Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/24

 visitor to the courts of Germany, and he was a past master at intrigue, which was dangerous, but which gave him a kind of intellectual pleasure.

Mersburg soon became the favorite in the court of Frederick. In a short time he was the friend of Louis of Thuringia and the confidant of the princess. It did not take him long to discover that the marriage of Adelaide, formed through politics and self-interest, had not been based on love, and since no person has control over this sentiment, the feelings of our heroine were much more inclined toward Louis of Thuringia than in the direction they were supposed to go legitimately. This observation was sufficient for Mersburg. He decided to fix himself firmly in court so as to be able to calm the uneasy jealousies of Frederick which he had already noticed, and at the same time to promote the love between Adelaide and Louis of Thuringia. Even if there were nothing in this for him except the pleasure of hurting or helping, it was enough to flatter a mind as depraved as his.

"My dear marquis," he said to Thuringia after several months at Fredericksburg, "it is useless to disguise from me the feelings you have for Adelaide. Even if your discretion causes you never to mention this fact, your eyes reveal the true state of your feelings. I have observed such things enough to recognize all the symptoms."

"Suppose your suspicions were true," responded the marquis, "would you blame me very much?"

"Certainly not, my dear Louis. I know no better excuse for the wrongs of which you accuse yourself than the divine charms of the woman you love. The only obstacles to your love are the shackles which bind her to your cousin."

"And that is what causes me to despair. Could I ever overcome difficulties of that type? You know my character well enough to know that I would never do anything which could give me happiness at the expense of the honor of my lord and master. I have been honored by his confidence and by the high position he has given me in his court, and I am devoted to him for life. I could never pay him with ingratitude for all he has done for me. But why did he send me to fulfill for him the formalities of marriage which custom requires among