121. He transforms a boy of ten or twelve into a eunuch.
122. With a pair of pliers isolating and raising each nipple, he cuts off the same with a pair of scissors.
That same evening, Augustine’s ass is made generally available. While embuggering her, Curval had wished to kiss Constance’s breast, and upon discharging, he made off with a nipple in his teeth, but as her wound was treated and bandaged at once, Messieurs assured one another that the accident would have no harmful effect upon the child in her womb. Curval says to his colleagues, in answer to their pleasantries upon his mounting rage against Constance, that he has no control over the fury she inspires in him.
When in his turn the Duc embuggers Augustine, his own powerful feelings for that beautiful girl are exhaled with incomparable violence: had the others not kept an eye upon him, he would have injured her, either while mauling her breasts or squeezing her neck with all his strength as he discharged. Once again he asks the society to put her in his power, but he is requested to wait for Desgranges’ narrations. His brother entreats him to be patient and abstain until he himself sets an example by dispatching Aline; haste, the Bishop points out, makes waste; and why spoil the latter part of the holiday by upsetting a schedule admirably designed to guarantee them a daily fare of moderation, wherein only happiness lies? However, the Duc will not listen to reason, he cannot any longer hold himself in check, and so, since he absolutely must torture the lovely girl, he is allowed to inflict a light wound upon her arm. He executes it upon the fleshy part of her left forearm, sucks blood from the cut he has made, and discharges; Augustine is so skillfully patched up that four days later no trace of the Duc’s teeth marks is to be seen.
THE 26TH. 123. He breaks a bottle of thin glass against the face of the girl, who is bound and unable to protect herself; before doing so, he sucked her mouth with great vigor and sucked her tongue also.
124. He tears off both her legs, ties one of her hands behind her back, puts a little stick into her free hand, and invites her to defend herself. Then he attacks her, wielding his sword with great vigor and dexterity, wounds her here and there, and finally discharges upon her wounds.
125. He stretches her upon a St. Andrew’s cross, goes through the ceremony of breaking her, strains but does not dislocate three of her limbs, but does definitely break the fourth, either an arm or a leg.
126. Pistol in hand, he has her stand facing to the right and lets fly with a charge which grazes her two breasts; he aims to shoot away one of her little nipples.
127. He has her crouch down twenty feet away and present her buttocks; he shoots a bullet up her ass.
That same evening, the Bishop depucelates Fanny’s bum.
THE 27TH. 128. The same man of whom Desgranges will speak on the 24th of February flogs a pregnant woman upon the belly until she miscarries; she must lay the egg in his presence, and he lashes her till she does.
129. He very tidily castrates a young lad of sixteen or seventeen after having embuggered and whipped him.
130. He must have a maiden brought to him, he slices off her clitoris with a razor, then deflowers her with a cylinder of heated iron, driving the device home with hammer blows.
131. This personage performs an abortion when the woman’s pregnancy has entered its eighth month. He forces her to drink a certain brew which brings the child out dead in a trice. Upon other occasions, this libertine by his art causes the child to be born from the mother’s asshole. But the child emerges dead, and the woman’s life is gravely imperiled.
132. He severs an arm.
That evening, Fanny’s ass is made generally available, Durcet rescues her from a torture his colleagues had been preparing for her; he takes her to be his wife, has the Bishop perform the marriage, and repudiates Adelaide, who is submitted to the torture originally readied for Fanny. It is however a paltry business after all: the Duc embuggers her while Durcet breaks her finger.
THE 28TH. 133. He cuts off both hands at the wrist and cauterizes the wounds with a hot iron.
134. He removes the tongue, cutting it at the roots, and cauterizes it with a hot iron.
135. He amputates one leg, usually having someone else cut it off while he embuggers her.
136. He extracts all her teeth, replacing each one with a red-hot nail, which he secures in place with a hammer; he does this directly after having fucked the woman in the mouth.
137. He removes one eye.
Julie is roundly whipped by everyone that evening and all her fingers are pricked with a needle. This latter operation takes place while the Bishop, who is passing fond of her, embuggers her.
THE 29TH. 138. Allowing molten sealing wax to flow thereupon, he blinds and ultimately dissolves first one eye, then the other.
139. He neatly slices off one breast, then cauterizes the wound with a hot iron. Desgranges will here interject that ’tis this same man who made off with the nipple she is missing, and that she is positively certain he ate it after having cooked it upon a griddle.
140. He amputates both buttocks after having flogged and embuggered her. It is believed that he too eats the meat.
141. He shaves off both her ears.
142. Clips off all the extremities, to wit: ten fingers, ten toes, two nipples, one clitoris and the end of the tongue.
That evening, Aline, after a vigorous whipping given her by the four friends and an embuggery the Bishop performs for the last time, is condemned to have a finger on either hand and a toe on either foot cut off by each friend. Thus she loses a total of eight parts.
THE 30TH. 143. He carves away several chunks of flesh, selecting them from divers areas upon her body: he has them roasted and obliges her to eat them with him. Desgranges will mention the same man on the 8th and 17th of February.
144. He cuts off a young boy’s four limbs, embuggers the trunk, feeds him well and allows him so to live; as the arms and legs were not severed too close to the body, the boy lives for quite a while. And the surgeon embuggers him steadily for approximately a year.
145. He chains one of the girl’s hands and secures the chain to the wall; he leaves her thus, without food. Near her is a large knife, and just beyond her reach sits an excellent meal: if she wishes to eat, she has but to cut through her forearm; otherwise, she dies of starvation. Prior to this he has embuggered her. He observes her through a window.
146. He manacles both mother and daughter; in order that they both survive, one has got to get to the food placed not far away: survival, that is, means that one must sacrifice a hand. He amuses himself listening to them discuss their dilemma, and argue about who is to resolve it.
She recounts only four stories, for that evening the thirteenth week’s festival is to take place. During it, the Duc, acting in the capacity of a woman, is married to Hercule, who is to be the husband; acting now as a man, the Duc takes Zéphyr to be his wife. The young bardash who, as the reader is aware, possesses the prettiest ass amongst the eight boys, is dressed as a girl, and so clad appears as beautiful as the goddess of love. The ceremony is consecrated by the Bishop and transpires within the sight of the entire household. The dear little Zéphyr surrenders his virginal bum to the Duc, who finds all his pleasure therein, but much trouble making a successful entry; Zéphyr is rather badly torn, and bleeds profusely. Hercule fucks the Duc throughout this operation.
THE 31ST. 147. He plucks out both her eyes and leaves her locked in a room, saying that she has before her what she needs to eat, that she has but to get up and search for it. But in order to reach the food she must cross a broad plate of iron, which, of course, she cannot see, and which is kept heated to a very high temperature. Situated at a window, he amuses himself watching how she manages: will she burn herself, or will she prefer to perish from hunger? She has been, previously, very soundly whipped.
148. He subjects her to the rope torture; this consists in having one’s four limbs tied to ropes, then one is raised high in the air and suddenly dropped from a considerable height, then rai
sed, then dropped; each fall dislocates and sometimes breaks the limbs, because one never quite falls to the ground, the ropes halting one just a short distance above it.
149. He inflicts upon her a quantity of deep wounds into which he pours boiling pitch and molten lead.
150. The moment after she gives birth to a child, he binds her hand and foot, and ties her child not far away from her. The infant wails, she is unable to get to it. And thus she must watch it expire. Then he steps up and lashes the mother, aiming his whipstrokes at her cunt and managing the thing so that the interior of her vagina is well tickled. He himself is usually the child’s father.
151. He gives her copiously to drink, then sews up her cunt, her asshole and her mouth as well, and leaves her thus until the water bursts through its conduits, or until she dies.
(Determine why there is one too many; if one is to be deleted, suppress the last, for I believe I have already used it.)
That same evening, Messieurs avail themselves of Zéphyr’s ass, and Adelaide is condemned to a rude fustigation, after which a hot iron is brought very close to the interior of her vagina, to her armpits, and she is slightly scorched beneath each nipple. She endures it all like a heroine and frequently invokes God. This further arouses her persecutors.
