Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. 2L.A., [Paris an VI: April-July 1798], to citoyen Gaufridy père, "homme de loi" à Apt; 4pages and a half and 1page in-4, the 2nd with address. 3 floréal (April 22). He has not had a penny since March 1st, and "has had to use all means to provide for himself". He has had to borrow at "3 and 4 per cent a month", but Mme Quesnet (his companion) has sacrificed her savings to repay "such onerous loans" and meet April's expenses. "Mde de Sade and her son, instructed, then made me the proposal to abandon to them, for an agreed pension, the bare ownership of all my funds and that under these conditions they would come to my rescue. But what an end, great God! I'd become a ward again, with not a penny to my name! So he threw himself into the arms of his creditors, whom he kept waiting by signing bills of exchange; and he was "reduced to having nothing but soup and a chop, to seeing the woman who got me out of trouble and saved my life languish and suffer, to not having enough money to pay a servant"... After doing his accounts, and drawing up a new irrevocable emergency, Sade concludes: "There is nothing for me but to die of hunger or to be arrested if the slightest negligence takes place in the periods prescribed for these payments. [...] Oh my friend! exactitude, celerity, or despair". To quell his lawyer's ardor, he waxes lyrical: "Never will the angels have blessed eternity... never will they have sung his praises as yours will be sung by the two most sincere friends you have in the world. But if you do not reassure me [...] my spirits will wander around you, and will cry out to you until the last moments of your life... he loved you and you let him languish... you had no more sincere friend and your slowness has brought him down to the grave"... 19 messidor (July 7). "Gaufridy had said he'd go to Arles; "now your son writes to me that you've lost more than you've received the surveillance and this is because I must repeat to you, and for the last time, that this surveillance was granted under promise of payment. You've forced me to say things I shouldn't say and which can ruin everything, but you have to shout in the ears of those who don't want to hear. Well, when we saw that Moses couldn't fulfill his promises, we withdrew the supervision, and now Moses is in the greatest danger; so hurry up and give him 1200fr without any delay"...