Fear of De Sade

BARON: What I thought I saw.

VOICE: Everyone sees what they want to.

BARON: I must be hallucinating. It must be normal. After all, they killed their own daughter just to incriminate me. And how can anyone fail to react to that? They’re capable of anything. They couldn’t allow her to take her revenge on them, the more so in the way she’d thought up, using me as an accomplice. Their pride is greater than their love. They had no pity. How horrible!

VOICE: They had no pity. That’s the least you can say.

BARON: And she had to pay for what they’d done, for the responsibility they’d never admitted to!

VOICE: She must be feeling very lonely.

BARON: What do you mean?

VOICE: Wasn’t it you who said just now that she’s in heaven? And that she was an angel? An angel among so many sinners?

BARON: This is no time for irony.

VOICE: It seems you still haven’t realised that you don’t set the time here.

BARON: How could I be so stupid? Why did I accept the pastilles? I could have saved the girl. How did I fall into such a simple trap? I should have suspected as soon as they appeared at the château. They wouldn’t have come all the way from Bordeaux for nothing.

VOICE: Everyone sees what they want to.

BARON: (yelling) But I can’t see anything here! I want to get out of here at once! Where are they? They’ll pay for what they’ve done! For the first time in their lives, they’ll pay! Get me out of here at once! Get me out of here!

VOICE: Don’t be silly. There’s no point in shouting. I’m here at your side; I can hear you.

BARON: But someone needs to do something! I need to tell the court what happened.

VOICE: They already know.

BARON: And why? Why don’t they let me out of here?

VOICE: Because they can’t.

BARON: But I’m innocent!

VOICE: That’s what they all say.

BARON: I want to see them!

VOICE: You can’t, I’ve already said.

BARON: I know, I know! They’re under observation. Waiting for what?

VOICE: What everyone’s waiting for.

BARON: Will they be executed, then?

VOICE: I wouldn’t go that far.

BARON: But that’s what they deserve for killing their own daughter. And if the baroness says it’s a nightmare, it’s maybe because she’s repentant. Perhaps she’ll confess the crime. And then they’ll have to free me.

VOICE: I doubt it.

BARON: And they’re going to leave me here for the rest of my life?

VOICE: I wouldn’t necessarily put it that way.

BARON: And how would you put it if you were in my place? Come on! How?

VOICE: There are things you still haven’t understood.

BARON: Don’t be condescending. I might have been stupid and blind once, but now everything’s quite clear.

VOICE: Really?

BARON: And anyway, what does it matter, now that she’s dead?

VOICE: Dead?

BARON: I could have saved Martine.

VOICE: Now, she’s far away. It’s irreversible.

BARON: Like the angels in heaven.

VOICE: I’m trying to be patient, but your blindness is irritating.

BARON: If at least there was a little light in here. I’m tired.

VOICE: Tired? But it’s only the beginning.

BARON: Nothing makes any sense now that she’s dead. Perhaps if I went the same way she has. And left behind the unjust, petty world of men. You might be able to help me. All I need is a rope. Could you get hold of a rope for me, since you have access to every wing of the asylum?

VOICE: It’s no use. There’s no escape from here.

BARON: You haven’t understood. I’m ready to end my life.

The Voice lets out a guffaw.

VOICE: I’ve understood perfectly. I think you’re the one who hasn’t understood.

BARON: I want to be with Martine.

VOICE: It’s incredible how, when things get tight, all of you, even the proudest of libertines, begin to believe in the angels of heaven.

BARON: It’s better than staying in this quagmire.

VOICE: Voilà! The same thing the count said to the baroness about the maid.

BARON: Martine. She’s their daughter.

VOICE: Martine, then! It’s all the same. It’s better to send her away from this quagmire, so she’ll not be defiled by this filth.

BARON: This is all getting ridiculous. I asked you to help me. You’re no longer being logical, master. All this is absurd. You want to convince me with a tawdry argument that the two of them killed their daughter to save her? How can you believe that? And that they got rid of the body to save her reputation, so that her honour would not be besmirched? Only so that the news that she had been killed during an orgy at château Lagrange shouldn’t get about?! Is that it?

VOICE: That’s not what I said. You’re interpreting. Whenever they interpret, people lose themselves down these shortcuts. Nobody ever said she’d been murdered.

BARON: What are you saying?! Then Martine’s alive?!

VOICE: That’s the way it looks.

BARON: God be praised!

VOICE: You disappoint me.