The snow man

by George Sand

“Adelstan Christian de Waldemora, son of the noble Seigneur Christian Adelstan, Baron de Waldemora, and the noble lady Hilda de Blixen, born the fifteenth of September, 1746, in the castle of Stollborg, in the chamber called that of the bear, on the domain of Waldemora, province of Dalecarlia;

“Secretly confided to the care of Anna Bœtsoi, wife of the danneman Karl Bœtsoi, by me, the undersigned, Adam Stenson, and by Karine Bœtsoi, daughter of the above-named, and confidential waiting-woman of the deceased Baroness Hilda de Waldemora, née de Blixen;

“The said infant suckled by a tame doe, and brought up in the house of the said danneman Karl Bœtsoi, on the mountain of Blaakdal, until the age of four years, where he passed for the son of Karine Bœtsoi, who, out of devotion for her deceased mistress, consented to be thought bewitched, and in communication with evil spirits, and who thus preserved the child, of whom she called herself the mother, from the pursuit of his enemies;

“The said child, carried away by me, Adam Stenson, to withdraw it from suspicions, by which his safety was beginning to be compromised, in spite of the precautions hitherto taken;

“Was taken by me, the undersigned, to Austria, where I have a married sister, who can testify to having seen me arrive at her house with a child named Christian, speaking the Dalecarlian language;

“And, by the advice of my very faithful friend and confidant, Taddeo Manasses, of the religion of the Old Testament, and formerly well known in Sweden, under the name of Manasses, and very highly esteemed by his lordship the late Baron Adelstan de Waldemora, as a man of his word, and of discretion and honesty in his business, the trading in objects of art, of which the said baron was a great amateur;

“I, the undersigned, went to the city of Perugia, in Italy, where then resided the above-mentioned Manasses, and where, during the carnival, I presented myself, being masked, to the very honorable couple, Silvio Goffredi, Professor of Ancient History in the University of Perugia, and Sophia Negrisoli, his legitimate wife, of the family of the illustrious physician of that name;

“And to them surrendered, confided, and, as it might be said, gave the said Christian de Waldemora, without making known to them his family name, his country, or the special reasons which had made me resolve to separate from him;

“In giving this well-beloved child to the above-mentioned Goffredis, I believed that I was fulfilling the wish of the deceased Baroness Hilda, who desired that he should be brought up far from his enemies, by learned and virtuous people, who, without any selfish motive, would love him like their own son, and make him what he should be, in order to sustain worthily, some day, the name he is to bear, and the rank he is to recover, after the death of his enemies, the which death, according to the order of nature, ought greatly to precede his own;

“And, in case the death of the undersigned should occur before that of the said enemies, the undersigned has charged Taddeo Manasses to make such inquiries as may be necessary, so that, at the death of his enemies, Christian de Waldemora should be warned, and put into possession of the present declaration: in faith of which—after having made a contract with my good friend Taddeo Manasses, who is never to lose sight of the said Christian de Waldemora, who is to reside where he shall reside, and to come to his assistance if other protection shall fail him; who, in case of serious illness, threatening him with death, is to put another person sure as himself in his place, to fulfil the same duties; and finally, who is to give once a year news of his welfare to the undersigned—the undersigned, wishing to keep his place in the chateau de Waldemora, so as not to arouse suspicions, and to earn money to provide against coming emergencies, the probable removals, and journeys of Taddeo, and the eventual needs of the said child, quitted, not without grief, the city of Perugia, to return to Sweden, the sixteenth of March, 1750, believing and hoping to have done what was best to preserve from all danger, and to place in a happy and honorable situation, the son of his deceased master and mistress.