THE MARQUIS DE SADE Stn,—With reference to Lord Vansittart's pointed
poem in defence of the Marquis de Sade in comparison with Heydrich, it may be remem- bered that the Marquis, who was in prison at the time that the French Revolution broke out, was released, joined the Jacobin Party, and was known as Citoyen Brutus Sade. He was given a post as President of one of the Revolutionary Tribunals in Paris ; but he could not bear sentencing people to death or even to severe imprisonment and he was sacked from his job for excessive mildness. Later, he got into trouble under Napolebn, not for moral obliquities, but for writing a play in which the First Consul and Josephine and Madame Tallien appear in an unfavourable light. For this he was sent to a lunatic asylum where he resided for the rest of his life. He died in 18t4. His body was cremated ; but his skull is probably somewhere in England ; was bought by an enterprising tourist.—Yours sincerely,
Previous page
