Justine, Philosophy in the Bedroom, and Other Writings

by Marquis de Sade

  Mid-December—Sade has written to Father Durand to engage four servants for La Coste. On December 13 or 14, there arrive a secretary named Rolland, a wigmaker, a chambermaid named Cavanis and a kitchenmaid “of foreign origin.” The following morning three of the four—all but the kitchenmaid—return to Montpellier where they inform M. Trillet what has transpired at the manor.13 Trillet, worried about his daughter, demands that Father Durand write to Sade requesting that he return Catherine to her father.

  Late December—Gaufridy receives an anonymous letter notifying him that an officer and ten horsemen have been ordered to go to the Ste.-Clair fair at Apt and arrest the Marquis. Thus forewarned, Sade avoids the fair.

  1777. Aet. 37

  January 14—Marie-Eléonore de Maillé de Carman, Dowager Countess de Sade, dies at the Carmelite convent in the rue Enfer in Paris, aged sixty-five.

  January 17—Toward one o’clock M. Trillet comes to La Coste to claim his daughter, who is known in the château as Justine. During an argument with the Marquis, Trillet fires a pistol shot at him almost point blank, but misses. He runs off to the La Coste township where he babbles about what has happened. At about five o’clock Catherine sends someone to find her father, who returns to the château. There she tries to calm him, but Trillet, who has brought four other men back with him, flies into another rage and fires a second shot into a courtyard where he thinks Sade to be. All five men then flee.

  January 18—The junior magistrate at La Coste, learning of the attempted murder the previous day, begins to hear witnesses.

  January 20—Trillet leaves La Coste, after professing to Messrs. Paulet and Vidal that he feels “the sincerest emotions of friendship and attachment for the Marquis.”

  Late January—In Aix, Trillet enters a charge, backed by a statement outlining what had transpired a month before at La Coste with the newly hired servants. Upon their return to Montpellier, according to Trillet, the three domestics had told him that the Marquis had, during the night, “tried to have his way with them by offering them a purse of silver.” His decision to take back his daughter, Trillet adds, was reinforced by the fact that the superior of Father Durand’s monastery, having learned of the affair, expelled Durand from the monastery. In his denial, Sade claims that he never asked Father Durand to hire these servants for him, having no need of them, and that it was for this reason he had them returned the following day to Montpellier. Sade adds that he found all “these people frightfully prepossessing” and notes that one would have to be an “arch fool” to have aggravated “their ill humor brought about by their pointless trip” by trying to “outrage them during the night.” Moreover, he notes, how could he have tried to bribe them with money, since he had none?

  January 30—The Attorney General of Aix makes known, through the intermediary of the Aix lawyer Mouret, his opinion as to the Trillet affair, which is that the father should be given immediate satisfaction. After so many other imperfectly quashed affairs, the consequences of the present one might become most serious.

  February 1—Sade, en route for Paris,14 reaches Tain, near Valence. Sade is traveling with La Jeunesse, while the Marquise is with Catherine Trillet, who has begged Madame to take her along and not send her back to Montpellier.

  February 8—The Sades reach Paris and learn of the Dowager Countess’ death in mid-January. Sade puts up at his former tutor’s, Abbé Amblet, who gives him a warm reception.

  February 10 or 12—Madame de Sade decides that the time has come for her to inform her mother that her husband is in Paris.

  February 13—The Marquis de Sade is arrested by Inspector Marais at the Hôtel de Danemark on the rue Jacob and taken to Vincennes fortress where, at 9:30 that night, he is formally entered as a prisoner.

  Late February—Sade writes his wife his first letter as a prisoner (she still does not know in which prison he has been incarcerated): “I feel it completely impossible to long endure a condition so cruel. I am overwhelmed with despair. . . . My blood is too hot to bear such terrible restriction. . . . If I am not released in four days, I shall crack my skull against these walls.” All Lady Sade’s applications to see her husband are denied.

  April 18—Sade to his wife: “I am in a tower closed in by nineteen iron doors, with light reaching me only through two little windows, each with a score of iron bars.” He complains that in over the two months he has been in prison he has been allowed only five walks of one hour each, “in a sort of tomb about forty feet square surrounded by walls more than fifty feet high.”

