Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/115



We have left the Prince of Saxony as prisoner in the fortress of Altenburg, far from his friend Mersburg, who had escaped, as he said, to deliver his master from the imprisonment in which he languished.

The great deeds of arms of the Marquis of Thuringia had succeeded in pushing back the troops of the Emperor who were besieging his capital. As soon as Altenburg was recaptured, the Count of Mersburg and the Marquis of Thuringia rushed to the aid of their sovereign and placed a new garrison in the city which the enemy had abandoned. There was nothing more touching than the interview of these three lords. If, however, Thuringia, not satisfied with the way Frederick had conducted himself with Adelaide, was a little cool towards his master, and Mersburg a little false; there was no doubt about the genuineness of the feeling of Frederick when he embraced his two liberators. He was unstinted in his praise of Thuringia for his heroism and his leadership. The marquis, however, was using all his efforts to get the prince to take over again the reins of government. Mersburg, too, agreed with Thuringia; but the two of them were unable to convince him of his duty in this respect. He spoke of the regrets he had at the way he had treated Adelaide and that he was even more eager to find her in order to get her forgiveness which was so necessary for his tranquility of mind. Nothing could turn him aside in his wish to carry through this search for his wife. In consequence he asked the count to follow him, and the latter having accepted, less through real liking than through a wish to further his plans for the future, the two men left on their mission.