PART THE FOURTH
THE 150 MURDEROUS PASSIONS, OR THOSE BELONGING TO THE FOURTH CLASS, COMPOSING THE TWENTY-EIGHT DAYS OF FEBRUARY SPENT IN HEARING THE NARRATIONS OF MADAME DESGRANGES; INTERSPERSED AMONGST WHICH ARE THE SCANDALOUS DOINGS AT THE CHTEAU DURING THAT MONTH; ALL BEING SET DOWN IN THE FORM OF A JOURNAL. (DRAFT)
Begin by giving a full description of the new situation which exists in February; there has been a radical change in the appearance of things. The four original wives have been repudiated, but the Bishop has extended his protection to Julie, whom he keeps near him as a kind of servant to wait upon him; Duclos has been allowed to share her quarters with Constance, whose fruit Messieurs are eager to keep from spoiling; Aline and Adelaide have been driven out of house and home and now sleep amongst the animals intended for their Lordships’ table. The sultanas Augustine, Zelmire, Fanny, and Sophie have replaced the wives and now fulfill all their functions, to wit: as wipers in the chapel, as waitresses at the meals, as couch companions, as Messieurs’ bed companions at night. Apart from the fucker, who changes from day to day, Messieurs have:
The Duc: Augustine, Zéphyr, and Duclos in his bed, together with his fucker; he sleeps surrounded by the four of them, and Marie occupies a sofa in his bedchamber;
Curval: the Président likewise sleeps amidst Adonis, Zelmire, a fucker, and Fanchon; his room is otherwise empty;
Durcet sleeps amidst Hyacinthe, Fanny, a fucker, and Martaine (check the foregoing), and he has Louison lie upon a neighboring divan.
The Bishop sleeps amidst Céladon, Sophie, a fucker, and Julie; Thérèse sleeps upon the divan.
Which reveals that each of the little ménages, Zéphyr and Augustine, Adonis and Zelmire, Hyacinthe and Fanny, Céladon and Sophie, all of whom are married, belong, husband and wife, to a single master. Only four little girls remain in the girls’ harem, and four in the boys’. Champville sleeps in the girls’ quarters, Desgranges in the boys’ quarters. Aline is in the stable, as we pointed out, and Constance is in Duclos’ room, but alone there since Duclos spends every night in the Duc’s bed.
Dinner is always served by the four sultanas (by, that is to say, the four new wives), and supper by the remaining four sultanas; a quatrain always serves coffee; but the quatrains formerly allocated to each niche in the auditorium are now reduced in number to one boy and one girl.
The reader will recall our mention of the pillars in the auditorium; at the beginning of each séance, Aline is attached to one of them, Adelaide to the other, their buttocks facing out toward the alcoves, and near each pillar is a little table covered with assorted punitive instruments; and so it is the two women are at all times ready to receive the lash. Constance has permission to sit with the storytellers. Each duenna keeps close to her couple, and Julie, completely unclothed, wanders from couch to couch, taking orders and executing them upon the spot. As always, one fucker per couch.
Such is the situation when Desgranges begins her narrations. The friends have also ruled, in a special decree, that, during this month, Aline, Adelaide, Augustine, and Zelmire shall be surrendered to Messieurs’ brutal passions, and that Messieurs are at liberty, upon the prescribed day, either to immolate them privately or to invite whichever of their friends they please to witness the sacrifice; and that with what regards Constance, she shall be employed for the celebration of the final week, a full explanation of which shall be given in due time and place. Should the Duc and Curval, who by this arrangement are to be made widowers, be disposed to take another wife to care for their needs until the end of the holiday, they shall be able to do so by making a selection from amongst the four remaining sultanas. But the pillars will remain ungarnished when the two women who garnish them now shall have been bidden a last farewell.
Desgranges starts, and after having reminded her auditors that henceforth the tales shall be those of an exclusively murderous character, she says that she will be careful, as their Lordships have enjoined her to be, to enter into the most minute details, and above all to indicate with what ordinary caprices these libertine assassins preface their more serious exercises; thus, their Lordships will be able to perceive and judge their relationships and associations, and to see how an example of simple libertinage, rectified and elaborated by an unmannerly and unprincipled individual, may lead straight to murder, and to what kind of murder. Then she begins.
