Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/129

 dungeons situated in the lowest part of the palace. These dungeons are well known in that the poor prisoners suffer intensely from the heat during the summer and then from the cold in winter. It is very rare that a person survived more than a year in these cells which had no furniture. On the other hand, the prisoners were well fed.

"You should give thanks to God," said the jailer locking them in, "yes, you should thank Him that instead of being hanged, as you have merited, you can end your days peacefully here."

"But," asked Adelaide, "can I at least see my adviser or friends?"

"Write out your request," said the jailer, "and I will take it to the Senate. It will be acted on there."

Taking advantage of the kindness of the man, Adelaide asked that she be allowed to see Bianchi and he appeared a week later.

He begged the princess to forgive him for having taken her into such a house and told her that the only way to get out of her present situation was to tell her real name.

The princess agreed to this and Bianchi hastened to the Senate where he told them the importance of their prisoner. Immediately one of the members of this august assembly, followed by Bianchi, went to the cell where the two women were and received from the princess the declaration of her titles and also her statement that she had been guilty in the unfortunate affair only of an imprudent curiosity.

"… which was natural in a woman like me," she continued, "since I was born to reign. I was glad to know about all the plots which the wickedness and insubordination of man prepare in these troubled times."

The Princess of Saxony was taken back to her hotel where she was allowed to stay as long as her affairs should require and she took up again her incognito.

The shock of this whole affair had been terrible in Venice. More than four hundred people had perished in different types of torture. And since there was so much disorder and tumult in the city and in the surrounding country Adelaide considered it prudent to stay in her hotel. After things calmed down a