| August 16, Sade, living in Avignon with his paternal
grandmother, receives the elders of one of his father's estates, who
prostrate themselves at the boy's feet.
1745
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Sade is sent to live with his uncle,
the abbé de Sade, at one of the Sade estates at nearby Saumane,
a walled and moated chateau, complete with a deep dungeon--the very
sort of place Sade's imagination would return to throughout his life.
The abbé was assisted in raising the boy by Mme de
Saint-Germain, a family friend who would be a mother-figure, and by
Jacques-François Amblet, an abbé who would serve as his
tutor and who would be attached to the Sade household for the rest of
his life. |
1750
Sade, accompanied by his tutor, Amblet, returns to Paris to begin an
undistinguished career as a day-student at the famous Jesuit school,
Louis-le-Grand. He probably lived in Amblet's apartment. Sade's mother
may have already effectively separated from her husband, taking up
residence in the Carmelite convent on the rue d'Enfer in Paris, where
she would die in 1777.
1754
May, Sade was enrolled in the training academy for the
Chevau-légers at Versailles, the King's Light Cavalry, an elite
corps that admitted sons from only the best families.
1755
December 14, Sade is commissioned second lieutenant in the King's Foot
Guard.
1756
Beginning of the Seven Years' War.
 1757
January 14, Sade is commissioned a "cornette," or standard bearer, in
the Carabiniers.
March 28, Damiens, who had stabbed King Louis XV, was slowly put to
death in the Place de Grève, his tortures more hideous than any
Sade would ever imagine, because Damiens' torments were real and were
witnessed by thousands.
1758
June 23, Sade sees heavy fighting at Krefeld, keeping a journal of his
experiences.
1759
April 21, Sade is commissioned captain of the Burgundy Cavalry.
1760
August 12, Sade writes to his father from an encampment, explaining
that he is incapable of "paying court" to his superior officers, and
adding that he has no friends among his equals because he cannot trust
them.
1762
May 25, Sade's uncle, the abbé, is arrested in a Paris bordello.
Summer, Sade in garrison, falls in love with a woman ten years his
senior, but is persuaded not to marry her.
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