Donatien-Alphonse-François, marquis de SADE. L.A., [Vincennes dungeon April 1780], to his wife; 4pages in-8 filled with small, tight handwriting. Letter from prison to his wife, raging against his mother-in-law, the présidente de Montreuil. "So it is decided that you absolutely do not want to send me these two comedies that I have been asking you for so long, and with so much urgency"... He is thus arrested without being able to do anything... His health "goes from bad to worse"; the stove gives him a headache; he needs to get some fresh air... He lashes out at those responsible for his detention, the "sublime orderly, insolent little despot", the chief jailer, and above all his mother-in-law, the "spiritual president [...] What wit, what genius, what combinations. Sometimes when I reflect on the vast scope of this woman (I mean of her genius) I'm all giddy, how she knows how to foresee things when they are done, how she knows how to prevent misfortunes when they have happened... But it's a mania, a truly determined taste, it's not that evil doesn't happen that this woman wants, it's that it does and that she has the pleasure of taking revenge afterwards... Oh, she's the most beautiful soul! She's like two drops of water to that madman from Athens, quoted in Plutarch, who stood in the street in front of his burning house. How can you not help her?" you shouted at him; "I'd be very upset," he replied coolly. I want it to burn so I can have the pleasure of punishing those who set it on fire. Remember almost all the events of that hussy's conduct towards me, his falsehoods, his tricks, his infamous maneuvers both old and new, and you'll see if it's not word for word the same thing"... Etc. Finally, he recalls his previous detentions: "What good has Pierre-Encize done me? What good did Miolans produce in me? The 1st detention at Vincennes? To spoil my mind and mood, to scald my bile, head and temperament, to bring me back to the same mistakes just by the teasing linked to my being of never wanting either that it be, or that it be said that punishment has any other effect on me than to make me worse. As soon as it's clear, as soon as it's recognized, as soon as I'd rather perish than prove the contrary, and as soon as there's a much gentler and better way (to do with me what one would like) why start all over again... It's that the S. [Sartine] has to pay his dues... n'est-ce pas"... Correspondence (Lély), CX.