How old are you?
I'll be fifteen in a few days.
And by what name are you known?
Juliette.
And never has any man -- ?
Oh no, Madame! I swear it!
Ah yes!
Well, you know, often in those convents,
there's a confessor, or a nun or a companion -
I must have proof.
You have only to look, and you will find it, Madame.
All you have to do is stay here.
Pay attention to what I tell you,
with compliance and submissiveness
to my practices.
You will be clean and thrifty
and utterly frank with me;
you will be cautious with your companions,
and with men, deceitful -
And within ten years, I promise you.
You will retire.
And the art you will have acquired, thanks to me.
Will endow you with the power
to procure everything else.
The masterpiece of philosophy
would be to use the same means
Providence uses on man,
and, from this construction, to deduce rules of conduct.
If, full of respect for social conventions,
in spite of all our care,
we happen to meet only with briars
while the wicked tread upon roses.
Won't people with little virtue think it is preferable
to abandon oneself to the tide,
rather than to resist it?
It is important to anticipate these sophistries -
essential to show that examples
of afflicted virtue
presented to a corrupted soul,
can bring it back to righteousness
just as if it were presented with the path to virtue,
ornate with the most flattering rewards.
Such are the sentiments directing our labors,
hence. we ask your indulgence
for the erroneous doctrines placed in the mouths
of our characters.
And for the sometimes difficult situations
which, out of love for truth,
we have been obliged to address before your eyes.
What can this poor unhappy child have done
to be bound and guarded like this?
She is accused of three crimes:
the charges are murder, theft and arson.
According to the law, she's being taken to Paris
for confirmation of her sentence.
My dear, for some reason, that girl moves me.
I would have her tell me her unhappy tale.
This creature. though she may be innocent,
is treated like a criminal,
while everybody unjustly prospers.
I who am soiled with crimes and horrors!
Tell me how it's possible that you,
with a face as sweet and beautiful as yours,
have found yourself in so dreadful a situation?
Were I to recount the story of my life, Madame,
I would offer an awesome example of oppressed virtue
and innocence,
accuse the hand of Heaven -
You'll permit me to conceal my name and origins.
Thérése is what I call myself.
As a young infant, I lost my family.
I thought that with the small legacy I had been granted,
I might find an adequate post to keep me alive,
and, refusing those that were not suitable,
I managed to get back to my native Paris,
and soon spent the little bit which I possessed.
Of all the severities to which
I've been forced to expose myself,
since my woeful career began,
amongst all the loathsome proposals
that were made me,
I will only cite to you what befall me
at the home of Monsieur Dubourg.
One of the capital's richest tradesmen -
What can I do for you?
Alas Monsieur, I am but a poor orphan girl
already well acquainted with ill fortune.
i implore your commiseration.
Hmm!
Take pity on me. I beseech you!
Have you always watched your conduct?
I think that I should not now be so poor
nor so embarrassed, Monsieur.
Had I wished to go astray.
Please, no claims you have no right to!
Why expect the wealthy to relieve you
if you're in no way useful to them?
Is there then no more honesty nor benevolence
in the hearts of men?
You bewail your fate.
Yet, you and you alone are able to remedy it.
Great heavens! At what price?
Mmm - nothing of much weight
one which is of value only as a token of your own pride.
Remove your clothes this instant!
Oh! Oh, Monsieur!
Let yourself be swayed. I beseech you!
Be so generous as to come to my aid
without asking of me what would be so costly
that I would rather offer up my very life than submit!
Cause me to perish,
but never will I violate the principles
I've received in my childhood!
Oh, Monsieur, please don't coerce me or constrain me!
May pleasure even be imagined
attended by disgust and shame?
Dare you expect happiness where you see naught
but loathing?
No sooner will you have consummated your crime
than my despair will overwhelm you with remorse-
I went away terribly humiliated.
And I heaped all malediction on this satyr
capable of making such cruel sport of my misery.
Alas, my imprecations.
Instead of calling down God's wrath on that villain,
only gave him further blessings.
I was then received as a servant
in the house of an old usurer, Monsieur Du Harpin.
After having delivered a long speech
upon the indifference of robbery,
upon, indeed, its usefulness in the world,
since it re-establishes a sort of equilibrium
which totally confounds the inequalities of property,
he enjoined me to go and steal a gold box
in the lodgings of the man above him.
You will bring me that gold box,
and for a service as simple as that,
I will give you, for the next two years,
one ecru a year more as wages.
Oh, Monsieur, how is it possible
that a master dare corrupt an innocent domestic?
Who'd stop me if I were to turn on you
the very weapons that you place in my hands?
And, what if someday. my actions convert you
into a victim of your very own principles?
Ha-ha, my little rascal!
Splendid reply you there!
You are lucky to have spurned my advances.
It was a trial by fire.
Because you were dead if you had snapped at that bait!
Hal
But malefactors do not like to meet resistance
in those they seek to seduce.
One night, Monsieur Du Harpin
appeared by my bed.
He ordered a search -
and the miserable ring this bad man
accused me of stealing --
- Here it is! - was found --
- in my mattress. - Aha!
- The little thief! - Take her out of my sight!
Little good did my defense do.
I was condemned and taken to the prison
of the Conciergerie,
where I was on the brink of having to pay with my life
for refusing to participate in a crime.
There, near me, was La Dubois.
As celebrated for her beauty
as for the variety and number of her villainies.
This woman became interested in me,
being moved by a desire to make a disciple of me.
Yes, nature has made us all equal, Thérése.
It's amusing to hear these rich ones,
these magistrates and priests
who are forever preaching virtue!
It's not very difficult to forswear theft
when one has three times more than one needs to live.
One is hard put never to think of murder
when one is surrounded only by slaves.
You would have us shun crime
when its hand alone opens up unto us the doors of life?
We who are viewed only with disdain for we are weak.
We whose lips are wetted with venom, whose
stockinged-legs are torn by thorns.
And yet we must defend ourselves from the crime --
when his hand alone can open up the doors of life.
There are pious principles I adhere to.
And, God willing, they will never desert me.
The only reason Providence is making
my career on earth so difficult,
is that I may be compensated in a better world.
Those are absurd doctrines!
Believe me, Therese; you can forget God's justice
and future rewards.
All those platitudes
lead Only 10 death from starvation.
Don't lie down to sleep tonight.
Stay by my side near the door.
During the night, the Conciergerie will burn;
I have seen to it.
Many people will no doubt die.
But what of it?
When what is at stake is our welfare,
the lives of all others count for nothing.
The hand of God.
Which had just punished my innocence,
served the crime of my protectress.
Twenty-one persons were consumed in the fire,
but we made a successful escape.
We reached the cottage of the chief of her band,
who went by the name of Coéur-de-Fer.
Here's our decision, Thérése.
You must submit to us immediately,
and satisfy the desires of all three of us.
Oh! Oh, Madame. I beseech you.
once again be my protectress!
