Letters From Prison (67 page)

2
. Sade is enumerating the weaknesses, or serious shortcomings, of his wife’s family.

99. To Commander Sade
¹

[October, 1786]

M
onsieur de Sade, having found that all the reasons that have been presented to him regarding the preservation of his goods and possessions make all sorts of sense, and having felt, in complete agreement with his uncle, how essential it is that someone be put in charge of this stewardship, hereby declares that no one is more competent to fulfill this function than the Count de Sade
²
himself, and that the reasons he is being kept in prison are no more compelling than those that render his detention both harmful and hurtful to him, to his wife, and to his children. As a result, he kindly requests that the Commander de Sade set forth in his written report to the minister all the details he included in his requisition explaining both how urgent it is for him to be physically present on his estates and how essential it is that the king’s order be lifted, this after so long a detention and because of reasons so compelling, the minister is too fair-minded to refuse Commander de Sade’s request. This reply is the last one he will make on this subject. There is no point asking any further for a power of attorney,
³
which he will not grant so long as he remains in prison.

1
. The marquis’s paternal uncle, Richard-Jean-Louis de Sade. A year younger than Sade’s father and two years older than the Abbe de Sade, he was a humorless pedant whose holier-than-thou attitude impressed Madame de Montreuil greatly but few others. In 1787 he was appointed Grand Prince of Toulouse. Despite Sade’s refusal, the Sade family attained a writ from the Châtelet of Paris granting the commander and the Sade family the right to control the marquis’s estates and his children’s education.

2
. Sade means himself.

3
. Earlier that month, two notaries, at the behest of his family, visited Sade in prison and tried to convince him to sign a power of attorney relinquishing his rights to handle his affairs. Sade refused. Sade’s letter to his uncle is the result of that demand.

100. To Madame de Sade

November 16, 1786

O
ne cannot refrain from being convinced of Madame de Sade’s innate predilection for throwing her money out the window. One had thought her thrifty, but it now becomes apparent that one was wrong, for extreme thriftiness does not consist of depriving oneself of the basics (that is called avarice): it consists of obtaining produce of whatever kind and paying for it at the lowest possible price. That is the only reasonable means of being thrifty; and ’tis most assuredly not that of a woman who simply sends a footman to purchase a bit of Indian ink diluted in charcoal at Dulac’s, for which she pays the sum of six livres for a purchase that is worth no more than ten sous. True thriftiness consists of going to buy such things oneself, trying them out on the spot, and buying them only when they have proven to be of top quality. To spare her the problem of going herself, Madame de Sade would be so kind as to send her footman to pick up the purchase, return it to Dulac, or ask that he exchange it; in any event, we do not want what you bought. Madame de Sade is thus excused from having to run an errand which nonetheless, this being
female merchandise,
should concern only a lady, and despite her lack of thriftiness and her inferior India ink, her husband embraces her.
¹

A true copy.

1
. In the original letter, the last word is followed by six “bayonets,” which are presumably six kisses.

101. To Madame de Sade

November 25, 1786

T
he Spanish and Portuguese replies are becoming most pressing.
¹
It seems to me the simplest thing would be to find and send for a teacher whose native languages they are, ask him those questions, and have him write out the answers, in return for which you should pay him a crown, which is more than he would receive for a lesson that would take him a lot more time and effort. Please, I beg of you, send on those written answers as soon as possible.

1
. Sade was writing his novel
Aline and
Valcour,
part of which was set in those two countries. To finish it, he needed answers concerning the geography and mores of both places.

102. To the Staff Officers of the Bastille

[1787 (?)]

M
onsieur de Sade hereby declares to the staff officers of the Bastille that the governor of this establishment is compelling the undersigned to drink a wine that is so adulterated that his stomach is upset by it every day. The undersigned is convinced that ’tis not the king’s intention that the governor be allowed to adversely affect the health of those he is in charge of feeding and keeping, and that for the purpose of lining the pockets of either Monsieur de Lau-nay
¹
himself or of his underlings.

In consequence, the undersigned kindly asks that the staff officers, whom he knows to be both equitable and honest, step in and mediate on his behalf so that justice may be served in this matter,

1
. Commandant of the Bastille.

103. To Madame de Sade

August 24, 1787

T
here are some things that give such pleasure one simply cannot find words to express them. One’s soul is too moved, too touched; one needs to withdraw into oneself for a moment in order to savor and appreciate fully what one is feeling, which would be lost without that inner contemplation. ’Tis the tale of him who thanks you from the bottom of his heart for the delightful present you have just given him . . .
¹
a divine and beloved present that gives rise to feelings which, as they grow and multiply over time, will, despite all those who wish him ill, till he breathes his last sow a thousand flowers, forever budding and blooming anew, on the thorny path of his life.

He embraces you and will thank you far more fully when he has the opportunity of holding you in his arms.

P.S. The portrait, the tortoise-shell frame, everything is lovely, everything appreciated, everything affords an incredible pleasure; and you may rest assured that I would sooner forfeit my life than ever forgo a possession that will remain with me till my dying day

1
. Four days before, Madame de Sade had spent a two-and-a-half-hour visit with her husband, during which she had given him a present of her portrait in a tortoise-shell frame.

