The Testard Affair

“ In the year 1763, on Wednesday, October 19th, at 6 o’clock in the evening and before us, Hubert Murel, Parliamentary lawyer, King’s Counsellor, Commissioner at the Châtelet of Paris, […] appeared Jeanne Testard, a fan-maker who sometimes “did parties” (prostituted herself), living in the rue de Montmartre […] who, after taking an oath to tell the truth, declared to us […] that yesterday at eight o’clock in the evening […] For two louis d’or she was taken near the Rue Mouffetard to a little house with a carriage door painted yellow, with iron thistles above; that when they arrived her client [Sade] took her up to a room on the first floor, and that after sending down to the first floor his servant who had followed him, he locked the door of the said room with bolts. He asked her if she had any religion, and if she believed in God, in Jesus Christ, and in the Virgin; to which she replied that she believed in it, and that she followed as far as she could the Christian religion in which she had been brought up, to which “the individual” replied with horrible insults and blasphemies, saying that there was no God, that he had tested it, that he had “manualized himself to the point of pollution” in a chalice which he had had at his disposal for two hours in a chapel, that J.-C. was a scumbag and the Virgin a slut. He added that he had had intercourse with a girl with whom he had received communion, that he had taken the two hosts, had put them in the girl’s private that he had then seen carnally, saying “If thou art God; avenge yourself.” Then he suggested that she go into a room adjoining the said room, warning her that she was going to see something extraordinary; that having told him that she was pregnant, and that she feared to see objects that might frighten her, he replied that these objects would not frighten her, and at the same time he made her pass into the next room, and shut himself up there with her; that on entering it she was struck with astonishment when she saw four handfuls of rods and five swifts of different shapes, three of which were of rope, one of brass wire and one of wire which were suspended on the wall, and three ivory Christs on their cross, two other Christs in prints, a Calvary and a Virgin also in prints, attached and arranged on the walls, with a large number of drawings and prints representing nudity and figures of the greatest indecency; that having made her examine these different objects, he told her that she must whip him with the iron whip after having made him redden in the fire, and that he would then whip her with whatever of the other whips she wished to choose, and that she did not consent to these proposals, although he was very pressing she should. After this he detached two of the ivory Christs, one of which he trampled underfoot, and “manualized” himself on the other until he polluted himself, and to the surprise and horror of the witness, he told her that she must trample the crucifix under foot, showing her two pistols on a table, and holding in his hand his sword ready to draw from the scabbard, threatening to pass it through her body. For fear of losing her life, she had the misfortune to trample the crucifix, and at the same time, he forced her to utter these impious words, “Bugger God, I don’t give a damn about you. (“Je me fous de toi).” He also wanted the woman to take an enema and give it back on Christ, which did not happen because of her refusal. That during the night that the witness spent with him without taking food and without going to bed, he showed her and read to her several pieces of verses, full of impiety and totally contrary to religion, which he told her had been given to him by a friend of his who was as libertine as himself, and who thought and behaved in the same way. The said individual proposed to the witness to see her in a manner contrary to nature, and pushed the ungodliness to the point of proposing her to meet on the following Sunday, to go together to the parish of Saint-Médard, to receive communion there, and then to take the two hosts, one of which he proposed to burn, and to use the other to do the same impieties and profanations that he says he has done with the girl of whom he had spoken. He forced the witness to take an oath not to reveal any of the things that had passed between them and that he had confided to her, and to sign on a piece of white paper a commitment not to reveal anything about what happened and what she was told.”