Oh. You poor girl!
You poor, unhappy creature!
What?
You tremble at the obligation
of doing service. one at a time.
To three big. tall, handsome boys like these?
Are you aware there are ten thousand women in Paris
who would give half of their gold,
or half of their jewels, to be in your place?
I shall follow you, Madame.
I'll go anyplace with you, I promise!
Spare me the awful fury of these men,
and never will I leave your side!
Children, this girl is one of the company.
I am taking her into it, and I ask you to do her no ill.
She has got to submit!
Does she think she must give proof of her virginity
to be admitted among thieves?
Though used. she'll as readily be turned
to prophet as any virgin!
One moment, friends!
It's possible to content everybody!
Behold how much this little girl prizes her virtue.
Since such is the case, let us leave it to her!
But, we've got to have our senses appeased.
Let Thérése strip at once,
and stand naked as the day she was born,
and adopt for our delight, each one in turn,
all the positions which it shall please us to require.
Meanwhile, our little Dubois can appease our hungers,
and cause our incense to burn on the altar,
the entrance to which is refused us by this creature!
Strip!
Oh, what are you asking, Monsieur?
The instant you set eyes upon such a vision as that,
Heaven help my virtue!
- Ouch! - Shut up, you bitch!
Come, I'm in no mood to suspend my desires!
I must say. In her place.
I'd much rather offer an open door
than have the gate battered like this.
But that she forbade.
We're verging upon the capitulation.
Vigorously! Vigorously, Dubois!
That is what I suffered,
but at least my honor was respected,
even though my modesty was not.
I felt in need of Dubois' support.
And wanted to pass the night by her side,
but she had planned to employ it otherwise
than in shielding my virtue from the attacks I dreaded.
Ah, Therese, aren't you being exceedingly foolish
in acting so pretentiously with us,
in wanting to safeguard your purity?
No matter, dear girl-
I shall not touch that phantom
whose possession causes all you delight.
I'll have you know there is more than one favor
a girl can grant.
Offerings to Venus can be tendered
in more than one single temple.
I will be content with the most mediocre.
You know, my dear, near the Cyprian altar,
there's an obscure grotto into which love retires,
the more energetically, to seduce us.
Such will be the altar where I'll burn my incense.
Not the slightest disadvantage there,
if pregnancies afright you.
It's not, in this manner; they will come about.
Never will your pretty figure be deformed.
Oh Monsieur, I have no experience
of the thing in question.
But I hear this monstrous aberration you suggest-
outrages a woman, and yet, more unpleasant a manner!
Blinded by the wicked man's seductions,
content by yielding a little
to save what seemed to me to be the more essential,
reflecting not upon what I was about to risk,
since the dishonest fellow
possessing gigantic proportions
hadn't even the possibility of taking a woman
in the most permissible place.
And had no other object but to maim me.
My eyes, as I see, had been blinded IO all that;
I was about to abandon myself,
and become criminal 108 virtue.
Who are you, Monsieur,
and what singular lack of prudence
has prompted you to ride alone
in the middle of the night, in these desolate regions?
My name is St. Florin.
I now return from Flandres.
It's to avoid the heat I'm traveling at night.
I guess I was overtaken by sleep.
There you are, it's everything I possess.
Spare me, and you can have it.
Look friend, you will understand
that after such a robbery, we can't possibly let you live.
Oh, Monsieur!
Monsieur. I beseech you.
Don't present upon my reception
herein your group
the horrible spectacle
of this poor gentleman's death.
And this favor, since it is the first,
you must not refuse it to me!
You know upon what conditions
I shall be able 10 grant the kindness
you've just begged of me, Thérése.
You know very well,
you're aware of what I'm asking of you.
l will do everything!
Yes, everything! Let him go!
He lives, but he must join us;
this last clause is indispensable.
Thérése, I'd have you keep your sweet promise.
But I'm very weary tonight, so rest -
Simply rest beside me;
and I will awaken you as the day breaks anew.
And I swear that knave's death,
if you but hesitate. Thérése.
Will avenge your deceit toward me.
Sleep well, Monsieur, sleep well,
and rest assured that I,
who have only boundless gratitude.
Have no other desire than to acquit it.
It is to you, Thérése, that I owe fortune and life.
What better can I do
than to lay them both at your feet?
Such generosity is beyond my ken, Monsieur.
I only ask you to take pity on me.
Deign to respect my honor, 'tis my only treasure.
I only beg. as my sole recompense.
To accompany you to Lyon,
and be placed in an honorable household.
No man's in a nicer position than I, my dear,
to render you this service.
I have kin aplenty in the city of Lyon.
I will introduce you tomorrow.
Trust me, please, Thérése, and as we walk,
you'll tell me of your troubles
and what you've gone through.
I am but a poor orphan girl,
already well acquainted
with every shade of ill fortune.
I was scarcely twelve years old -
Are these obscure trails
really the ones we should be taking?
When shall we be there?
We're already there. whore!
Huh - ha!
I have no idea what that man did or said,
but the state I was in when I returned to my senses,
advised me only too well
to what point I had been his victim.
Dishonored!
Such had been the reward
of all I had just done for the unlucky man.
There is no one who deep in his heart
does not feel the most vehement desire
to be rid of those
whose death may be of some advantage to him.
If these impressions come to us from nature,
can it be presumed that they irritate her?
Since it is proven that she cannot reproduce
without destructions.
Is it not to act in harmony with her wishes
to multiply these destructions?
This location will suit us admirably, dear friend.
The cruel and fatal presence of an aunt I abhor
won't prevent me from tasting a moment with you
the pleasures which I cherish.
Is it possible that Destiny has placed me
in none but situations so critical
that it becomes quite as difficult for virtue
to hear them recited.
As for modesty to describe them?
The act was scandalous and prolonged.
The domestic. filled with ardor,
was ready to immolate his master
with a spear more awful and more colossal
than the one wherewith
Coéur-de-Fer had menaced me.
Aroused by these criminal caresses.
The infamous creature writhed under the iron,
and seemed to regret it was not yet more terrible.
A tender couple. lawfully wedded.
Would not have caressed more passionately.
Their mouths were pressed together,
their sighs intermingled,
their tongues entwined.
And I witnessed the both of them, drunk with lust.
Bring their perfidious horrors to completion
in the very vortex of delight.
Jasmin! We have been discovered!
Some girl has spied on us.
Come on, quickly! Let's flush the slut out!
Oh, gentlemen!
Deign to have pity upon an unhappy creature
whose fate deserves more compassion
than you can imagine!
I am but a poor orphan girl
already well acquainted with ill fortune.
I was scarcely twelve years old
when I was abandoned by my protectors.
Delivered quite defenseless to the world --
Ha. ha. ha! Come, undress her!
We'll undress her and tie each of her limbs to a tree.
That's enough.
For the moment, we shall let her off with a fright.
Be clever and come with us.
