Les liaisons dangereuses, volume 2 (of 2) / or, Letters collected in a private society and published for the instruction of others

by Choderlos de Laclos

The Chevalier Danceny.

Paris, 6th December, 17**, in the evening.

LETTER THE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THIRD
M. BERTRAND TO MADAME DE ROSEMONDE

Madame,

It is with great regret that I undertake the sad task of announcing to you news which will cause you such cruel sorrow. Allow me, first, to recommend to you that pious resignation which we have all so much admired in you, and which alone enables us to support the ills with which our wretched life is strewn.

Your nephew.... Gracious Heaven! Must I afflict so greatly so venerable a lady! Your nephew has had the misfortune to fall in a remarkable duel which he had this morning with M. le Chevalier Danceny. I am entirely ignorant of the motive of this quarrel; but it appears, from the missive which I found still in the pocket of M. le Vicomte, and which I have the honour to forward you; it appears, I say, that he was not the aggressor. Yet it needs must be he whom Heaven allowed to fall!

I had been to wait upon M. le Vicomte, precisely at the hour when he was brought back to the hôtel. Imagine my terror, when I saw your nephew carried by two of his servants, and bathed in his blood. He had two sword-thrusts through his body, and was already very weak. M. Danceny was there also, and he even wept. Ah, certainly, he has reason to weep: but it is a fine time to shed tears, when one has caused an irreparable misfortune!

M^lle Gerard del. Simonet sculp^t.

As for me, I could not contain myself; and, in spite of my humble condition, I none the less told him my fashion of thinking. But it was then that M. le Vicomte showed himself truly great. He ordered me to be silent; and, taking the hand of the very man who was his murderer, he called him his friend, embraced him before us all and said to us, “I command you to treat Monsieur with all the consideration that is due to a brave and gallant man.” He further caused him to be presented, in my presence, with a voluminous mass of papers, the contents of which I am not acquainted with, but to which I am well aware he attached vast importance. He then desired that we should leave them alone together for a moment. Meanwhile, I had sent in search of every kind of succour, both spiritual and temporal: but, alas, the ill was incurable! Less than half-an-hour later, M. le Vicomte lost consciousness. He was only able to receive extreme unction; and the ceremony was hardly over, when he rendered his last breath.