The Bishop Lyrics

Valjean
Freedom is mine. The earth is still.
I feel the wind. I breathe again.
And the sky clears, the world is waiting.
Drink from the pool. How clean the taste
Never forget the years, the waste.
Nor forgive them, for what they’ve done.
They are the guilty, everyone.
The day begins…
And now lets see
What this new world
Will do for me!

[He finds work on a farm.]

Employer
You’ll have to go
I’ll pay you off for the day
Collect your bits and pieces there
And be on your way.

Valjean
You’ve given me half
What the other men get!
This handful of tin
Wouldn’t buy my sweat!

Laborer
You broke the law
It’s there for people to see
Why should you get the same
As honest men like me?

Valjean
Now I know how freedom feels
The jail is always at your heels
It is the law
This piece of paper in my hand which bids me cast throughout the land
It is the law
Like a cur
I walk the streets
The dirt beneath their feet

Bishop
Come in sir for you are weary
And the night is cold out there
Though our lives are very humble
What we have we have to share
There is wine here to revive you
There is bread to make you strong
There’s a bed to rest till morning
Rest from pain and rest from wrong

Valjean
Let me eat my fill
I have my lying share
The silver in his hand cost twice what I had earned In all those nineteen years, that lifetime of despair
And yet he trusted me
The old fool trusted me
He’d done his bit of good
I played the grateful serf, and thanked him like I should
But when the house was still
I got up in the night
Took the silver
Took my flight!

[Taking the silver cup, he runs off, but is brought back
By two constables.]

Constable 1
Tell his reverence your story

Constable 2
Let us see if he’s impressed

Constable 1
You were lodging there last night

Constable 2
You were the honest Bishop’s guest.

Constable 1
And then, out of Christian goodness

Constable 2
When he learned about your plight

Constable 1
You maintain he made a present of this silver -

Bishop
That is right.
But my friend you left so early
Surely something slipped your mind

[The bishop gives Valjean two silver candlesticks.]

You forgot I gave these also
Would you leave the best behind?
So Messieurs you may release him
For this man has spoken true
I commend you for your duty
May God’s blessing go with you.
But remember this, my brother
See in this some higher plan
You must use this precious silver
To become an honest man
By the witness of the martyrs
By the Passion and the Blood
God has raised you out of darkness
I have bought your soul for God!

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