Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. L.A.S., [donjon de Vincennes] September 2, 1783, to the présidente de Montreuil; 4pages small in-4. Violent letter of reproach to his mother-in-law, expressing his love for his wife. "I don't bother you very often, Madame, and you must believe that when I do, I must have a furious need to address you; of all the blows you have dealt me since I have been here, none has been more sensitive than the one you have just torn my heart. You are willing, Madame, to persuade me that my wife is dishonorable - is it possible, great God, that it is a mother who tolerates such infamies or who works to persuade her son-in-law of them! Your policy is dreadful, but it's easy to guess, Madame, you'd like me to separate from my wife, and once I'm out of the house I'd never want her back. - How little you knew my feelings for her if you believed that anything in the world could ever produce such an effect. You'd make me see her with a dagger in her hand, trying to tear my heart out, and I'd rush to her feet and say - Strike, I deserve it. No madame, nothing in the whole universe will be able to keep me away from her, and I will adore her even in her vengeance. I have too much to repair, great God, I have too much to repair, don't make me die in despair without being able to make her forget all my wrongs. Love, esteem, tenderness, gratitude, respect, all the feelings that the soul can form come together in me for her, and it is in the name of all of them - need I confess it to you, Madame, even more than the cry of my conscience - that I beg you to give her back to me as soon as I am out of here"... Let him be put to the test... "Put us back together, and under such eyes, and in such a country as you will. - Let them observe me from morning till night, for as many years as you like, and at the slightest fault! - let them take her away from me, let me never see her again, and let them take away my freedom one last time, and my life if they wish, I consent to everything. [...] Heaven, which hears me, is my witness that if I keep her, it is only to try to repair my life, to try to bring back the virtuous and sensitive soul of your adorable daughter to whom, in the dreadful delusion of my errors, I have struck such sensitive blows"... Let the President stop pursuing her revenge, and listen to her son-in-law's prayer... May he not be released from prison if he refuses to be reunited with his wife... "I'll never see myself free for a moment without flying into her arms. Even if you were to swallow her up in the bowels of the earth, I would tear her away and join her. If I were free, I'd fly to M. Le Noir and ask him for my wife back. I run to the minister if he refuses me, and rejected everywhere, I throw myself at the king's feet, and ask him again for what heaven has given me, and what men cannot take away from me"... Etc. Correspondence (Lély), CLXIV.