Page:Marquis de Sade - Adelaide of Brunswick.djvu/95

 woman whose rank he did not suspect. He promised himself revenge. "She doesn't know whom she is offending," he said to himself. "She does not know the soul she is outraging; I will teach her, and perhaps with so haughty a woman I should not limit myself to seduction. Who is she to resist me? With such a being, force must be used." The margrave began to plan ways of obtaining the object of his affections. "This woman," he mused, "is unknown. She is all alone in Frankfort. Since she is not known she will not be missed if she disappears. Not a soul here in Frankfort really knows her. Her companion, Bathilda, seems to be in possession of her secret; it will be necessary to kidnap both of them. One will serve to tell me something about the other. Who could resist a man like me? What is the good of having authority if one doesn't use it to serve his passions?"

Full of these ideas in an age when the arts had not yet enlightened men, and not possessing the sense of justice which should influence those who govern, the margrave made his preparations to seize the princess and her companion.

One night, the weather was so beautiful that everybody stayed very late in the park. The singers, minstrels and poets were amusing the public with their games and their talents. Adelaide and Bathilda, calm and relaxed, were peacefully enjoying the moonlight and the music. Suddenly four armed men seized them and threw them into a carriage drawn by six horses. This carriage, changing horses every four miles, took them to Baden and then to the margrave's chateau on the top of a mountain. There was nobody in the carriage which took the women along the road at such breakneck speed, and it is easy to imagine their state of anxiety when they finally arrived at their destination.

Orders were given to receive them magnificently. All their desires were anticipated. The margrave, however, did not yet appear. Their uneasiness increased and they soon understood that even though their shackles were gilded, they were still just as strong.

"Between this prison and the one where we were formerly obliged to spin the wheel of life, I don't see much difference," said the princess. "There was brutality in one; there is falsity