  June 24—Madame de Sade is now aware that her husband is being held at Vincennes.

  September 1—Sade, in a letter to his wife, expresses the horror of his situation and says that, before experiencing it, he would never have believed it. Such cages should be reserved for savage beasts, he notes, not for human beings.

  September 23 and 24—Both Lady de Montreuil and Lady de Sade write to the Minister of the Royal Household in favor of the quashing of the sentence of 1772 and requesting that this be formally submitted to the King in his Council of Dispatches of the 26th inst.

  1778. Aet. 38

  Early February—Nanon is set free, on condition that she not come within three leagues of Lyons or Vienne.

  April 30—Jean-Baptiste-Joseph-David, Comte de Sade d’Eyguières, obtains from the King the post of Lt.-General of the provinces of Bresse, Bugey, Valromey and Gex formerly held by the Marquis de Sade, which has been in suspense for the past five years.

  May 23—Faced with the choice of having recourse to the plea of insanity or of personally appearing before the High Court of Provence (in connection with the Marseilles affair of 1772), Sade opts for the second choice.

  May 27—The King grants the Marquis de Sade papers of ester à droit to appeal the sentence of the High Court of Provence, despite the expiration of the legal period of five years.

  June 14—Escorted by Inspector Marais, Sade leaves Vincennes to journey to Aix, arriving there on the evening of Saturday, June 20.

  June 30—A crowd of 200 gathers at the door of the Jacobin monastery where the High Court holds its sessions, in anticipation of seeing the Marquis de Sade, but the prisoner both arrives and departs in a sedan chair with curtains drawn, thus thwarting their curiosity. Plaintiff’s Counsel Joseph-Jérôme Siméon and the Royal Attorney, General d’Eymar de Montmeyan, both speak eloquently in Sade’s behalf, and the Court, after deliberation, declares the Marseilles trial null and void for absolute lack of evidence of any poisoning. The Court also orders a new investigation of the allegations of libertinage and pederasty alone, and the hearing of witnesses.

  July 7–10—Cross-examination of Sade. The following day the Court issues a decision ordering a special trial. On July 10 there is a re-examination of the witnesses and confrontation with the accused.

  July 14—The Marquis is cross-examined publicly in the High Court chambers, returning shortly thereafter for the judgment, which finds Sade guilty of acts of debauch and excessive libertinage. The Court orders that “Louis-Aldonse-Donatien de Sade be admonished behind the bench in the presence of the Attorney General in future to be of more seemly conduct,” and prohibits him “to live in or frequent the city of Marseilles for three years.” Further, he is condemned to pay fifty livres applicable to the prison fund and the cost of justice.

  July 15—Sade leaves Aix, escorted by Marais, Marais’ younger brother Antoine and two junior guards, on his way back to Vincennes where, in spite of his legal victory, he is still a prisoner of the King’s by virtue of the lettre de cachet of February 13, 1777.

  July 16—At Valence, where the party has stopped at an inn overnight, the Marquis makes his escape. In spite of a thorough search of the immediate vicinity, no trace is found of Sade, who described what happened in his “Story of My Imprisonment”: “I had taken refuge about half a mile out of town in a shanty near a farmer’s threshing floor. Then two local countrymen guided me. We first went toward Montelimar, but after a league we changed our m
inds and returned to the Rhône, intending to cross it, but we could not find a boat. Finally, just as day was breaking, one of us crossed the river to Vivarais where he found a boat that was suitable and this, for a louis, took me down to Avignon.” At Avignon, Sade goes to a friend’s house, has supper, and orders a carriage to take him that same night to La Coste.

  July 18—Sade reaches La Coste, where he spends a quiet month, with Mlle. Dorothée de Rousset acting as housekeeper.

  July 27—Madame de Sade has only recently learned from her mother of the verdict of the High Court of Aix (but she has not yet learned of Sade’s escape). Upon being informed that her husband, although cleared at Aix, must nevertheless return to his cell at Vincennes, she “completely loses control of herself” in the course of a terrible scene with her mother.

  August 19—Warned of the presence of suspicious characters in the region, the Marquis takes to hiding out at various places in the neighborhood of La Coste.

