Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/42

 "And how you would have repented such an action. For you still adore the princess; the ardor of your sentiments cannot be concealed, and I dare to say that she is still worthy of this love."

"That is what torments me; that is what makes me despair. I cannot help suspecting her, and I want to stop loving her. Such is my state."

"But Milord, you must find out more about all this, and if your wife can explain these happenings should you not bring her back to you again?"

"But will she pardon my error? She will hate me, my dear count. I will only be, in her eyes, a tyrant, an object of fright. Does one excuse unjust punishment? And is she not marked with the seal of the gravest iniquity? The disorder of my ideas is such that I want to clear all this up and yet I fear to do so. What confusion if she is innocent! What despair if she is guilty! Mersburg, I want you to clear all that up. Leave for Torgau and bring her back with you if she is still worthy of me. Let her follow her perfidious lover to the grave if she has been unfaithful to me."

"Milord," said the count, "if you could only give me somebody to help me in this important mission."

"And whom should I send with you?"

"The Marquis of Thuringia, Milord. You gave him the mission of going to get your wife at Brunswick. I feel sure that he will bring her back from Torgau. The good fortune which crowned his first mission is an excellent omen for the second, and our choice cannot fall on a person who is more worthy than Thuringia."

"I consent to it," said Frederick, "I give you the power to instruct him of his new duty. His virtuous friendship for the princess must be sorely afflicted by all this. To speak to him about it would only increase my sorrows. You make all the arrangements with the marquis, and I approve in advance all that the two of you will do."

The count hurried to tell Louis about what the prince had just said to him.

"You will never accuse me again of not being your friend," he said to him. You are going to see the one you love, and