Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/126

 deliver it. My uncle, the doge, who is governing today, consents to taking the reins of government all by himself if the state can be rid of the oppressing members of the council who are the tyrants of the country. All of the members of the council will perish tomorrow, and it is on their ashes that my family will rise. Contarino, who begins the dynasty of the sovereign doges, will leave me the scepter after his death and I will offer it to you and you will reign with me."

"I do not wish to reign and I do not want to cause the flow of blood. I do not engage myself here to either of these things; but I will keep your secret, it will never be betrayed by me. I swear it to you again. I am sorry for the feeble and unpardonable curiosity which will repair this fault. That is all I promise."

"And what about this friendship so precious to me and so capable of rewarding me for all I lose?"

"I am giving it to you, but my dear Anthony, let me say that you are not really worthy of it."

"Why is that?"

"No matter how good or how bad a government may be, it is at the same time the work and the image of Heaven. No subject can overthrow it without being guilty of a crime. If he tries to do this, he outrages in the government which he attacks the authority which he should respect and the celestial power which surrounds it. And he who attacks, can he do so without destroying himself? And the men whom he sacrifices in changing the government, are they not as precious as his ambition and his caprices? Analyze the reason which causes any man to trouble the government under which he lives and you will see that he is acting only because of selfish interests. It is not the good of the people he has in mind, but his own advancement. Now I ask you to what point is a man guilty who causes the misfortune of others only in order to make himself happier. Who can say that the state of things which he wishes to substitute will be better than the one which he is destroying. How much greater will his wrongs be if he is mistaken."

"The republican state is evil," said the nephew of the doge.