  August 23—Sade, in spite of strong pleas by his friend Canon Vidal, returns to take up residence at La Coste.

  August 26—At 4:00 A.M. the door to Sade’s chamber is forced by a group of armed men, whose leader covers the culprit, before witnesses, with the foulest insults.

  September 7—After thirteen days’ travel by post chaise then further travel by stage coach, Sade arrives at 8:30 P.M. at Vincennes, where he is locked in cell No. 6.

  November 6—Mlle. de Rousset arrives in Paris to stay with the Marquise.

  December 7—After three months’ solitary confinement, Sade is allowed to have pen and paper and to write as he please, and is given permission to take exercise twice a week.

  1779. Aet. 39

  January—Sade sends season’s greetings in verse to Mlle. de Rousset, whom he now addresses as “Saint” Rousset, because of her boundless goodness toward him.

  March 29—Sade’s exercise periods are increased to three a week.

  July 15—He now enjoys five exercise periods a week.

  November 9—Mlle. de Rousset, to whom Sade has been writing letters full of unjust reproaches and complaints, breaks off her correspondence with him, although she remains devoted to him and continues her unflagging efforts on his behalf.

  1780. Aet. 40

  April 21—Sade is visited by M. Le Noir15 who informs him that he will soon be permitted to receive a visit from his wife.

  April 25—Sade’s exercise periods become daily.

  June 26—An altercation with a jailer, whom Sade maintains was extremely insolent to him, results in the suspension of his daily exercise periods.

  June 28—The Captain of the Guard, M. de Valage, who comes to inform the prisoner officially of the suppression of his walks, is threatened and berated by Sade. According to the report of the warden, M. de Rougemont,16 Sade then begins to shout at the top of his voice trying to arouse the other prisoners. Spying a fellow prisoner whom he detested, Mirabeau, down below in the prison yard taking exercise, Sade shouts at him out of his cell window, calling him the Commandant’s (i.e. de Rougemont’s) catamite, blaming him for his, Sade’s, being deprived of his walks, suggesting he might go kiss the warden’s ass. Sade dares him to answer, adding for good measure that he intends, once free, to lop off Mirabeau’s ears. To which Mirabeau replies: “My name is that of a man of honor who has never either dissected or poisoned any women, a man who will be only too pleased to write his name on your shoulders with a razor, if only you’re not broken on the wheel before I have a chance to do so, a man you inspire with one fear only, and that is that you might put him in mourning à la Grève.” (The square where executions are then taking place.)

  July 24—The motives for holding Sade prisoner are debated at Versailles, and the First Minister orders that all information relating to the Marquis’ case be gathered and given him for examination.

  December 13—Mirabeau, leaving Vincennes prison, endorses his official discharge on the back of the record of Sade’s arrival there on February 13, 1777.

  1781. Aet. 41

  March 9—After thirty-six weeks, the prisoner’s exercise periods are restored.

  May 10—Lady Anne de Launay, Sade’s sister-in-law, falls ill with smallpox, the first signs of the disease appearing this Thursday evening.

  May 13—Lady Anne dies at 1:00 P.M.

  June—Mlle. de Rousset is back at La Coste, where she once again corresponds with the Marquis.

  July 13—Sade receives his first visit from his wife, after a separation of four years and five months. They are allowed to meet only in the presence of a witness.

  Early October—M. Le Noir suspends the visits of the Marquise because of the violent attacks of husbandly jealousy to which Sade was subject. To counter Sade’s suspicions—most probably completely without foundation—Lady de Sade moves from her apartment on the rue de la Marche and withdraws into the convent of Sainte-Aure.

  1782. Aet. 42

  July 12—Sade completes the manuscript of his Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man.

  August 6—Sade is deprived of all books because they “overheated his head” and led him to write “unseemly things.”

  September 25—Resumed after January, the Marquise’s rare visits are again suspended because of the prisoner’s poor conduct.

  1783. Aet. 43

  February—Sade, suffering from eye trouble, is treated by the oculist Grandjean.

  April 1—Madame de Sade informs her husband of the marriage of her younger sister, Françoise-Pélagie, born October 12, 1760, to the Marquis de Wavrin, the wedding having taken place toward the end of January.

