June 11 or 12—The Marquis is returned to Pierre-Encise.
August—At the request of her husband, the Marquise arrives in Lyons, where she will remain until the Marquis recovers his freedom.
November 16—Two Royal Orders are issued, one instructing the supervisor of Pierre-Encise to release Sade, the other enjoining Sade to retire to his estates at La Coste. The Marquise, perhaps because she is again pregnant, returns to Paris shortly after the release of her husband, while he proceeds to Provence as ordered.
1769. Aet. 29
June 27—Birth in Paris of Donatien-Claude-Armand, Chevalier de Sade, the Marquis’ second son, who is christened the following day at the parish church of Madeleine de la Ville-l’Evêque.
1770. Aet. 30
August—Sade reports to resume his military duties as a Captain Commander in the Burgundy Regiment. After some difficulties caused by the deputy commander of the regiment, who at first places Sade under arrest and forbids the quartermaster to take any orders whatsoever from the newly arrived captain, he is fully reinstated in his duties.
1771. Aet. 31
March 13—Sade applies to the Minister of War, requesting the rank of colonel, without stipend, which application is granted on March 19.
April 17—Birth in Paris of Madeleine-Laure, daughter of the Marquis de Sade.
May 27—The Marquis, who has recently arrived in Provence, orders the public officials of Saumane, of which he is the lord of the manor, to do him homage.
June 1—The Marquis is authorized to draw 10,000 livres as the fee payable upon his cession to the Count d’Osmont of the regimental colonelcy.
September 9—Sade leaves Fort l’Evêque prison, where he has spent a week for debts. To obtain his release he pays a sum of 3000 francs in cash and the remainder in a promissory note dated October 15.
November 7—Sade’s sister-in-law, Mademoiselle Anne-Prospère de Launay de Montreuil, joins the Sades at La Coste.
1772. Aet. 32
January 20—In the theater at La Coste, Sade presents a comedy of which he is the author.
Mid-June—With his manservant Armand, known as Latour, Sade sets out for Marseilles for the purpose of collecting some monies due him.
June 25—Having several days to spend in Marseilles, Sade sends Latour out in search of some girls with whom to entertain himself.
June 27—Latour arranges a rendezvous with four girls—Marianne Laverne, Mariannette Laugier, Rose Coste, and Mariette Borelly—at Mariette’s place at the corner of the rue des Capucins. The girls range in age from eighteen to twenty-three, Marianne being the youngest and Mariette the eldest (Sade has several times specified to Latour that he is to look for “very young girls”). In the course of the morning, during which Sade and Latour sequester themselves together with each of the girls singly, then with some jointly, the Marquis offers at least two of the girls some aniseed sweets, the sugar of which had been soaked with Spanish fly extract, or cantharides. The orgy lasts throughout the morning. That same evening, Sade’s last in Marseilles, Latour procures him another prostitute, Marguerite Coste, to whom he also gives a number of the same sweets.
June 30—The Royal Prosecutor attached to the Seneschal’s Court of Marseilles is informed that one Marguerite Coste, after consuming an excessive number of sweets pressed upon her by a stranger, has been so racked with intestinal pains as to indicate that she has been poisoned. The Prosecutor calls for an investigation. The Lt.-General for criminal matters, Chomel, records Marguerite Coste’s accusations, a doctor is appointed to examine her, and a pharmacist to analyze the matter vomited.
July 1—Mariette Borelly and the three other prostitutes make a statement to the Lt.-General and the Royal Prosecutor, Marianne ascribing her digestive troubles during and after the morning bout to the aniseed offered her by the Marquis. All four girls profess indignation at the attitude of the Marquis and his valet whom they accuse of “homosexual sodomy,” at the same time claiming to have refused to accede to Sade’s and Latour’s “unnatural advances.”9
July 4—Medical reports on Marguerite Coste and Marianne Laverne are completed and deposed. The Lt.-General signs the submission to the Royal Prosecutor of the ten statements made. The Royal Prosecutor decrees the arrest of both Sade and Latour.
July 4 (?)—The Marquis, either fearing trouble or being unofficially informed of his impending arrest, flees from La Coste château accompanied by his sister-in-law, Anne.