It happens that a second chambermaid
is needed at my aunt's;
so I will present you to her.
However, my girl, should you abuse my confidence.
If you refuse to submit to the plans and demands
that I have --
see those trees to which you were bound?
Upon the least provocation.
You'll be brought back to them at once.
Your candor and charming naivet?
do not permit me to believe
that you could in any way, be false;
and I knew your father:
another reason that moves me
to become interested in your fate.
Unfortunately, that dishonest Du Harpin
has just fled to England.
Alas, Madame!
Is there than no justice in this world?
There now, you mustn't fret.
Soon, all unhappiness and travail will be over for you.
But, whatever the foul treatment
to which Count de Bressac had exposed me
the first day I had met him,
it was all the same impossible to see him
as frequently as I was seeing him,
without feeling drawn toward him
by an insuperable and instinctive tenderness.
Despite all my thoughts upon his cruelty.
His disinclination toward women,
the depravity Of hi$ 1881981
nothing in the world was capable of extinguishing
this nascent passion.
And had the Count called upon me to lay down my life,
I'd have done it a thousand times over.
He was far from suspecting my sentiments.
You see how far I go to please you, Monsieur:
even to the point of serving your errors
and deceiving your aunt.
But if decency cannot prompt you to moderation,
you should think about the affect
it has on your health!
Ah, Thérése!
If only you knew the charms of this fantasy.
The depth of the emotion caused by the sweet illusion
that one is. like a woman, giving up!
Incredible inconsistency of the mind!
One abhors that sex, yet one wishes to imitate it!
And, how sweet it is to succeed in this,
how delicious it is to be a whore to everyone
who would have to do with you!
If you are able to imagine the physical delights
of this divine whimsy, there's no withstanding it!
The sensations produce delirium;
the titillations so voluptuous,
so piquant that one goes out of one's mind!
You mustn't believe, Therese,
that we are made the same as other men.
The structure is entirely different.
And that membrane that is so sensitive,
and lines your temple of Venus,
is the same which ornaments the altar
at which our Celadons sacrifice.
In that place, we are women as absolutely as you are
in the sanctuary of procreation.
How odious of you. my nephew.
To impose such paradoxes on a poor young girl!
Don't you fear lest the Being to whom you owe all
take revenge upon your libertine ways?
Come, my aunt!
It is indeed enough to bear your presence.
You'd only make things worse
in attempting to thwart my appetites.
I might convince you of their charm
by practicing them before your eyes!
Oh! Oh!
Listen to me, Thérése;
I have things of the utmost consequence to tell you.
Swear to me that you'll never tell a soul about them.
Oh, Monsieur!
How could you believe
that I could possibly abuse your trust in me?
Come here.
I have decided to do away with my aunt.
And it is by your hand that I shall carry it out.
By my hand!
Madame, there's something of the utmost importance
I must reveal,
but though it's 8 matter that touches you closely,
I will not reveal it
unless you give me your solemn word of honor
that you won't bear the slightest resentment
toward your nephew
for what he has dared to plan.
Alright!
I swear it. my child.
But what extravagance is he now indulging in?
Dear lady, it's your death which he is plotting --
and it is my hand he has charged with the mission.
The monster!
I've done everything for that boy's wellbeing!
Thérése!
Thérése, prove my nephew is plotting, my dear!
Prove it in such a way as to remove all doubt!
Oh. God!
But what proof is this?
My life's been saved; I'm most grateful.
Run along; don't attract attention.
I will dispatch somebody at once, a courier,
to the Duke of Sonzeval, my cousin.
Therese, there is a much better method
than the one that I proposed to proceed with our project.
Await me at the far end of the park.
I'll explain it to you.
Do you recognize that bush whence I dragged you.
Only to spare a life which you deserved to lose?
Why did you agree to carry out the tasks I demanded.
If your intent was to betray me to my aunt?
Of necessity, placed between two crimes,
why have you chosen the more abominable?
Alas! Did I not choose the lesser one?
You should have refused, yes, certainly, refused.
But you consented. only to betray me.
You have risked your life
without having saved my aunt's.
Now, the die is cast, but you must perish --
and before you expire,
you must learn that the path of virtue
is not always the safest,
and that there are circumstances in this world
when complicity in crime is preferable to informing!
Oh, no! Oh! Oh!
Please, don't! Oh, no! Oh! Oh!
Mercy. please!
Ah, nice buttocks! Really superb flesh!
An excellent luncheon for my dogs!
Let us free the animals, the time's come!
No, please! No!
That's enough!
Tie up the dogs.
And let us abandon this creature to her fate.
You see, Thérése, one often has to pay dearly for virtue.
So, would not a pension of two thousand ecu
have been preferable to the bites
you are now covered with?
It's most generous of me to save your life;
take good care how you use this favor!
Tormented by my still bleeding wounds,
overwhelmed by the anxieties of my mind
and the sorrows of my heart,
I dragged myself along as best I could
to the house of the surgeon of the village of Saint Marcel,
a man named Rodin --
Only superficial wounds --
But you will have to stay here for at least a month,
until there's not a single trace
of their cruel treatment left on you.
I'm not to be thanked. please.
Since surgery is an art
that I love more than you can know.
You'll remain till you're well.
After a month had passed, I was completely cured.
Monsieur Rodin bade me remain in his service.
But there was something about him
that did not appear to conform to ordinary conduct.
His servants were all very pretty --
and he also ran a boarding school
for boys and girls.
I expressed my astonishment to his daughter, Rosalie.
This is no laughing matter!
Tell me everything; I beseech you, dear girl!
To you, Thérése, I will tell everything.
You're obviously not able to betray the secret
I'm about to confide to you.
My father passes for the most
experienced surgeon in all of France.
If he has come to these rustic haunts,
it's for his own pleasure.
The official practitioner in Saint Marcel
is one named Rombeau
This man, once a protég?of Father's,
is now his collaborator.
You know why Father wanted to run a boarding school?
Libertinage, only libertinage!
A passion he carries to its extremes.
My father looks upon his pupils,
regardless of sex,
as objects submitted to his perversity.
And he takes advantage -- But there, listen.
It's in fact today Friday,
one of the three days of the week.
When he punishes those who have made mistakes.
And it is in these forms of punishment
that he finds pleasure.
Oh god, how can one give oneself up to such excess?
How may one ever find any pleasure
in the torments one inflicts?
There's something else you have not been told.
Even me, my dear!
He bent even me to his ways,
even me; even me!
I was but eleven years old, and already his victim!
But, see for yourself, my dear Thérése.
You may observe from his closet,
this one right here.
Classes are over now --
the hour when he is filled with visual preliminaries,
and quite ready to compensate
for the constraint
sometimes imposed upon him by his prudence.
Let me examine you a last time.
I want to be sure that there are no longer any traces
from your wounds.
Therese, you are back to health, my dear.
You can now show me some of the thanks
of which your heart is filled.
