"Am I not free?" Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade asked.
He was absolutely sure the answer would be "yes." After all, he won his appeal. Such a winning should make him free from jail and free to live since he overturned a death sentence.
"No."
The answer took him by surprise. Marquis de Sade was in utter shock.
"How is that possible?" Questioned the writer. "I won! I have to be free."
With no emotion whatsoever, the guard explained using only three words, "lettres de cachet."
At that moment, with only 38 years, the writer knew his life was over. More importantly, he knew who to blame.
Marquis de Sade was incarcerated in Château de Vincennes and transferred to the Bastille in 1784 after Vincennes was closed.
In the most famous French prison, he started the manuscript of his magnum opus, Les 120 Journées de Sodome.
Of course, he didn't only write while in prison. He also kept his eyes and ears wide open; it was the only way he could understand the zeitgeist.
"There's something big going on," the Marquis de Sade said to no one but himself.
In 1789, the Bastille, with less than 10 prisoners, was the perfect symbol of the French monarchy—opulent and useless.
The Marquis de Sade felt the same thing the streets were feeling. The monarchy wasn't as holy as they once were.
To the crowd that gathered outside the Bastille, he shouted, "They are killing the prisoners here!"
Two days later, the writer was transferred, naked as a worm, to the insane asylum at Charenton. Ten days later, after his transfer, the Storming of the Bastille happened. All prisoners were freed.
"You could be back to your scandalous libertine existence with you kept your mouth shut," provoked the guard.
Marquis de Sade looked at him and smiled. With the characteristical ego of every writer, he answered, "If I had kept my mouth shut, the Bastille would still be there."
The Marquis didn't think twice about being incarcerated while the others inmates were free. His eyes and ears were open; he knew you can't change the zeitgeist in the blink of an eye. He knew sooner or later, he would be free.
Marquis de Sade, always the writer, was only saddened for believing that his magnum opus was forever lost.
THE END
*****
Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814), was a French nobleman, revolutionary politician, philosopher and writer famous for his libertine sexuality. His works include novels, short stories, plays, dialogues, and political tracts. In his lifetime some of these were published under his own name while others, which de Sade denied having written, appeared anonymously. De Sade is best known for his erotic works, which combined philosophical discourse with pornography, depicting sexual fantasies with an emphasis on violence, suffering, anal sex (which he calls sodomy), crime, and blasphemy against Christianity. He was a proponent of absolute freedom, unrestrained by morality, religion, or law. The words sadism and sadist are derived in reference to the works of fiction he wrote which portrayed numerous acts of sexual cruelty. While de Sade mentally explored a wide range of sexual deviations, his known behavior includes "only the beating of a housemaid and an orgy with several prostitutes—behavior significantly departing from the clinical definition of sadism". De Sade was a proponent of free public brothels provided by the state: In order both to prevent crimes in society that are motivated by lust and to reduce the desire to oppress others using one's own power, de Sade recommended public brothels where people can satisfy their wishes to command and be obeyed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade
