Chapter 71 p. 7: To Jacques Prieur [1]

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior

February 6, 1818. 

To sir: 

Surprised by the little regard you have for my letters, I find myself writing to you a third time, still in the hope that you will take the trouble to reply  Do not go so far as to deceive me, to persuade me that all the evils I experience exist only in my imagination; that your brother is incapable of doing me the slightest harm; that he is, moreover, more than eighty leagues away from me, and that you are becoming weary of my stories. 

Do you think that I have completely lost my mind? As I told you in my last letter, your brother is here, and if he is not, he has instructed someone to torment me in his stead. Your stubbornness in not answering me leads me to suspect that you are in league with him, something I had not wanted to believe until now.

Mr. Papon Lomini, your cousin, and Arloin, his relative and friend, came to see me, the conversation turned only to the wickedness of your brother, whose behavior was offensive to both of them, knowing the services I had given to Etienne. They promised to see Baptiste, your brother, on this subject, and to urge Etienne to end his persecution of me, or they would put a stop to it. 

I will give you, in another letter, all the details of the harm your brother has made me suffer since October. 

What can I do but take offense at his conduct? He has promised to rescue me from the authority of Mr. Pinel; he himself has witnessed all his cruelties, and those of his infernal company, to the point that he promised to remove me from his power and take me into his own authority, telling me that once I was there, he would set me free. 

I have the honor to be your servant,

M.B.

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior 

March 3, 1818, Paris

I had the honor of appearing at your home February 21, to speak to you of your brother, Etienne Prieur. You promised me that you would see him an hour later, to urge him to cease his persecution of me. It appears that you have not yet reprimanded him on this subject, since I continue to be tormented by him night and day, visited by him and his company. 

I often see your cousin; he came again yesterday to find out if your brother is still harassing me. 

I would like your brother, Baptiste, to be brought into your conversation as well. Having visited his home several times without finding him, I wrote him a letter, which I delivered to his porter on the 28th of last month. We saw each other the next day, and we spoke at length about your brother Etienne, regarding the pain he is causing me. He seems to be very sympathetic to me. Seeing above all that my persecutor continually failed to keep the promise he made to end my suffering, he said he would see him, and finally obtain from him an end to my persecution. 

In my conversations with Etienne, he did not leave me in ignorance of the people, men and women, who are most determined to pursue me. These people exercise the same powers over me, both physical and magical, that Etienne does. 

Let me mention this instance to show you how determined these gentlemen magicians are in their pursuit of me: 

On the 24th of February, I was at the Palais Royal, walking in the Bois galleries, with my snuffbox in the small pocket of my waistcoat, my coat buttoned, my frock-coat wrapped around me entirely. My box was taken from me when there was no-one around. It could only have been taken by magic, money and jewelry have often been taken from me in the same way. You can see how unfortunate it would be for me if your brother were to introduce people invisibly into my home, people who steal from me, or even worse, put harmful drugs in my food. 

You saw, in your visit on the 21st of last month, my squirrel, who had the tip of her tail cut off in her cage. Etienne was not afraid to admit that he was the author of this wickedness, and that he was my master, and had the power of attorney over me. I don’t know what he wants to do with me, or what planet he wishes to put me under.

Sir: You are the brother of a person who abuses my good faith. After being so honest with him, I should never have expected this treatment from him. I have no doubt that you are aware of all that this inconsiderate man has made me suffer. 

Therefore, I ask you, as a family, to obtain from your brother an end to my suffering, so that I may be completely restored to myself. 

I know that you received my letter on February 25, I mailed and stamped it myself. Please do me the honor of replying, and doing me this favor. 

I have the honor to be your servant,

M.B. 

The older Prieur brother made me the following verbal reply: “Mr. Berbiguier is wrong to believe that my brother is tormenting him. He has not been in Paris for six months, he is more than 270 miles away.” That was his reply to my letter sent March 3, which led me to write the following letter: 

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior

March 5, 1818. 

Dear Sir,

I expected to receive a written reply to my two previous letters; you should at least have acknowledged receipt of them.

Based on the reply you gave to my letter courier, I find it hard have faith in the absence of your brother, who you say has been gone for six months, since on February 21st you promised me to see him in the hour, and flattered yourself by saying you would get him to end my persecutions. When I saw him on March 1, your brother Baptiste  also said that he would speak to Etienne, so that he would cease all his workings against me. And Papon Lomini has also mad the same promises on several occasions. So I ask you, gentlemen, to reach some agreement among yourselves. Since you haven’t yet, I can only believe that your brother has not, as you suggest, left for six months. And the proof is that I am continually tormented day and night, and that I met him in Paris only a few days ago.

Assuming your brother had really left Paris, would it be possible that he has empowered another magician to come and torment me? I do not know who would be in charge of me then, but I do know perfectly well that he is carrying out his mission quite well, and he doesn’t leave me a moment of rest. 

Let me give you some recent proof of this: yesterday, on the 4th of the moth, while I was writing, some magician removed the loop of my garter, which forced me to buy another pair, as well as a snuffbox to replace the one that was magically removed, as I mentioned in my last letter. All this, like so many other things, prove to me that my suspicions are not unfounded. 

Yesterday, the 4th of the month, while writing, I do not know what magician removed the buckle of my garter; which obliged me to buy another pair, as well as a snuffbox to replace the one that was taken from me by magic, as I told you in my last one. All this, like many other things, proves to me that my suspicions are not ill-founded.

If you happen to find it appropriate to write me a reply, please let me know what country your brother is in. 

With respect,

M.B. 

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior 

March 7, 1818.

This is the fifth letter I have the honor of writing you, in the hope of receiving a reply from you, or even better, in the hope of having the pleasure of seeing you. Having been so far disappointed in these hopes, must attribute this to nothing other than your contempt for me, or perhaps you are in collusion with your brother, or perhaps with the doctor at the Salpétrière, who I mentioned in my last letter. Your brother, you say, is incapable of doing me any harm, since he’s at least 270 miles away from here. And you say that Dr. Poinel is too gallant a man to do me any such harm. If, as you say, these gentlemen are incapable of doing me any harm, I must seem like a fool to you. But I think you will see the opposite in the letter I will write you shortly, if you remain silent, as you have with my earlier letters.

Clearly, I know the names of ten people in their society, who are from my homeland, and surely you can recall them as well. 

This morning, I had tucked a piece of paper under my belt. When I wanted to use it, I found it had been taken from me. So I knew of the maneuvers of your brothers, who promised that he would try to thwart anything I was planning to undertake. It would be safe to say that he himself was boasting of it, telling me about the work of the other magicians, both in paris and his own country, in such a cheerful way that I was amused by it myself. So I must believe everything he told me about it. 

With respect,

M.B. 

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior 

March 8, 1818. 

Sir,

I learned from the porter who came to clean my apartment that you had taken the trouble to come to visit me the day I wrote my last letter. I was mortified that I wasn’t at home, I’m sure your reason for visiting was important, but why did you not tell me in writing? I can’t see anything that would have prevented you. 

You told the porter, as a reply to my previous letters, that Dr. Pinel, and your brother as well, was too gallant a man to do me the slightest harm. I have no doubt that in society both are very honest and very polite, but that does not prevent them from working against me. Let me convince you of this. 

When I was being tortured by the magician Madame Vandeval, I saw no other remedy for my sufferings than to throw myself into the arms of the Lord, and to tell his ministers the evils which overwhelmed me. The priests I spoke took pity on me, and advised me to go and see the Grand Penitentiary of Notre-Dame, assuring me that the matter was within his abilities to resolve. They were touched by my torments, but could not let themselves believe that these wretched sinners could take pleasure in doing evil, with no fear of eternal justice. So did they, then, go before the Supreme Being and claim that my pain was caused by an alienated mind, an extravagant imagination which made me believe impossible things? No. At their invitation I met with Dr. Pinel, of whom I have already spoken, who examined me and found nothing unreasonable in my thoughts and ideas, but became convinced that I was tormented by sorcerers. 