Your manner is easy.
If I must know.
Yes, that is my reward.
I never demand this of women.
But this is one of the most beautiful I have ever seen
in my life.
What curves. what elasticity.
Perfection in flesh.
Oh I absolutely want to come.
Monsieur, I wish you to be sure that there is nothing
in the world that would oblige me to satisfy the desire
you would seem to wish.
My thanks to you are due. I agree.
But I will commit no crime.
Here is the little money I possess.
Take it, and let me leave this house.
It is quite unfortunate that you take this stand with me.
I have, it seems to me. a certain right
to your indulgence.
However, keep your money, but do not leave me.
Stay with me, Therese.
I'll look after you with great joy.
Amid the vice that sweeps me away.
At least I will have the consolation
of a virtuous soul
near me and near my daughter.
It's with Rosalie that I shall place you.
And I will give you 300 livres as salary.
As it is so, I will accept your offer, monsieur,
for Rosalie's sake.
In spite of all this, I instructed Rosalie,
giving her a taste for virtue and religion.
But, all of a sudden, she vanished from the house.
All my efforts to discover where she was, failed.
I questioned repeatedly.
And was told she had gone to spend the summer months
with a relative who lived ten leagues away.
Was it possible that Rosalie,
whose affection for me was so great,
could have consented to leave me
without so much as a word?
I resolved to employ every device
to learn what had become of her.
And to find this out,
every means appeared justifiable.
Rosalie!
Anatomy will never reach its ultimate state of perfection
until an examination has been performed
on the canal of a 14 or 15 year old youth
who has expired from a cruel death.
The same holds true for the membrane
which secures virginity -
and for that purpose. a fine subject
is that pretty daughter of yours.
The manner in which we have enjoyed her
has done no damage to that membrane,
and we shall be able to do what we will with it.
So happy that you have made your mind up!
Considering the ties attaching you
to that creature,
I entertained certain fears that you might hesitate.
Why?
Because she is my daughter?
Fine reason, indeed!
I place the same value upon a bit of seed
that has hatched.
As I do upon the seed I am pleased to waste
while enjoying myself.
We've the power to take back that which we give.
Never was the right to dispose of the children
one has fathered
been denied. In the history of populations!
Oh, but I approve, my friend!
Yet your indifference astonishes me!
I believed you to be in love.
Me! You mean of a girl!
Ah, Rombeau!
I employ those creatures only when there is nothing better!
Chilpéric, the most voluptuous
of the kings of France,
said that only in emergencies
did he make use of the services of women,
but on the sole and express condition
that they be destroyed
when we have done with them.
Rosalie!
Thérése! Oh, Thérése!
Is it you?
Yes, Rosalie, dear friend,
it I$ I heaven sent to rescue you!
Six years, this slut has been on hand
to serve my pleasure.
She shall redeem
my no longer wanting her flesh
by no longer existing.
There's not a moment to lose!
Come on! The monsters! It's planned for tonight!
They're on their way!
You wretch!
Where are you going?
And this little rascal was helping you to escape.
Thérése!
Behold the effect of your great principles
of virtue!
You kidnap a daughter from her father!
Of course!
It was my duty, because her barbarous father
was plotting against his daughter's life!
Aha! That's espionage and seduction tool
The most dangerous and vicious traits in a maid!
Get up here! Upstairs!
We have to judge this affair now!
What shall we do with that slut?
I suggest we uncover her heart,
to measure its beating and blood flow with our own eyes,
and carry out on this organ
all observations impractical on a cadaver.
But, first of all, I would say
we should take by storm
that fortress your temperate proceedings respected.
I have never seen so superb a virgin.
Virgin!
Why yes, almost -
Once. In spite of herself,
when she'd been stunned she was violated.
Leave her to me for now.
Since you're not a virgin, what does it matter?
For no guilt may be added!
We're going to rape you as you already have been,
and so, not the least peccadillo
shall sit on your conscience.
No! No!
We mustn't waste our powers on that creature.
We now have other labors we've postponed.
And they are to punish Rosalie,
and a lot of vigor will be needed
to make her pay her debt.
Let's mete out another sort of punishment
for this wretch.
No! No! Oh, no!
She shall be branded!
Yes, branded for life as thieves are!
This disgrace. combined with those
which previously scarred her figure,
will get her hanged if she doesn't first starve to death.
No! No! No!
The whore had best not attempt to show herself now!
Is that a monastery over there?
Yes, there are four Benedictines there.
Holy men bent on solitude.
Indeed. throughout this land,
they are renowned for their continence and sobriety.
I would be happy to go there.
Will you come and pray with me?
I'm expected back at the house, but go,
the superior is the most saintly of men.
His name is Don Severino.
He is related to the Pope.
You'll find satisfaction there, Mademoiselle,
go and improve yourself in that sacred solitude.
What do you want?
Is this a suitable hour to come to a church?
You've every appearance of an adventuress!
Holy Father, I thought all hours were fitting
to present oneself at God's door.
I only ask to confess my sins, if I may.
But the hour is past!
And where would you sleep after confession?
We do not keep a hospice.
You should have come tomorrow morning!
Well, my daughter,
You've come at a quite unreasonable hour;
we're not used to receiving this late.
All the same. I'll hear your confession.
Afterward, we'll see if we can find some way
of keeping you with us overnight.
I am listening, my child.
I am but a poor orphan girl,
already well acquainted with ill fortune -
What you've been relating is most extraordinary.
You were born in Paris,
and in infancy, you lost your parents.
Every word is true, Father.
And you have neither kin nor friends,
nor anybody to protect you?
Nobody you can write to for help, or solace.
Alas no, nobody in the world.
No one. save the shepherdess.
Knows that you are visiting us?
But you are meeting with her afterward?
No, I'm not!
No other man's known you since your one misadventure?
And are you sure that the last cheat who abused you
really went at it both ways.
On the side which nature condemns,
and the one she permits?
But did anyone see you winding your way
to our domain?
I'm sure no one did.
The shepherdess was the only person I saw,
and no one else saw me, I'm sure.
Come with me, my daughter.
I promise that you'll enjoy the sweet satisfaction
of taking communion tomorrow,
but let us begin by providing for your primary needs.
What is this, Father? We're going inside?
Where else, charming pilgrim?
Do you fear a night spent with four saintly hermits?
I'm sure we shall find means of entertainment, dear angel.
And should we not provide you
with many pleasures;
at least you may serve our pleasures
to their most extreme extent
Keep going. slut.
Try neither complaint nor resistance with me.
All will be useless.
Oh god, must I be once again the victim of my good sense,
and the desire to fasten onto all that is most
respectable in religion be punished like a crime?
Brothers, allow me to present a veritable phenomenon!
A saintly creature.
Who simultaneously bears on her body.
The brand of girls of evil repute,
and, in her conscience,
the utter candor of a virgin,
almost vestal.
I add that her best part is- ah, Clément,
wait till you feast your senses
on this splendid flesh.
Such elasticity!
And colored like the rose!
How poetic, fuck!
The encounter is amusing!
I have to verify the facts!
It can be easily imagined that resistance to our designs
is entirely useless in this impenetrable retreat.
Look, around you; you see fair companions
who like yourself, upon entering here
thought to resist.
And who, as prudence will also bid you to do,
ended by submitting.
Indeed, I shall be very explicit, Thérése.
There are a few ways we have.
Of coping with unmanageable girls.
Furthermore, what can you expect to find here?
Justice?
Just what does that mean?
Humanity?
Our sole pleasure is to violate its every law.
Religion?
It is as nothing to us.
As we become better acquainted
with its secrets,
our contempt for it increases.
You will discover only rank egotism,
and cruelty, and debauchery, and impiety beyond belief.
So, unquestioning submission is your lot;
you may have none other.
Hurry up, strumpet! Undress!
Let your flesh undergo our lecheries.
Let us soil it at once;
else evil deeds of the utmost cruelty
will soon prove what hazards are incurred
by the hapless female
who would attempt disobedience.
Oh! Have mercy on me! I beseech you!
Do not take my most cherished possession!
Take my life, but leave me my honor!
You must understand, my child,
you must understand that what we want of you
is to see you stripped instantly!
Just look at that!
Look brothers, how lovely!
Let's get undressed. let's get undressed!
Not a shred of clothing left on.
What is Chis?
That slut, Clemence, must be nude in a minute and must
learn that, here amongst us, pity cannot refrain nature.
Now, there's a splendid creature!
Come, you know our formula for welcoming newcomers!
Let her submit to every single act,
omitting none!
And meanwhile, let the other four women
stand all around us,
for gratification of our wants
after exciting us.
Never was 8 prize more difficult to win.
Well!
I thought that my ship for the first time
would be wrecked ere I could put into port.
Ah, how torrid are the narrows!
Like the lovely cupbearer of the Gods!
She who brings you suffering shall be punished.
I'm wise to the ways
of teaching the obstinate goose
not to resist the taking of your pleasure.
Ah, my good friends. Is it possible to resist
thrashing a schoolgirl
who exposes to us an arse so beauteous!
Look at that virtue so pure
damaged by just one assault.
It must hardly show, I imagine.
I must lead her back to the sex
that you're just soiled.
There's more than one breach in the ramparts!
And now, you'll give her some food
that she may find her strength renewed.
Oh! Oh!
Kill me, I beseech you!
Life fills me with horror!
I never saw a more beautiful spectacle.
Behold. my good friends.
The state of excitement it puts me into!
It is extraordinary how much I can be stirred
by feminine agony.
Let us go back to work.
And teach her to scream properly!
In this second assault,
let us handle the bitch even more brutally!
One moment.
While your zeal is being spent on the posterior
of this beautiful girl, I can, it seems to me,
"praise" another of her divinities.
We will put her between us.
The Father Superior had me led to a chamber
with three other girls,
whose fate I was henceforth to share.
I could not dispel the thought
of the execrations I had suffered.
Alas, if at certain times,
those pleasures had occurred to my wandering imagination,
I had thought them chaste
as is the God who inspires them.
L'd fancied them the product of love and delicacy.
I'd been very far from believing that man,
after the example of savage beats,
could only relish them by causing his companion
to shudder.
The superintendent of the chamber, Ursula,
had a taste for women.
After all the horrors to which I'd been subjected,
I thought of nothing but to capture a little rest.
But I had to bend myself to her too.
Her impure mouth sought to attach itself to mine,
as her fingers labored to determine sensations
she was far from obtaining.
For not being awake on time in the morning, 30 lashes.
For presenting a part of the body
other than the one desired, 50 lashes.
For not warning that one had her period.
60 lashes.
The day that the doctor confirms you're pregnant,
100 lashes.
Negligence, impossibility, or refusal
to carry our sensual demands, 200 lashes.
An attempt to escape. nine days in the dungeon
completely nude.
No one has ever succeeded in escaping?
No one ever gets out of here?
No one has ever been able.
As soon as a new girl arrives in this impure cesspit,
as soon as she is hidden forever from the universe,
we capture another.
The cruelest words we may have are ignored
in this terrible and worrying place.
What is sure is that of those who have got out,
the promise that they have made
to make formal complaints
against those who hold us here.
None have kept their word.
What then becomes of these unfortunate souls?
Would murder then be --
Be quiet!
We must flee. we must absolutely.
These abominable ideas remind me of how
we had to quit that terrible place.
If you find it acceptable, madame,
I will confine myself
to explaining a short history of my first months
passed here in this convent.
Tales of the monotony of the days spent here
will spoil my successes, and I will pass immediately
to the event that allowed me to leave this impure cesspool.
This time, we've done it.
Hide yourself well, dear girl.
It is nine o'clock, the urgency of the moment
is upon us.
Come.
As children of honor, we defer to his superiority.
His merits have been recognized.
He has just been named General of the Order.
My greatest desire is that
this does not stop our pleasure.
Come. let us go.
It has been six months that you have been here, Therese.
How have you found these adventures?
She will get used IO ii.
There is no house in France
where girls are better educated than here.
Come.
Sit on the edge of the bed.
Ursula. lift her petticoats.
Unlace her bodice and show her chest.
That's nothing.
We treat others worse here.
A salad of thorns, peppered. or dipped in vinegar,
pushed in with the point of the knife.
That's what suits these sluts.
We must tame her.
Let her serve as an altar in her turn.
How can you indulge in such infamies?
Take heed lest Heaven strike you down for your sins!
Without a doubt.
The most stupid thing in the world,
my dear Thérése.
Is to dispute the tastes
that men may be endowed with.
Liking what everyone else likes
simply proves that the organs are similar.
It does not favor the beloved object.
If than there exists in our world,
persons whose tastes run counter
to the prejudices of men,
not only must we not be surprised.
But they must receive our aid, satisfaction,
one should annihilate all obstacles in their path,
because they are no more responsible
for having their bizarre taste
than you are responsible for being either bright,
or born a hopeless imbecile.
Indeed, it is in the mother's womb
that are fashioned the organs
which will render us susceptible
to a particular fantasy;
after birth, the very first sights.
The very first sounds and touches.
Determine this or that pattern,
once and for all.
And once they're formed. nothing in the world
can possibly destroy them.
But such opinions are abominable!
They excuse and encourage cruelty, and corruption.
What is most curious is
that when it is only a question of trifles,
the differences in taste in no way surprises.
But when lechery is the issue, what a great to-do about it!
You women, forever jealously guarding
your rights.
Tremble 81 the thought that there is something
you could lose.
You may, of course, invoke your own moral principles
against us.
But a woman is only an instrument to gratify man.
She is an unreliable witness
in question pertinent to her body.
She knows nothing of pleasure.
