Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. 5L.A.S., [Charenton] January-August 1810, to François Ripert in Mazan; 11pages in-4, 3 addresses. January 17. "Je me hâte de vous apprendre [...] que je viens de faire passer à M. Courtois le pouvoir necessaire pour agir relativement aux Cinq Cosses que vous desirés au prix de 120"... April 13th. "My son, whom I saw last Saturday, did not seem very far from giving you the garden, and I will do everything in my power to persuade him to do so. I also had the pleasure of getting to know his mother-in-law, I've wanted to for a long time. We talked about you, and she told me that while you were in Rome with her, you spoke well of me. [...] they are very close to going to Provence. I beg you not to forget to send me back before our correspondence, and to keep the contents well hidden from them when you are with them". He is pleased with the good news from Ripert's son: "we are constantly being told about the fate of the officers serving in Spain"; Guillaumont de Carpentras, for example, had been reputed killed, and "is doing wonderfully, and has just been made an officer". If the garden deal goes through, Sade asks Ripert to compensate him "for the loss I have made on Mazan and Arles. Voila tout mon bien vendu maintenant et je reste a la disposition de mon fils qui pretend n'avoir jamais pu faire en sureté d'arrangement préalable mais qui m'assure, ainsi que ma famille maternelle, que je sera content de lui"... April 15. Sade gives Ripert proof of "my extreme confidence in you [...] we no longer have a depositary [...] so here is this deposit absolutely in your hands [...] having no other security than your word and your letters, I am sending you no less a power of attorney [...].This deed of deposit will remain in your hands since it is you who will receive the funds and forward them to me, but as soon as it is done, you will send me a legalized copy in good order, which will then become a security. [...] Remember that I don't want to give up Arles for less than one hundred and thirty thousand francs, thirty of which will go to the fireplace, and one hundred to the creditors [...] Come on, courage, let's hurry, there's already too much time to waste"... August 1st. "You're making my head spin with your powers of attorney [...] It's all for my amusement and to make me miss the deal [...] Don't make me throw what little money I have out the window [...] Please send me two louis. [...] You'll turn the head of a saint". He sends the power of attorney with the name in blank: "But let's finish, let's finish, I beg you, or I protest that I'll leave everything here". He talks about the deposit, the pledge, the sale. He fears that someone is "playing a trick on him", and that one of his creditors is up to a ruse: "I hope you know how to prevent this ruse [...] then I would make such a fuss by myself, by my solicitor and by my children that surely the trick would not succeed". He agrees to the sale at "one hundred thousand extensible francs, and 30,000f bribe"... August. Sade copies part of Courtois's letter of August 5, opposing the arrangement with Ripert. Sade then asks: "How is it that, with M. Courtois refusing and M. Olivier accepting, you only want the one who refuses and not the one who accepts? Voila ce que je peine a comprendre"...