Notes

(1) The bishop’s palace adjoins the hospital.

(2) The bishop’s 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, who had been Bishop there in 1712. This palace was in truth a lordly 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 was a long and superb gallery which was situated on the ground-floor and opened on the gardens,

(3) The hospital was a low and narrow building of a single story, with a small garden.

(4) Three days after his arrival, the Bishop visited the hospital. After his visit ended he invited the director of the hospital to come to his palace.

(5) "Sir” he said to the director of the hospital, "how many sick people have you at the present moment?"

(6) "Twenty-six, Monseigneur."

(7) "That was the number which I counted," said the Bishop.

(8) "The beds," pursued the director, "are very much crowded against each other."

(9) "That is what I observed."

(10) "The halls are nothing but rooms, and it is with difficult to get fresh air in them."

(11) "So it seems to me."

(12) "And then, when there is a ray of sun, the garden is very small for the convalescents."

(13) "That was what I said to myself."

(14) "In case of epidemics, we have had the typhus fever this year; we had the sweating sickness two years ago. We have had a hundred patients at times. We know not what to do."

(16) "That is the thought which occurred to me."

(17) "But what can we do, Monseigneur?" said the director. "We must resign ourselves."

(18) This conversation took place in the palace of the bishop’s dining room on the ground-floor.

(19) The bishop remained silent for a moment; then he turned abruptly to the director of the hospital.

(20) "Sir," he said, "how many beds do you think this room alone would hold?"

(21) "Monseigneur's dining-room?" exclaimed the stupefied director.

(22) The bishop cast a glance round the room, and seemed to be making measurements and calculations with his eyes.

(23) "It would easily hold twenty beds," he said, as though speaking to himself. Then, raising his voice, he said:

(24) "Listen, Sir Director. There is evidently a mistake here. There are thirty-six of you, in five or six small rooms. There are three of us here, and we have room for sixty. There is some mistake, I tell you; you have my house, and I have yours. Give me back my house; you are at home here."

(25) On the following day the thirty-six patients were installed in the bishop's palace, and the bishop was settled in the hospital.