There is no other sensation on earth
that can compare with pain, in acuteness.
Its delights are sure.
It can never be as disappointing as pleasure,
perpetually pursued by women
but so seldom truly experienced.
Is it not obvious that woman shares nothing with us
without also taking?
That she robs us?
And what necessity is there, if you please.
That a woman have pleasure when we do?
The man of whom you're speaking, is monstrous!
He of whom I speak is in tune with nature!
Like the beasts of the jungle!
It's a very different thing to love and to come.
The proof: to come everyday and to come more and more
often can be without love.
Good God! You make me tremble.
May the man who cannot reform his tastes and who
would be like any other man,
does he not single himself out?
A man given these tastes is sick.
What happens to your desire?
Your morals?
Your religion?
Your heaven?
Your justice? Your hell?
When he will be shown to be sick
in every fibre of his body. In his very blood.
Do not make of this kind of man
the object of your labor.
You have said too well.
I would never accept this destructive sensuality.
Because you fear to become its object!
Now that's egoism.
If you are stronger by some atrociously cruel principle,
and if you only like to please yourself through
pain, you will only produce an effect on the object or
person who serves you, a degree of violence that may
shorten her days.
So be it!
I will have served her Nature's design.
That is to say, with an oblong I will have made 3 or
4,000 circles or squares.
Where is the crime in that?
The love for others is a chimera that we owe to
Christianity and not to Nature.
The Nazarean is an unhappy fool, who in a moment of
weakness, cried for tolerance towards humanity.
He wanted to create that ridiculous rapport between
one person and another.
He hung onto his life by making us succeed in this.
Nevertheless, you do not eternally retain your
unfortunate victims.
You release them from here, no doubt.
Of course, Therese.
You have only entered this house for a certain time
before leaving it once again.
Do you not fear that the girls who have left, those
younger and less discreet, would reveal what has
happened here?
Impossible.
Impossible?
Absolutely.
Could you explain?
No!
That is our secret.
But what I may assure you of is this: discreet or not,
it will be perfectly impossible for you to say a single word
about what has happened here
when you have been completely reformed.
That evening, all of our chamber had left
for the monks' supper.
I chose that moment for my escape.
The monks, being occupied, would pay no attention to me.
For two months, with a dull knife I had found,
I had been sawing through the bars
of my window.
Dear heaven.
It is surely this cemetery where the executioners throw
their victim.
But it must be through virtue that I avenge this
affair.
Wait for me, courage!
Let us not be beaten.
Let us continue.
It is essential that the universe be rid of villains
as dangerous as these.
Before daybreak, I was near that same brook.
The very place
whence six long months before.
I had to my sorrow,
espied that frightful monastery.
My first thought was to fall on my knees.
And to beg God once again to forgive the sins
I had unwillingly committed
in that odious asylum of crime,
and to thank Him for having allowed me to escape.
Your age. little One?
Twenty-three, Monsieur.
Where were you before coming here?
Oh, I am only a poor orphan girl,
already well acquainted with ill fortune -
I've no kinsmen to help me.
That is how the monks were treating you?
Have you not passed over any stray details?
No, Monsieur, I've told you all.
Splendid!
You're going to be asked to repeat to me
all these deeds of valor, now and then.
Have you been bled already, child?
Yes, Monsieur, I've been bled twice.
I must insist on a perfect figure;
no flaws are allowed if you occupy the important position
we'll have you occupy.
So come, take off your clothes!
You're warned against attempting to act
prudish with me!
I have means that are sure to bring
every woman to her senses.
What you have related
truly wouldn't point to any great virtue in you.
Thus, any resistance is actually quite out of place.
And utterly ludicrous.
What a beautiful thing a girl is, my friends!
But such a pity they have a cavity there!
And, while my front was the subject of their sarcasms,
the Count, an intimate partisan of the behind,
alas, like every libertine,
was examining mine with the keenest interest.
It was in the course of this inspection
that he solicited many details
concerning what had been done
to me at the monastery.
And I, without noticing that my account of it
only doubled his ardor,
was candid enough IO give all the details,
in all naivet?
That was how this libertine
exhausted the unfortunate youths
he kept in his house.
The hommage which the Count
had rendered me had been long,
but without a trace of infidelity
to his chosen temple.
We will show you our way.
Our way of getting things done.
Narcisse, my lancets!
Thérése, I won't put you through the trials
that you've just been subjected to, very often,
but it was essential that you know a few things,
such as the manner in which you will end
if you betray me one of these days.
If you were to let yourself be suborned by the woman
in whose society you are to be placed.
She's my wife by law, Thérése.
Nor must you surmise that 'tis vengeance
that has made me treat her thus.
It is indeed strange what a passion can do.
I like to shed blood
nothing can provide a pleasure equal to it.
It's quite simple;
I've enjoyed this woman only in this manner.
Sit down, Madame.
You have my permission to listen to us.
I merely wished to introduce the maid
I've at last found for you.
I hope that you have not forgotten the fate
which through your fault, befell all the others.
And that you will not attempt to plunge this girl
into the same misfortune.
I won't attempt anything
that would put you in a position
such as that, Mademoiselle.
I only want your care.
It will be yours entirely, Madame.
Here we have the terrace, but its elevation should,
I'm sure, preclude any idea of measuring its walls -
When were you bled the last time, Madame?
Just three days ago, and it will be tomorrow again.
Tomorrow, Mademoiselle,
you are going to witness that pretty scene.
Does madame not feel weak?
Dear God, I am not twenty.
I am sure that we are not weaker at 10.
I will weaken, I am only flattering myself.
It is perfectly impossible that I live long like this.
I will go find my father.
I will look in the arms of the Supreme Creator.
Ah, Peace -- that men have so cruelly refused me
in this world.
Are you ready?
I am, Monsieur, for I've remained
your favorite victim.
You need just give the order.
Strip her naked, Thérése. and bring her to me.
And now, spread them, Madame, at once!
It was then that I noticed, not without astonishment,
that this gargantus, the sight of whom alone
was enough to strike terror,
nevertheless. hardly appeared to be a man.
What one might find in a child of three
was all that one could discover
upon this otherwise so sizable
and full-fledged individual.
And now, Thérése, come;
change places with the Countess!
Oh, Monsieur!
I beg you not to demand that of me!
This is pointless.
This is not what I need!
It's pointless, pointless!
NO matter how pitiable my state may seem.
I can stand no more!
Come. Countess. your arms!
For my part. certain that the instant
in which the hoped-for crisis would occur
would bring an end to the Countess' torments,
I bent all my efforts toward
precipitating the denouement -
And I became a whore out of kindness.
And a libertine out of virtue.
I pumped the last drop from him.
His need of me made him respect me.
At last, I brought him to his senses
by ridding him of his fiery liquid.
Seven or eight tablespoons
would scarcely have contained it,
and the thickest gruel
would hardly give a notion of its consistency.
