Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. L.A., [Vincennes dungeon April 11, 1781], to his wife; 2pages in-4, addressed to "Madame de Sade in Paris". Letter from prison to his wife, with a list of reproaches. "Je te prie instamment ma chere amie de vouloir bien ne oublier au milieu de tes jolis petits poissons d'avril que la liste de commissions demandées pour le 14 du courant m'est d'une telle indispensabilité, que dussé-je aller remplir mes devoirs de pere et de citoyen à la caserne de Montelimard quinze jours après l'époque du 14, jour où ces provisions me sont necessaires, il me faudrait les tout de même. My linen is exactly on the floor for lack of boxes to put it in"; there is a shortage of candles... "Envoye envoiee je t'en conjure, et surtout des livres de seconde lecture n'ayant plus un seul. You'll receive a huge package with the manuscript". She should feel "that I am here like a blind man - that I neither see nor hear anything, that I have been accustomed for ten years to being deceived in everything by a monster who makes a game of all the most disgusting and basest vices, such as lies, deceit, imposture &c &c &c &c &c &c &c &c I must tremble over everything". He doubts that anyone is acting for his happiness; for example, he was forced to make the trip to Aix... "go about your business and don't listen to me. See the future, see your children, and don't put me in the position of reproach, as I am about so many things today, nor them in the position of cursing you one day"... This is followed by a list of "Reproches surs": "M'avoir fait prendre hotel de Dannemarch. - Lending yourself to your mother's schemes and infamies. - Have written me thirty letters with milk to teach me nothing but rabachages. - To have mixed and compromised the innocent hand of your children in all these infamies. - To have had me rescued in Aix, for the sole pleasure of having me taken back to La Coste"... And so on. And to conclude: "Make your confession these days as exactly as that, add to it repentance, the promise never to return, and you'll go straight to heaven"... Correspondence (Lély), CXXIII.