July 5—The pharmacists who have analyzed both the matter thrown up by Marguerite Coste and the uneaten candy found in Mariette Borelly’s room, conclude that they have found no trace of arsenic, nor any corrosive sublimate in the specimens.
July 11— Acting upon the warrant of July 4, the bailiff of Apt with three mounted men and a brigadier from the Constabulary, go to La Coste and are advised that Sade and Latour have departed a week before. Further warrants are then issued for their arrest, as are summons for them to appear before the court two weeks from that date. The possessions of the two fugitives are impounded and listed.
Mid-July—The Marquise de Sade goes to Marseilles to appeal her husband’s case before the magistrates.
August 8 and 17—Marguerite Coste and Marianne Laverne appear before a Marseilles lawyer and drop their charges against Sade and Latour.
August 26—The Royal Prosecutor orders special proceedings against the accused and missing persons and stipulates that the reexamination of witnesses shall require confrontation.
August 29—The President de Montreuil joins his daughter, the Marquise de Sade, at La Coste, the younger sister Anne being in flight with the Marquis.
September 3—Final verdict: Sade and Latour, being declared contumacious and defaulting, are found guilty, the former of the crimes of poisoning and sodomy and the latter of the crime of sodomy, and are condemned to expiate their crimes at the cathedral porch before being taken to the Place Saint-Louis “for the said Sade to be decapitated . . . and the said Latour to be hanged by the neck and strangled . . . then the body of the said Sade and that of the said Latour to be burned and their ashes strewn to the wind.”
September 11—Judgment at the bar of the High Court of Provence (the chamber summoned during the summer vacation) confirms and renders executive the sentence of the Seneschal’s Court of Marseilles.
September 12—Sade and Latour are executed in effigy on the Place des Prêcheurs, in Aix.
October 7—The Canoness, Lady Anne de Launay, returns to La Coste and remains there with her sister.10
October 27—Leaving his luggage at Nice, Sade reaches Chambéry, traveling under the name of the Count de Mazan. With him are Latour, another footman named Carteron, and his sister-in-law, Lady Anne.
Early November—After putting up for a few days at the Pomme d’Or, Sade rents a country house for six months, the house being outside the city gates. About the same time, having discovered her son-in-law’s whereabouts, Lady de Montreuil prevails upon the Duke d’Aiguillon to ask the King of Sardinia’s ambassador to issue a Royal Order “for the arrest and imprisonment of the Count de Mazan, a French nobleman in retreat at Chambéry.”
December 8—Major de Chavanne and two adjutants, acting upon the order of His Majesty the King of Sardinia, Duke of Savoy, arrest Sade and Latour at Sade’s Chambéry residence.
December 9—The Marquis is driven by post chaise, escorted by four cavalrymen, to the Fort Miolans prison, where he signs a pledge to the commander of the fort, M. de Launay, not to attempt to escape. Latour constitutes himself a voluntary prisoner, joining his master behind bars.
December 18—A family council convening in Avignon declares before a notary public that, given the absence of the Marquis, the education of his children and the administration of their property shall be confided to the Marquise, who is appointed their guardian ad hoc.
1773. Aet. 33
January 1—Commandant de Launay, in a letter to the Governor of Savoy, describes his prisoner as “unreliable as he is hot temper
ed and impulsive . . . capable of some desperate action” and suggests that Sade be transferred to a more secure prison. Over the ensuing weeks, de Launay reiterates this request and several times over disclaims responsibility for the security of Sade.
March 6—The Marquise, having left Paris a week or so before, arrives by post chaise at Chambéry, disguised in masculine clothing and accompanied by a friend and confidant, Alberet.
March 7–14—Repeated attempts by the Marquise to see her husband, which de Launay, in constant contact with the Governor of Savoy, steadfastly refuses. Finally giving up all hope of seeing her husband, Madame de Sade leaves by post chaise for Lyons.
March 18—Back at La Coste, the Marquise writes both to the Count de la Tour and to the King of Sardinia11 imploring each to intercede on behalf of her husband. To the latter she notes: “My husband is not to be classed with the rogues of whom the universe should be purged. . . . Bias against him has turned [a misdemeanor] into a crime,” which she dismisses as a “youthful folly that endangered no life nor honor nor the reputation of any citizen. . . .”