I wonder, Monsieur,
how you can possibly treat a woman
ill "Ii$ manner,
even if we overlook the close ties between you.
Condescend to reflect on the gracious weakness
of her sex!
Why should it be a man's duty endlessly
to abet a woman's happiness
when weakness is all she is famed for?
Had it not been the intention of nature
that one of the sexes should tyrannize the other,
would they not have been created of equal strength?
Now, what do we see?
A creature, puny compared to man,
one who is always inferior to him,
and far less beautiful than man in every way,
less ingenious.
Built gruesomely in odious taste,
an unhealthy being, who three-quarters of her life,
is incapable of satisfying her mate
during the entire period
nature constrains her to childbearing;
a creature so utterly perverse, in a word,
that this question was soberly discussed
at the Council of Macon;
can indeed this man-like thing
who really is as unlike man,
as distinct from man as is the ape,
have any pretension to the appellation human being?
In Rome, I hear wise Cato's words ring in my ears:
"Man, were he to be without woman,
would be conversing with the Gods!"
I hear the poets of ancient Greece:
"Oh Zeus, pray why?
Oh Zeus, why woman?
Thy ways I cannot fathom!
Could not have given being to humankind
by better devices and wiser, by schemes
which would have spared us this female pestilence?"
And, because unhappily, I live amidst a people
who are still so inelegant as not to have dared abolish
the most ridiculous of prejudices.
You'd forbid the rights which nature has accorded me
over the other sex?
No, Thérése.
I shall treat my wife by rules that are laid down
in every code in the universe,
engraved in my heart, and sealed in nature.
Oh Monsieur, your conversion is truly impossible?
So, I would advise you
not to make the attempt, Thérése.
Are you sure, Thérése.
That you wish to run this risk for my sake?
There can be no other way at present, Madame.
I have made every attempt
to convert your fearsome husband.
Oh no, give me the letter.
I shall deliver it to your mother.
As soon as my mother's eyes are at last opened
to the Count's infamous conduct,
she'll come and break my chains, I know she Will.
Go, my child!
My life is in your hands!
What are you doing there, Therese?
Oh, monsieur, punish me.
I am guilty and cannot say why.
Did the countess give you a letter for her mother?
No, monsieur.
Give it to me!
But I swear.
Follow me.
Imprudent girl!
I warned you that the crime you have just committed
is punishable by death.
You should indeed wonder what kind of death
you will suffer.
You will be bled three times a day.
I want to see how long you might live in this way.
It is an experiment I have always wanted to try.
I thank you for offering me this chance.
Monsieur, monsieur, come quickly,
Madame wants to talk to you
before she renders up her spirit.
Determined to reach
the unfortunate Countess' mother,
I directed my steps toward the town of Vienna.
By dawn, I was far from the castle of Gernande.
But other adventures were to distract me from my purpose.
Oh! And who is the benevolent angel
come to my rescue?
Monsieur, I am but a poor orphan girl
already well acquainted with ill fortune -
Still having the simplicity to believe
that a soul enchained by indebtedness
ought to be eternally beholden to me,
I instructed him of my numerous reverses.
He listened to me with interest.
And to betoken his gratitude,
he invited me to follow him to his castle near Grenoble,
thereto wait upon his sister,
of whom he was passionately fond.
Absolutely resolved to profit
from the aid Heaven seemed to have sent me,
and since Roland - such was my new patron's name -
consented to take care of the Countess' letter for me,
I followed him.
During the entire journey,
he showed me the utmost consideration,
and plied me will all manner of attention.
This is where I live.
Is it possible to live in such great solitude?
It suits me best -
you may take the horses back.
What's the trouble. Thérése?
We haven'! left France!
The castle's on the border of Dauphin?
in the county of Grenoble.
So be it, Monsieur. but what motive had you
for choosing a place only fit to shelter
outlaws and brigands?
Don't you see. the inhabitants of my castle
are none too honest;
it's possible you will not be edified by their activities.
You've set me trembling.
Where're you taking me now?
Inside, to be the servant of counterfeiters,
of whom I am the chief.
Do you see that wheel?
Such will be your task.
Those are your companions.
On the condition that you labor ten hours daily
at turning the wheel, and that you satisfy,
like the women before you,
the caprices which I'll be pleased to submit you to,
you'll receive six ounces of black bread,
and a plate of beans daily.
As for your freedom, forget it,
you'll never recover it.
Oh, great God!
Deign to remember, Monsieur.
That I've saved your life!
Doesn't what you're doing shock you?
Does not remorse already bring
thoughts of my salvation
to the depths of your heart?
What do you mean by these sentiments,
this gratitude with which I'm presumably captivated?
Between the possibilities of going on your way
and coming to me,
did you not choose in the latter
an impulse prompted by your heart?
You were simply yielding to an enjoyable urge.
On what vapid pretext can you claim a reward
for a pleasure you indulge in?
Let people do it for me what they wish
if they find joy in it,
but why ask a reward for having enjoyed it?
Just wait! This is nothing!
You're not at the end of your troubles yet.
For I want to acquaint you with the most barbaric
refinements of misery!
As you can easily surmise. the villain's caprices
were as ferocious as were all his ways of proceeding.
But I am abusing the kind patience you have shown me.
Should I broach new horrors?
Am I not just befouling your refined imagination
with my infamous tales?
Dare I hazard additional ones?
You must. Thérése, you must.
We ask you to give these details.
You've related these acts with such decency
that it blunts their horror,
leaving only what we need
to add to our comprehension of humanity.
And one must comprehend how badly such tableaux
are lacking in the development of our spirit.
There are branches of human knowledge
of which our great ignorance can only be due to
the stupid restraint of those who write upon such matters.
Chained by an absurd terror, they only make us yawn
with the puerilities known to the dullest clod.
And don't dare explore the human heart
in a courageous manner,
and offer its huge
idiosyncrasies to our judgments.
Very well, Monsieur, I'm going to obey.
I shall proceed as I've been doing so far.
I shall try to offer up my sketches
under the least repulsive colors.
Roland was a solid, strapping, strong man;
his vigor was simply incredible.
His mien was somber and his gaze ferocious.
A thick, bushy beard, very long nose.
And that part that differentiated him
from those of our sex
was of such length and exorbitant circumference
that not only had I never looked upon an object
that was comparable to it, in its every measure.
But I can claim I'm absolutely certain
that Mother Nature never had fashioned one
quite so prodigious.
Both of my hands couldn't encompass it,
and it was equal in length to half of my arm.
Have you ever beheld its peer?
No!
Such as you've seen it, slut,
you'll have to submit its introduction
into the part of you that's narrowest.
Even if it should split you in half!
My sister. very much younger than you,
sustains it in the same sector.
I've never enjoyed a woman in a different manner!
It will therefore have to cleave you in twain.
Take that frippery off!
Oh, Monsieur! Have mercy!
