Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. L.A., La Coste this Friday [late January 1777], to his lawyer Gaspard Gaufridy, in Apt; 8pages small in-4, Long and important letter on the Catherine Treillet affair. [At the end of 1776, Sade recruited new servants in Montpellier, including the young Catherine Treillet, whom he renamed "Justine". On January 17, 1777, Father Treillet came to La Coste to claim his daughter, pistol in hand, and shot the Marquis, against whom he lodged a complaint]. "You will allow me to tell you, my dear lawyer, that it will never be possible for me to return to your opinion. I don't see that warning a judge of the danger you have just been put in by an assasin means dreading the maneuvers of this assassin, it means at most fearing the recurrence of his crime [...] And how much more would I not fear this recurrence, when I see that this man is insane and that instead of fleeing, as you even say he should have done, he believes he has the right to lodge a complaint and goes ahead. [...] It would have been extremely important [...] to prevent a judge in my favor, a judge who, because of my situation alone, must be ill-disposed, and who, naturally, after all that has happened, must believe that this is still a legitimate complaint. [...] You say that M. de Castillon may think that this is a girl detained for anything other than cooking. [...] it was very likely that this man only came to get his daughter in order to have an instrument suitable for harm [...] didn't this man's words clearly prove that he meant harm". He clearly wanted to obtain money and should not be "allowed to go without being questioned; in the circumstances of those little girls last year, you yourself advised [...] not to do otherwise. [...] how can we doubt that a silly, supple girl like this one will not lend herself to her father's views with the greatest ease"... One should not "bend before a man who began by insulting me, a thing which afterwards could have become the worst example, especially in my land... and in a land like this, where it is so essential to contain the vassals in the respect they owe and from which they are only too inclined to evade at all times". That's why Sade wants to pursue these proceedings with a vengeance... "because having a cook doesn't disturb the order you're talking about, and coming to get her with a pistol does [...] But it's said that because I'm unhappy, everything must turn against me, and I'm convinced that if that man had killed me, people would still have said I was wrong". The people of La Coste are "beggars to be roasted, and I'll certainly prove to them one day my contempt for them, and my way of thinking. I assure you they'd all be roasted one after the other, and I'd provide the faggots without batting an eyelid. As for his mother-in-law Mme de Montreuil, she certainly doesn't want a row. "Today a stranger comes to ask for his daughter with a pistol, tomorrow a peasant comes to ask for his day with a rifle. [...] I always start from the principle that this girl in the hands of this furious man was a very dangerous instrument, and that it was extremely important that she didn't leave without declaring that she was happy and had nothing to complain about. Besides, between us, nothing is more certain than that this girl has nothing to complain about, and believe me, I didn't think like you that her age would protect me. But, to have slept with her, would not be the grievance"... Correspondence (Lély), LXX.