Of the Abbe de SADE. 151 



tainty of thefe fa<5ls, " that this Laura, the xvife o/" Hugh de 

 "Sade, was torn, died, and was buried at Avignon." If, 

 therefore, it is equally demonftrable that the Laura of Pe- 

 trarch was neither born, died, nor was buried at Avignon, it 

 is plain flie was a different perfon from Laura de Noves. 

 The evidence of thefe latter fadls we have already feen. It is 

 clear, pofitive, and unambiguous. It might, therefore, be fuf- 

 ficient to reft the matter here without farther argument ; for an 

 hypothefis muft fall of itfelf, when the main props on which it 

 is built are demoliftied. But I am tempted to go a great deal 

 farther: and, allowing that the queftion as to the place of 

 Laura's birth and death were ftill a matter of doubt ; nay, even 

 admitting, for the fake of argument, that the Laura of Pe- 

 trarch had, according to the tradition current at Avignon, 

 been connecfled, in fome way or another, with the houfe of 

 Sade, and on that account had been interred in the burial-place 

 of that family ; fuppofing, in fhort, the authenticity both of the 

 note on Virgil^ and the whole ftory of the grave, the medal and 

 the parchment ; I fhall now proceed to fhew, and, as Itruft, to 

 prove to abfolute convidtion, that this Laura, connetfted as we 

 fliall fuppofe her with the houfe of Sade, and buried in their 

 femily-vault, "was never inarrkd. 



And here, I muft previoufly remark, that the report which, 

 it is allowed, was current at Avignon, that Laura belonged to 

 the family of Sade, was not that fhe was conneBed by marriage 

 with that family, but that fhe was herfelf a defcendant of that 

 houfe. The opinion that fhe was connecfled with it by marriage, 

 was never entertained by any one of the family, till it found its 

 origin in the whimfical vanity of this author of the MifwojVfj, 

 the Abbe de Sade, who has laboured, in this voluminous work,, 

 to convince the world, that he himfelf is adlually fprung from 

 the body of the illuftrious Laura. That fhe was a daughter of 

 the houfe of Sade, had been a tradition, though, as we have 



U 2 feen. 



