The Marquise de Gange by Marquis The Marquis de Sade & Will McMorran

Author:Marquis The Marquis de Sade & Will McMorran [de Sade, The Marquis & McMorran, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780192587701
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 2021-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter VIII

The watchful Abbé realized that, just as the mother knew her daughter was at the castle, it would become very difficult to prevent the daughter hearing of her mother’s arrival. Could he really count on Rose to keep such a secret? Are criminal accomplices not always dangerous? There were signs that Rose had a kind heart and affection for her mistress. Nothing could be more alarming than these hints of virtue to someone plotting a crime; and the imperious manner in which Nature thus reasserts its laws should be enough to stop all those who seek to break them.

The Abbé therefore concluded that it was far simpler, as well as easier, to provoke a rift between two women unable to see each other than it was to count on the discretion of a girl able to see them both. Consequently, after a few days, he paid a visit to Euphrasie.

‘Madame your mother, and your son, are at the castle,’ he said as he entered.

‘My mother! . . . My son! . . . O good God! What a ray of hope you have brought me!’

‘Do not be in too much haste to bask in its light,’ said the treacherous Abbé. ‘This ray is not as pure as you seem to presume. Madame de Châteaublanc is here, but she is appalled by you, and absolutely refuses to see you. Your husband had her read the wretched documents which comprise and prove your crimes, and her fury could not be greater.’

‘But what slanders are you alluding to now?’

‘What? You still deny it?’

‘Let us be clear, Monsieur: the document from the cave was only written to keep me alive, so I would have the means to defend myself; the letter to Villefranche is a forgery; I never wrote it.’

‘Pardon, Madame, but such obstinacy damns you far more than it vindicates you: some gentleness, some moderation, some contrition would be infinitely more to your advantage; they would demonstrate a noble soul; the contrary approach reveals a soul accustomed to vice, one which believes that it can efface its crimes by denying them, and shield itself from punishment or opprobrium by blaming others for the horrors it has committed. Such extraordinary deceit always comes at a great cost to the accused, and never works in their favour. This is not how remorse expresses itself, and the guilty can only move us by showing remorse.’

‘So then, according to you, to merit the esteem of others one has to incriminate oneself for crimes one has never committed?’

‘No, but when a crime has been committed, one has to confess to it, not exacerbate it by persisting in its denial. But let us abandon arguments whose logic is hollow, often false, and always pointless. Your mother has read the note to Villefranche, which you deny with such audacity.’

‘I did not write this note; I shall not allow myself to be accused without defending myself, and my silence would be as great a crime as the one that has been laid at my door.

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