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Front Page arrow Titles (by Subject) arrow LETTER CLVI.: Roxana to Usbek, at Paris. - Complete Works, vol. 3 (Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire; A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates; Persian Letters)

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Subject Area: Political Theory
Subject Area: History
Collection: Banned Books

LETTER CLVI.: Roxana to Usbek, at Paris. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 3 (Grandeur and Declension of the Roman Empire; A Dialogue between Sylla and Eucrates; Persian Letters) [1721]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 3.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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LETTER CLVI.

Roxana to Usbek, at Paris.

HORROR, darkness, and terror reign throughout the seraglio, a dismal melancholy surrounds, a tyger there gives a loose to all his rage at every moment. He caused two white eunuchs to be tortured, but they did not make confession of any crime; he has sold some of our slaves, and obliged us to change those those that remained among ourselves. Zachi and Zelis have in the darkness of the night, received in their chamber the most unworthy treatment; the villain has been so audacious as to lay his sacrilegious hands upon them. He keeps us all locked up in our respective apartments; and though we are alone, obliges us to wear our veils. We are not allowed to speak to each other; to write would be deemed highly criminal; we are free in nothing but our tears. A croud of new eunuchs has entered the seraglio, where they watch us night and day; our sleep is every moment interrupted by their real, or feigned distrusts. My only comfort is, that this cannot last long, and that all these troubles must end with my life: it will not last long, cruel Usbek; I will not give you time to put a stop to all these outrages.