen years,” said the man; “to-day I have a mattress of stone.” “You have been a soldier?” “Yes, my good woman, a soldier.” “Why do you not go to the inn?” “Because I have no money.” “Alas!” said Madame de R——, “I have only four sous in my purse.” “Give it to me all the same.” The man took the four sous. Madame de R—— continued: “You cannot obtain lodgings in an inn for so small a sum. But have you tried? It is impossible for you to pass the night thus. You are cold and hungry, no doubt. Some one might have given you a lodging out of charity.” “I have knocked at all doors.” “Well?” “I have been driven away everywhere.” The “good woman” touched the man’s arm, and pointed out to him on the other side of the street a small, low house, which stood beside the Bishop’s palace. “You have knocked at all doors?” “Yes.” “Have you knocked at that one?” “No.” “Knock there.” CHAPTER II—PRUDENCE COUNSELLED TO WISDOM. That evening, the Bishop of D——, after his promenade through the town, remained shut up rather late in his room. He was busy over a great work on _Duties_, which was never completed, unfortunately. He was carefully compiling everything that the Fathers and the doctors have said on this important subject. His book was divided into two parts: firstly, the duties of all; secondly, the duties of each individual, according to the class to which he belongs. The duties of all are the great duties. There are four of these. Saint Matthew points them out: duties towards God (_Matt._ vi.); duties towards one’s self (_Matt._ v. 29, 30); duties towards one’s neighbor (_Matt._ vii. 12); duties towards animals (_Matt._ vi. 20, 25). As for the other duties the Bishop found them pointed out and prescribed elsewhere: to sovereigns and subjects, in the Epistle to the Romans; to magistrates, to wives, to mothers, to young men, by Saint Peter; to husbands, fathers, children and servants, in the Epistle to the Ephesians; to the faithful, in the Epistle to the Hebrews; to virgins, in the Epistle to the Corinthians. Out of these precepts he was laboriously constructing a harmonious whole, which he desired to present to souls.