April 30—At approximately 8:30 P.M., Sade, the Baron de l’Allée (a fellow prisoner), and Latour climb out of the only unbarred window of the fortress and, aided by a local farmer, Joseph Violin, head for the French frontier.
May 1—Walking all night, the fugitives reach the village of Chapareillant by sunup, but by the time a search party sent out by de Launay arrives at the French border Sade is well on his way to Grenoble. How long he remained in Grenoble and exactly where he hid out remain unknown, but sometime before the end of 1773 he returns clandestinely to join his wife at La Coste.
December 16—Lady de Montreuil obtains a court order to have the Marquis incarcerated anew in Pierre-Encise prison.
1774. Aet. 34
January 6—Inspector Goupil of the Paris police, armed with the court orders of December 16 and accompanied by four bowmen and a troup of mounted constables from Marseilles, force their way at night into La Coste castle, but find only the Marquise. Goupil searches the place, and especially the Marquis’ study, whose papers he confiscates or burns.
March 25—The Minister of the Royal Household, the Duke de la Vrillière, in transferring the King’s orders relative to the Marquis de Sade to the Governor of Provence, suggests that it would be best to arrest him not under his own roof but while he is out making the rounds in the neighborhood.
April 12—The Governor replies to the Duke de la Vrillière that Sade is not at La Coste and promises to undertake a discreet investigation.
July 14—At 3 :00 A.M. Lady Anne writes to the Abbé de Sade to inform him of her sudden departure, together with her sister, for Paris.12
November 17—Lady Anne, in Paris, reproaches the Abbé for not having replied to her. About this same date, Madame de Sade returns to La Coste, whether or not in the company of the Marquis is not clear. But it is clear that they had been together in Lyons, and were together later at La Coste. Throughout the winter the Sades remain at La Coste, seldom venturing abroad and seeing very few people.
1775. Aet. 35
January—Very little is known of the “young girls’ scandal” which dates from this winter. On their way back from Paris in November of the preceding year, the Marquise, either alone or in concert with the Marquis, hired seven new servants: one was a young maid named Nanon, five other girls fifteen years of age, and a secretary (male) a trifle older. Some of the parents claimed the girls had been taken without their consent, and in January at least three of the parents filed a complaint. Criminal proceedings were instituted at Lyons, and the Marquise voyaged there to try and quash the affair. One of the girls was secretly taken to the Abbé de Sade and another placed in a nunnery, whence she escaped several months later.
January 21—Sade prepares a formal refutation of the accusations made against him by the girl presently with his uncle and also against the accusations made by the Abbé himself.
February 11—Lady de Montreuil sends the first of a long series of letters to the notary Gaufridy of Apt, Sade’s recently appointed legal adviser. She entreats him to assume the responsibility for promptly returning, in person and with all guarantees, these girls to their parents in Lyons and Vienne, including the girl presently at the Abbé de Sade’s at Saumane.
February 15—The Marquise does not want to return the girls until they have first been examined by a doctor who will furnish them with an appropriate medical certificate. She begs the Abbé not to let the girl in his charge be seen.
May 3—From Aix-en-Provence, the President Bruny d’Entrecastaux simultaneously informs the heads of both junior branches of the family, the Count de Sade-Eyguières and Count Sade-Vauredone, the provost of Saint-Victor of Marseilles, that he has it firsthand that the Marquis de Sade is at La Coste, where he indulges in excesses of every kind with young people of both sexes whom he kidnaps especially from Lyons, in which city charges have been deposed against him.
May 11—Anne Sablonnière, known as Nanon, chambermaid at La Coste, gives birth at Courthézon to a baby girl, Anne Elizabeth, the certificate of baptism attributing the paternity to her husband Barthélemy Fayère, but “some people maintain it was conceived by the work of the Lord of the Manor.”
May 18—The Abbé de Sade requests the capture of his nephew, who is presently at La Coste, and demands that he be incarcerated as a madman.
