"Sade, Marquis De - The 120 Days Of Sodom 1" - читать интересную книгу автора (Marquis de Sade)

was the period when he was only making his first steps in a vicious career;
not daring to act himself, he brought one of his sisters, with whom he was
carrying on a criminal intrigue, to take charge of the execution, assuring
her that if she were to succeed, he would see to it that she would be the
beneficiary of that part of the fortune whereof death would deprive their
mother. However, the young lady was horrified by this proposal, and the
Duc, observing that this ill-confided secret was perhaps going to betray
him, decided on the spot to extend his plans to include the sister he had
hoped to have for an accomplice; he conducted both women to one of his
properties whence the two unfortunate ones never returned. Nothing quite
encourages as does one's first unpunished crime. This hurdle once cleared,
an open field seemed to beckon to the Duc. Immediately any person
whomsoever showed opposition to his desires, poison was employed forthwith.
From necessary murders he soon passed to those of pure pleasure; he was
captivated by that regrettable folly which causes us to find delight in the
sufferings of others; he noticed that a violent commotion inflicted upon
any kind of an adversary is answered by a vibrant thrill in our own nervous
system; the effect of this vibration, arousing the animal spirits which
flow within these nerves' con-cavities, obliges them to exert pressure on
the erector nerves and to produce in accordance with this perturbation what
is termed a lubricious sensation. Consequently, he set about committing
thefts and murders in the name of debauchery and libertinage, just as
someone else would be content, in order to inflame these same passions, to
chase a whore or two. At the age of twenty-three, he and three of his
companions in vice, whom he had indoctrinated with his philosophy, made up
a party whose aim was to go out and stop a public coach on the highway, to
rape the men among the travelers along with the women, to assassinate them
afterward, to make off with their victims' money (the conspirators
certainly had no need of this), and to be back that same night, all three
of them, at the Opera Ball in order to have a sound alibi. This crime took
place, ah, yes: two charming maids were violated and massacred in their
mother's arms; to this was joined an endless list of other horrors, and no
one dared suspect the Duc. Weary of the delightful wife his father had
bestowed upon him before dying, the young Blangis wasted no time uniting
her shade to his mother's, to his sister's, and to those of all his other
victims. Why all this? to be able to marry a girl, wealthy, to be sure, but
publicly dishonored and whom he knew full well was her brother's mistress.
The person in question was the mother of Aline, one of the figures in our
novel we mentioned above. This second wife, soon sacrificed like the first,
gave way to a third, who followed hard on the heels of the second. It was
rumored abroad that the Duc's huge construction was responsible for the
undoing of all his wives, and as this gigantic tale corresponded in every
point to its gigantic inspiration, the Duc let the opinion take root and
veil the truth. That dreadful colossus did indeed make one think of
Hercules or a centaur: Blangis stood five foot eleven inches tall, had
limbs of great strength and energy, powerful sinews, elastic nerves, in
addition to that a proud and masculine visage, great dark eyes, handsome
black eyelashes, an aquiline nose, fine teeth, a quality of health and
exuberance, broad shoulders, a heavy chest but a well-proportioned figure
withal, splendid hips, superb buttocks, the handsomest leg in the world, an