Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/170

 be served, that is, I wanted to hurt her reputation so much that her husband would finally repudiate her and even Thuringia would not take her to be his wife.

"It was I who sent the margrave after her and kidnapped her. When she escaped, I had the brigand of Brenner Pass capture her. There were invisible threads which I controlled which brought her into the conspiracy of Contarino. My idea there was to keep her in prison in Venice until I could take over the throne of Saxony, and then I could ask the Venetians to turn her over to me. When she escaped from this last trap she only increased the number of accusations of infidelity which I could bring against her in Saxony. During this time I was continuing to poison Frederick's mind about her and I had Krimpser and other people by their lies convince him even more of her infidelity. I even made use of a necromancer on two occasions to help the situation.

"In the last few days, I have arranged the rendezvous of Adelaide and Thuringia and had Frederick find them there together. I was sure of everything, the combat, the death of Frederick, and the will.

"Since Adelaide was too noble and had too much grandeur to fall into my scheme, I had only daggers left to accomplish the other part of the main plan, that is to become ruler of Saxony. That, too, has failed, and so here I stand. Heaven is just; Thuringia is on the throne, and the scaffold awaits me. Have my blood flow; you owe it to posterity. Let my punishment be a lesson to the centuries to come and hasten to efface forever the traces of my infamy."

The condemnation of this criminal was soon pronounced since he had accused himself. The spectacle of his death was given to the whole city of Dresden. His death made more secure the throne of Thuringia who used the long years of his life to make the Saxons happy.

In the meantime, Adelaide had been making the preparations for her departure. She had not wanted to hurry about leaving because she had a vague feeling that she might be needed. But when she heard about the death of Mersburg and learned that the throne of Saxony was no longer in danger, she saw no longer any reason to delay her departure. She