June 20—Alexandre de Nerclos, Prior of the Jumiège convent, informs the Abbé de Sade that he has lately opened his door to a young girl who has escaped from La Coste, whence three servants of the Marquis have come to seize her on the pretext that she had stolen forty livres. He turns her over to the Abbé’s confidant so that he can place her under his protection as he has with the others from the manor.
June 21—The Marquise brings a complaint against Nanon, charging her with the theft of some household silver. This is merely a maneuver to hold Nanon in check pending the arrival of a Royal lettre de cachet which Lady Montreuil has said was forthcoming, for the Sades now consider Nanon the source of all their trouble with the other girls and are apprehensive lest she go to Lyons and stir up the whole business again.
June 22—The Prior de Nerclos assures the Abbé de Sade that he believes he has stifled any unfortunate rumors, but adds that the Marquis must be shut up for the rest of his days. He is also convinced that “the Marquise is no better than her husband, for he knows that no one in their house went to confession on Easter Sunday and Lady de Sade allows her servants to have dealings with a married Lutheran woman.”
July 5—The Minister of the Royal Household informs Madame de Montreuil that he has just issued the necessary Royal Orders for Nanon to be imprisoned at Arles.
July 30—Nanon’s daughter, Anne Elizabeth, dies at La Coste, her wet nurse, being six months pregnant, having no more milk.
August—Sade is traveling incognito in Italy under the name of the Count de Mazan. In Florence, he steeps himself in the works of art of the Grand Duke’s “superb gallery.”
September 29—The Marquis arrives in Rome.
October 6—One of Sade’s bailiffs is instructed to visit Nanon in the house of constraint at Arles. She threatens to kill herself if she is not set free, and relates to the bailiff “a thousand horrors.”
October 17—The Marquise thanks the Abbé for persuading the Isle-sur-Sorgue hospital to accept the girl he had been keeping in his charge. She agrees to pay the expenses but asks that the girl not be allowed to speak to anyone.
November 10—The Abbé de Sade reports to the notary Gaufridy that the girl is completely well again and that he intends to take her out of the hospital and give her to the care of one of the Marquis’ farmers in Mazan, Ripert by name, where she will be better off than at Saumane and less likely to talk to strangers.
1776. Aet. 36
End of January—The Marquis is at Naples, where the French chargé d’affaires, M. Beranger, mistakes him for a certain M. Tessier, cashier of a Lyons store who has absconded wit
h eighty thousand livres. To exculpate himself, he is obliged to reveal his real identity, produce supporting documents and agree to be presented at court in his colonel’s uniform. He writes both to Gaufridy and to his wife asking whatever he would do if, because of his reputation, he was recognized and attacked.
March 15—The Marquise learns that one of the girls involved in the La Coste scandal has left the Caderousse convent for Lyons, in the company of two young men who have come for her, one of whom declares he is her godfather. About the same time, Sade writes to his wife proposing to return to La Coste, but she dispatches Sade’s valet Carteron, known as La Jeunesse, to Naples, to dissuade him from such a risky undertaking.
May 4—M. de Mazan leaves Naples, and on June 1 arrives at Rome.
End of June—Sade reaches Grenoble, via Bologne and Turin; from Grenoble he sends Carteron ahead to La Coste to prepare his return by mid-July.
July 26—Sade is now at home, and rumors circulate that he has turned religious—one rumor even has it that he had been received by the Pope—none of which the Marquise tries to quash. Meanwhile, the girl placed in farmer Ripert’s care also flees, but before returning to Vienne she spends a week at Orange making a deposition there to the local magistrate.
November 2—Father Durand, recollect monk, is charged by Sade, who is in Montpellier, to find him a cook for La Coste. Catherine Trillet (or Treillet) is suggested, and the monk vouches to her father, a coverlet weaver, for the standing of La Coste and assures him that, as far as morals go, it is “like a nunnery.” Her father consents, and the twenty-two-year-old Catherine, who is described as “very pretty,” is driven to La Coste by Father Durand.
November 4—The Marquis is back at La Coste. Money is an increasingly serious problem: the forty thousand livres due the Marquis as Lt.-General of Bresse are under sequester. At her daughter’s request, Lady Montreuil sends 1200 livres not directly to her daughter but to the lawyer Gaufridy, with strict orders for him to spend it only on pressing domestic needs.