Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/39

 an hour later. She will explain to you the reasons for this precaution. They must be important because she has insisted very much on the necessity of having you on time."

Louis promised to be exact in everything; but suddenly the next day an event quite different from what he expected caused a sudden stir in the chateau. Just as he was about to leave for the rendezvous, the information came that Adelaide had been arrested and taken to the chateau of Torgau, a town situated on the banks of the Elbe at ten leagues from Leipsig. No reason for this severe act was given; no circumstances were cited to explain it. Frederick simply told the lords of the court that some political reasons forced him to resort to such an action which was extremely painful to him since his love for the princess was so intense. He said that only his duty to Saxony could cause him to take such extreme measures.

It is easy to imagine the condition of the marquis on learning of this frightful news.

"You are the cause of this misfortune," he said to Mersburg. "Either you have been mistaken in this whole thing, or you have deceived me. What proof do I have of all that you have told me? By a guilty imprudence you have thrown the princess into the trap, and I even suspect that you did it on purpose."

"Marquis," said the count calmly, "I know that misfortune makes you unjust, but don't carry your emotions, I beg of you, to the point of forgetting the circumstances. I know most of the secrets of the prince, and he is not jealous of you. Some other man has come into this in some manner which has not yet been explained. This man was at the rendezvous which had been arranged for you. He is the one, perhaps, that you caught a glimpse of at the other meeting. The guilty man's name is Kaunitz, and his sudden disappearance leads one to suspect that the prince has already had his vengeance on him. It seems entirely possible that he has been assassinated."

"But did Adelaide love this man?" cried the marquis with the greatest uneasiness.

"That is how jealousy reasons! Kaunitz must have found out about the rendezvous and went there to spy on the two of you, and the lightning which was supposed to strike the one loved by the princess fell on the spy."