You understand, Pinel is well-known in the art of curing illness. He is not someone who sees visions. And so, I must conclude that, I, myself, am not seeing fantasies, and if I’m a madman, Dr. Pinel must be one as well. But he told me that he would see to it that Vandeval and her company would be expelled that very evening.

That night, while I was in bed, I saw a strange and new sort of working, I have no doubt that it was Dr. Pinel’s, since it was unlike that of any of the other sorcerers. It was a kind of landscape in the mirror over my fireplace. I tried to make it disappear, but in vain. Your brothers, Lomin, and others were aware of it. But let me return to Pinel, who with Vandeval and her associates, agreed to work together to torment me. Therefore, yes, I have reason to complain about your brother, and as well about Pinel and all the others. 

Judge my situation for yourself.

Sincerely,

M.B.

Letter to Mr. Prieur Senior 

September 28, 1818. 

Dear Sir,

Let me remind you of the visit I had the pleasure of paying you on February 21st. Before we parted ways, you promised to see Etienne an hour later to urge him to stop tormenting me. If that conversation happened, clearly everything you were able to do was in vain, since this young man continues to bother me. I have sent you several letters about this. The fact that you haven’t bothered to reply has deeply disappointed me. 

Eventually, your brother left for the seminary in Amiens. I thought I would take advantage of that circumstance, which seemed likely to bring him back to himself, to encourage him toward some good.  I spoke to him about religion and the principles of morality, in such a way that would prove to him I was of a healthy mind, as he wanted everyone else to understand. He responded to my wise advice in a very honest manner; in his last letter, dated July 7, he told me he would be returning to Paris, and would be pleased to inform me of his arrival as soon as possible. 

Your brother Baptiste and your cousin Lomini, who I had met with several times, told me that Etienne, before his departure, had given them full power over me, and they would continue paying me their nightly visits. They laughed at my displeasure as they left, and kept their word, since I continue to be bothered by them night and day. 

Mr. Baptiste, your brother, and your cousin Mr. Lomini, whom I had occasion to see several times, told me that Mr. Etienne, before his departure, had left them full power over me, and that they would pay me their nocturnal visits; on the displeasure that I showed them, they left me laughing, and kept their word, since I never cease to be bothered night and day.

Your brother has been here for nearly two months and I have yet to hear from him. Frustrated by his conduct to me, I wrote to your father, and I did not spare him. I think this worthy man must have reproached him appropriately, by sending him my letter.

Etienne invited me to meet with him soon, on the afternoon of the 20th, at the Luxembourg Gardens, where he would meet me. I went to the gardens, but he was not there. 

The next day I received a letter from him in an envelope, which I sent to your father, which seemed rather inappropriate to me: If this young man would take the trouble to reread the letters I sent to him in Amiens, if he would pause to reflect on the various morals I believe I had passed on to him in the last months of 1817 and the first months of this year, he would do me more justice, rather than suggesting that I should go live in Charenton. [2]

The next day, I received from him a letter in an envelope, in which was enclosed the one that I had addressed to your father; which seemed to me rather out of place.

If this young man would take the trouble to reread the letters that I addressed to him in Amiens; if he would then reflect on the different morals that I believed I should give him in the last months of the year 1817 and in the first of the present year, he would do me more justice and would cease to believe me worthy of going to live in Charenton.

So please, sir, ask your father to kindly reply to me, let me know what he thinks fit to say, and then I will have some further conversation with him. 

Sincerely,

M.B. 

The person to whom I had entrusted my letter to take to Jacques Prieur,  had given it to one of the women of the house. I had asked him for a reply, but Prieur preferred to give it to me invisibly. When I named him, the racket he made was no longer so loud. His two brothers assisting him in this visit cut the hair on my Coco’s back. Ettiene had cut the tail off the year before. 

[1] “Jacques” is a working name for the oldest of the three Prieur brothers, a pharmacist. It had become challenging to differentiate the eldest Prieur brother and the father of the Prieur brothers.

[2] Charenton: A lunatic asylum, recently home to the Marquis de Sade