THE 1ST OF FEBRUARY. 1. He used to enjoy amusing himself with a beggar woman who had not had a bit to eat in three days, and his second passion is to leave a woman to die of hunger in a dungeon; he keeps a close watch upon her and frigs himself while examining her, but does not discharge until the day she perishes.
2. He maintains her in her prison cell, toying with her for a long season, gradually diminishing her daily portion of food; beforehand, he has her shit, and eats her turd upon a platter.
3. He formerly liked to suck the mouth and swallow its saliva; in recent days he has developed the passion of immuring a woman in a dungeon with food to last no more than a fortnight; on the thirtieth day, he enters her prison and frigs himself upon the corpse.
4. First, he would have her piss, then he would slowly destroy her by preventing her from drinking although feeding her all she wanted to eat.
5. He would flog, then later kill the woman by depriving her of sleep.
That same evening, Michette, after having eaten a big supper, is hung head downward until she has vomited everything upon Curval, who stands frigging himself beneath her and eating the manna that descends from on high.
THE 2ND. 6. His first passion was to have her shit into his mouth, and he would eat it as it emerged; nowadays he feeds her a diet of worthless bread and cheap wine. A month on this fare and she starves to death.
7. He was once a great cunt-fucker; now he gives the woman a venereal distemper by injection, but of such virulence she croaks in very short order.
8. As a youth, he was fond of receiving vomit in his mouth, now, by means of a certain decoction, he gives her a deathly fever which results in her speedy demise.
9. He was once wont to gather shit from assholes, presently injects an enema containing toxic ingredients dissolved in boiling water or aqua fortis.
10. Once a famous fustigator, today he binds a woman to a pivot upon which she uninterruptedly revolves until dead.
That evening, an enema of boiling water is given to Rosette the moment after the Duc has finished embuggering her.
THE 3RD. 11. He used to like to slap the whore’s face; as a mature man, he twists her head around until it faces backward. When so adjusted, one may simultaneously look at her face and at her buttocks.
12. Addicted to bestiality as a youngster, he now likes to have a girl depucelated by a stallion
while he looks on. She ordinarily dies.
13. Once an ass-fucker, he now buries the girl up to her waist and maintains her thus till the lower half of her body rots.
14. Previously, he was wont to frig her clitoris, and he still does so, but more vigorously, employing one of his servants to keep at the work until the girl expires.
15. Gradually perfecting his passion over the years, a fustigator now flogs every part of a woman’s body until she perishes.
That evening, the Duc would have Augustine, endowed with an unusually sensitive clitoris, frigged thereupon by Duclos and Champville, who relieve each other at the post and continue the task until the little lady falls unconscious.
THE 4TH. 16. His earlier passion was to squeeze the whore’s neck, in later years he would tie the girl by the neck. Before her sits a sumptuous meal, but to reach it she must strangle; otherwise she dies of hunger.
17. The same man who slew Duclos’ sister and whose taste is to subject the flesh to a prolonged mauling, abuses the breasts and buttocks with such furious violence that his treatment of the whore proves fatal to her.
18. The man Martaine mentioned on the 20th of January, he who formerly adored bleeding women, now kills them by dint of repeated bloodlettings.
19. He whose passion in times past was to make a naked woman run until she dropped from exhaustion, in this age of unbridled libertinage shuts her up in a steaming bathhouse where she dies of asphyxiation.
20. He whom Duclos cited earlier, the gentleman who liked to be wrapped in swaddling clothes and fed whoreshit in a spoon rather than pap, swathes a girl so tightly in baby’s blankets that he kills her.
Shortly before the company moved into the auditorium that afternoon, Curval was found embuggering one of the scullery maids. He pays the fine; the girl is ordered to reappear at the evening’s orgies, where the Duc and the Bishop embugger her in their turn, and she receives two hundred lashes from the hand of each of them. She’s a strapping country girl, twenty-five, in satisfactory health, and has a fine ass.
The 120 Days of Sodom and Other Writings Page 68