104. To Monsieur du Puget, Knight of the Kingdom
¹

[Early October, 1787]

A
ll things considered, Sir, a letter to Monsieur de Launay such as you have advised me, after everything that that police official takes the liberty of inflicting upon me, strikes me as ill-considered; it would seem to be either an act of submission toward him or a kind of fence-mending vis-a-vis the soldier Miray. The fact is, I flatter myself that you know me well enough to realize that that is the furthest thing from my mind. Truth to tell, ‘twould be duplicitous on my part to take that step, and duplicity is a vice I loathe: to implore his forgiveness and feign to be repentant would be devious and hypocritical, when my mind and heart are entirely focused on the best and surest means to avenge myself for all the daily insults these three rogues
²
have visited upon me during my detention here, and to broadcast their infamies the length and breadth of France. I shall succeed in that effort, I hope, and that notion consoles me for everything else. Once again, all this is but one more scene staged by my family, a scene for which that lowlife de Losme was contemptible enough to assume the role of stage director. ’Tis the hundredth such scene, with more to follow before we’re through . . . But when we do reach the end, as the proverb has it, he who laughs last laughs best. My fortune and my life, and this I swear to you, will be as nothing to me, except insofar as they enable me to wreak revenge on my torturers and expose them for what they are to the entire country.

Therefore, to have my walks restored, ’tis to Baron de Breteuil, and to you, Sir, that I shall address myself, beseeching you most earnestly to support with all your might my urgent need to get some fresh air, and to see to it that my eyes, which are in dire straits, are taken care of, for if I am deprived of the ability to breathe there is no question but that I shall soon go blind.

I would not presume, Monsieur, to ask you to burden yourself personally with my letter to the minister; I limit myself to asking that you support my request for my walks to be restored.

Together with the enclosed I add another essential request relative to my health, which I most earnestly ask that you support in like manner. During the more than four years that I have been confined here, I have not yet had the opportunity to see a doctor. The condition of my eyes, and the lack of satisfactory care I have had from oculists, absolutely demands that I consult other specialists, and I ask to see a doctor.

Also enclosed is a letter for my wife, which I take the liberty of commending to your care; and in thanking you for the care and attention you have bestowed upon me, and that I deserve only to the degree that my feelings toward you are both warm and heartfelt, in sending you, I say, my most sincere esteem, I dare tell myself that I am infinitely closer to you, kind sir, than your most humble and obedient servant.

DE SADE

This morning you said to me
that I should take but scant notice of people’s roots, of where they came from.
That is true, but only when people’s virtues blind you to their birth; in which wise, they should even be esteemed far more than those of noble birth, whose lives are useless or completely wasted, who, waving the parchment of their patrimony before the eyes of society, only reveal how great is the difference between themselves and their illustrious forebears. But when the son of a gardener from Vitry (Losme), the son of a ferryman from Avignon (Miray), the son of an overseer of galley slaves (Jourdan), having only recently crawled up out of their muck and dissolution, bring to the positions in which their baseness has placed them naught but the shameless vices of their origins, everything combines to thrust them back down once again—without their so much as being aware of it—into the stinking quagmire which is their native habitat; and their noses, which they have barely managed to raise above the ground, make them look, in my opinion, like some dirty and disgusting toad that is making a momentary effort to emerge from its mire, only to sink down again and merge back into the soil.

O Launay, Losme, and Miray, unworthy comrades of the most amiable, most witty, and most decent of men, look at yourself, all three of you, in this picture and tell me whether in all of Paris there is a mirror that portrays you more true to life.

1
. The king’s lieutenant-general at the Bastille, Du Puget, liked Sade, and had in fact attended a prison reading of Sade’s
Jeanne Laisn
é
or The
Siege of Beauvais,
staged in the council hall of the Bastille in the fall of 1787.

2
. Monsieur de Launay, Major de Losme-Salbray, and a soldier named Miray who was an aide to the warden were all detested by Sade. Less than two years later, Sade got his revenge. When the Bastille was stormed on July 14, 1789, all three men were dragged out by the mob to the Place de Grève and killed.

105. To Madame de Sade

1787

I
have an overwhelming desire to scold you: the way in which you ramble on endlessly without making the slightest sense is frightful and, verily, beyond all comprehension. With you, one never knows what to believe, and that is absolutely atrocious. The more I think about it, however, I see ’tis really not astonishing: since we have no longer been together, my pet, you have really come into your own. And yet, I confess, I fail to see what lies behind your behavior, and you are the strangest of women. Do you for a moment fancy that I shall forgive you for all that? You have to know that I am completely embittered because of your behavior. Farewell. This evening I am trying to write, like some animal, like an ass, like some Spanish stallion: thus I bid you good-bye. Do come and see me, I beseech you. Come whenever you like, I shall always be pleased and honored by your visits, and you may be sure that, in spite of all the pain and anguish you cause me, you will be the object of my close embrace, yes, I shall embrace you with all my heart and soul.