Deign not to forget how I once saved your life!
And now, you must perish!
I've had enough of your hypocritical sanctity.
Come, Thérése. It's time to say your prayers.
The instant of violations
shall be the instant I cast you into that sepulcher.
Ah, when I plunge you into the eternal abyss
that awaits you!
Ah, Thérése --
Well, were you frightened?
Oh, Monsieur!
That is how you'll perish; you can be sure, Thérése.
It was a pleasure to accustom you to it!
Let us conclude our sport
with a little game of 'cut the cord.'
Use this sickle.
'Tis a torture that's sweeter than one imagines.
One feels death only through
inexpressible sensations of pleasure.
Well, Thérése, if you will tell the truth,
I'll wager that you felt only pleasure.
Only horror, Monsieur, only anguish and disgust!
Only despair!
Grant me the favor
of accompanying you to Venice.
Perhaps there, I won't find so many hearts of stone
as in my native land.
I'll give you no help whatever.
Even if I were much richer,
there would not be one penny
in aid to the poor of this world.
The poor in the natural order.
I have principles on that score!
I'm not giving them up!
These principles are terribly harsh.
Pray tell, would you speak thus
had you not always been as wealthy as you are?
It could be, Thérése.
They complain of beggars in France.
If one wished, there'd soon be no more.
String up even seven or eight thousand beggars.
And that infamous kind would soon disappear.
Would a man being devoured by vermin
allow them to feed upon him out of commiseration?
But there's religion, and benevolence, humanity.
All obstacles on the path of those who pursue happiness!
It is only on the debris of all those hateful prejudices
that haunt man,
only through ruining the poor and robbing the rich
that one may reach the temple
on the mountain of the God I honor.
Imitate me!
The narrow road to this shrine
is open to everyone as it was open to me.
Have those ideals you've preferred
brought you comfort for your sacrifices?
And now, poor wretch, what can you do.
But shed tears over your sins?
Suffer!
And try to find,
in the depths of the ethereal phantoms that you so prize,
all that you've been losing,
thanks to your reverent blindness.
Before setting out, the scoundrel presented us
with a new scene of cruelty and barbarity.
Everyone at the chateau supposed Roland's sister
would leave with him, but just before he left-
I've got to try my pistols out on one of those little hussies.
Then, on the pretext Suzanne and I
were not shouldering the wheel
with sufficient vigor;
he dragged us down to the cellars.
You see that prosperity is the child of vice, Thérése,
and misfortune that of virtue.
But regardless of favors that I owe to good luck.
I may be abandoned by Fate one day.
If this happens to me.
I will have but one end, Thérése; hanging.
I am convinced that death by hanging
is a very pleasant one.
But women I've subjected to trials to prove it,
have given me very evasive replies.
Sol shall perform an experiment
upon my own person.
Let us proceed.
I'll excite myself a moment, but when I have reached
what you might call a certain consistency,
jerk the stool out
but keep your hands off my noose.
Let me hang until you've assured yourself
that I'm truly emitting my seed.
Or that I'm on the point of death.
In the second case. Thérése.
See that you cut the cord at once.
Otherwise, you'll let nature take her course.
And when I'm finished. untie me.
You realize that I'll be putting my life
into your hands.
Oh, Monsieur!
How extravagant is such a proposal!
Liberty and fortune!
Those two great prizes shall be your reward.
To my utter amazement,
nothing but symptoms of pleasure
ornamented his countenance.
And at very nearly the same instant,
rapid jets of his seed sprang nigh to the vault,
without any assistance whatsoever from me.
Ah, Thérése, one simply can't imagine
such sensations!
Now men may do what they wish to me,
I defy the sword of justice!
No sooner had Roland departed
after assuring himself of a safe journey to Venice.
That a troop of horsemen of the Constabulary
arrived to storm the counterfeiters lair
before our men had a moment's opportunity
to look to their defenses.
The court did not tarry long over the counterfeiters case.
They were all sentenced to be hanged.
When the mark that branded me was detected,
they scarcely gave themselves
the trouble of interrogating me.
How is it possible that our glorious providence.
Worshipped by all who adore justice,
had me punished for my virtue
yet moved up to mighty places
those who'd spattered me with their crimes?
But a thousand pardons, Madame.
A thousand pardons for having sullied your spirit
with such a host of obscenities.
And for taking long and undue advantage of your patience!
Adieu, Madame! Adieu!
My guards bid me join them.
I'll see what fate has kept in store for me.
Mademoiselle, you've concealed who you are.
You've hidden the secret of your birth.
I entreat you to tell me that secret at once!
Oh, great God!
Could the suspicion I have really --?
Oh, Thérése!
If you were Justine! If you were my sister!
Justine, Madame?
Then you --?
Today. she would be your age.
Juliette!
Yes!
You really are my sister!
It is you I hear!
Oh, I may die now;
my mind at peace now
because I may embrace you once again!
Justine! Justine! Justine!
Come, poor creature. target of such misfortunes.
Come, Justine, now everything
shall improve for you.
It shall not be said that your virtues
will always stay unrecompensed.
It shan't be claimed that the beautiful soul
that is yours
has encountered naught but souls of rock.
Stay, dear girl, since I'm answerable now,
I will protect you.
I have spoken for you to both of your guards.
And I'll write a letter
that they will take to the Chancellor.
Beloved man, you've done the most splendid thing
of which I've ever heard.
Come, Justine, come and kneel down
before this man who is so equitable!
This time, you'll not be abandoned.
Oh, Monsieur, if I've cherished
the beautiful ties we've had.
How much more these bonds will now be cherished,
strengthened by the most tender esteem!
The storm is raging!
As though the heavens have been stirred up
to fete your deliverance!
Dear Justine, I'm frightened.
Could you please close the window?
You may take the poor creature out.
No one in the world could help her.
No. let her stay so I may look at her.
I must gaze upon her, to make me firmer
in the resolve which I have now adopted.
Listen to me, Corville,
and do not oppose the project I have in mind.
Nothing on earth could keep me
from accomplishing it at present.
The absolutely unheard of misfortunes she suffered -
though she had always respected her duties -
really are so uncommon;
they've opened my own eyes on how I've lived myself.
What punishment should I dread.
When the worst libertinage, irreligion
and abandon of all principles marked each hour I've lived?
Let's separate now, Corville.
No tie keeps you.
Do forget me.
And approve my decision to do penance eternal,
abjuring before the Supreme Being
the infamies with which I've soiled myself.
Oh, you who have wept upon hearing
of the misery in Virtue,
you who have been moved by the fate of poor Justine,
forgive us for what have perhaps at times
been too-heavy strokes of the brush
we've been compelled to employ.
May you be convinced with her
that true happiness is to be found
in the womb of Virtue.
And that, if in keeping with designs,
that it is not for us to fathom,
God permits that virtue to be persecuted on earth.
It is so that it may be compensated
by heaven's most dazzling rewards.