Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/46



In the meantime, Adelaide, overwhelmed by despair which she was unable to calm, conducted with the greatest respect by the guards who had been assigned to her, reached the chateau of Torgau. Received with all the necessary pomp by Major Kreutzer who commanded the castle, she had been established in the most beautiful apartment by the daughter of the officer, and this young person, named Bathilda, gifted with all the qualities of face and mind, had not ceased to console Adelaide since her arrival.

"Ah, Mademoiselle, sorrows like mine do not disappear. One can find remedies for all the others except those which tarnish glory and hurt pride. I do not regret losing a throne where the most unjust of husbands did not think me worthy to sit; but I do regret being treated in such a way and to have my husband suppose that I would have an intrigue with a man I have never known, a man whose birth would prevent my having any interest in him. He has badly known my pride, if he could suspect me capable of such a weakness. If ever a woman like me forgot herself, would it be with a man who was hardly more than a servant? May he find out that I have spurned love of a much higher type than what he accuses me of, and that never has love made me forget my duties! It is not because of my husband that I have acted in this way, but I have served my own pride much more than I have his. But after all what does it matter what reasons keep a woman virtuous?"

Poor Bathilda was doing all she could to appease the resentment of her sovereign when an unexpected event caused so