  . . . .—Louis-Marie de Sade, the Marquis’ eldest son, is named sub-lieutenant in the Rohan-Soubise Regiment. Sade, wanting him to wear the same cavalry uniform he had worn, is furious and writes his wife, categorically objecting to the appointment.

  1784. Aet. 44

  January 25—Mlle. de Rousset, who has long been suffering from tuberculosis, dies at La Coste, aged forty years and nineteen days.

  February 29—Excerpt from the Répertoire ou Journalier du château de la Bastille: “M. Surbois, inspector of police, has taken the Marquis de Sade from Vincennes at nine o’clock in the evening. The Royal Order, counter signed by Breteuil, is dated January 31: he is lodged in second Liberty.”17

  March 3—M. Le Noir writes to the Governor of the Bastille recommending that Sade, like two other noblemen recently transferred from Vincennes to the Bastille, be allowed to take periodic walks at the latter prison.

  March 8—Sade, in a letter to his wife, complains of conditions at the Bastille, maintaining they are far worse than at Vincennes.

  March 16—Madame de Sade pays her first visit to the Bastille, bringing him six pounds of candles. She is allowed to visit him twice monthly.

  July 16—Le Noir authorizes Grandjean, the oculist, to attend to the Marquis.

  1785. Aet. 45

  October 22—The Marquis begins the final revision of his draft of a major work, The 120 Days of Sodom or The School for Libertines.

  November 12—In twenty evenings of work, between seven and ten, he covers one side of a twelve-meter-long roll of paper which he has prepared for this purpose.

  November 28—After thirty-seven days of work Sade completes the second side of the famous manuscript of The 120 Days in the form in which it has come down to us.

  . . . .—Cardinal de Rohan is imprisoned in the Bastille. The presence of the Church dignitary stops all private visits to all prisoners.

  1786. Aet. 46

  July 13—Madame de Sade’s visits, at the rate of one a month, are reinstated.

  1787. Aet. 47

  May 23—The prisoner, who hitherto has been allowed a one-hour walk only every second day, is now provisionally given an hour’s walk daily.

  May 25—Madame de Sade writes to Gaufridy that M. Sade is in fair health but getting “very fat.”

  June 21—A simple decree of the Châtelet in Paris provides for the administration of the properties of the Ma
rquis de Sade, he “being absent for the past ten years.”

  July 8—Sade completes Les Infortunes de la Vertu, a philosophical story 138 pages long which he wrote in two weeks, in spite of the fact that, as he pencils in the margin of the last page, “All the time I was writing this my eyes bothered me.”

  October 7—Owing to the arrival of a prisoner just as he was supposed to begin his walk, Sade’s exercise hour is suspended, and he has what the official report describes as a “violent outburst.”18

  October 10—Sade berates the Governor and his aide who come to announce to him the suspension of his exercise periods.

  October 23—Sade’s exercise right is restored.

  1788. Aet. 48

  March 1—Sade begins work upon his short novel Eugénie de Franval, which he completes in six days.

  June 5—Sade’s exercise period again having been suspended “for impertinence” and he having so been informed in writing, the prisoner nonetheless attempts to descend at his regular hour to the yard and, according to de Losme, “it was only when the officer [stationed at his door] pointed his gun at him that he retreated, swearing loudly.”

  October 1—Sade draws up the Catalogue raisonné of his writings. By now, apart from his clandestine works, he has the contents of fifteen octavo volumes.

  October—At Madame de Sade’s request, the Lt.-General of police authorizes the prisoner to read magazines and newspapers.

  1789. Aet. 49

  January-June—Authorized on November 24 of the preceding year to visit her husband weekly rather than bi-weekly, Madame de Sade pays her husband twenty-three visits during the first half of 1789.

  July 2—The Bastille logbook notes that “The Count de Sade19 shouted several times from the window of the Bastille that the prisoners were being slaughtered and that the people should come to liberate them.”

  July 4—At 1:00 A.M., as a result of a report made to Lord de Villedeuil on the Marquis’ conduct on July 2, he is transferred to Charenton Asylum by Inspector Quidor.20