Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/146

 had no cover except their clothes. They had no chair or anything on which they could sit. There was no ornament of any kind, not even a crucifix. There was no latch on their door since the supervisors were supposed to go through the whole building, even the bedrooms, during the hours of sleep.

From the bedrooms, the two women were taken to the chapel which they had not been able to see very well when they arrived the evening before. This sanctuary was just large enough to hold the nuns who were there. It had brown wainscoted walls and at the foot of a simple altar there was a tomb of black marble on which one could see a sceptre interlaced with serpents.

"Whose tomb is that?" asked Adelaide with a sort of trembling which she could not prevent.

"A Princess of Saxony who reigned a hundred years ago," answered Father Urbain. "Her crimes finally produced some remorse, and her penitence was the fruit of it. She came here to die after having drawn up the design of her tomb. You see this sceptre, Milady, the serpents which surround it prove that misfortune follows man no matter how high his position may be. You have, without doubt, heard of that princess?"

"Yes, my Father," said Adelaide much upset, "but the misfortunes which she underwent were not of the sceptre but of her conduct."

"That is true," said Urbain, "but that conduct was bad only in that it was not fitting for one who carried the sceptre. There are then special misfortunes attached to a high rank."

"And her conversion?"

"It was perfect. We believe that she is in the bosom of God who always pardons when the repentance is sincere."

"What if misfortunes force us to commit sins, Father, are these sins as serious in the eyes of the Eternal?"

"Man is always guilty of not having used all the force which he received from God to undergo the misfortunes which come to him. Let him learn to undergo these hardships and he will no longer sin. Let him reflect that to escape one misfortune he sins and falls into another even worse. If he thinks in this manner, he will be preserved from sin. Everything comes from human weakness, and this weakness comes from the