The snow man

by George Sand

The child had been confided to Anna Bœtsoi, the mother of Karine and Danneman Joë. It had been suckled by a tame doe in one of the chalets of Blaakdal, and every now and then the imprisoned baroness received information about it by means of signal fires lighted on the mountains.

Reassured as to the fate of her child, the baroness hoped to join him and fly into Denmark; but the baron refused to restore her to liberty, unless she would consent to sign a declaration that her pregnancy had been simulated. This she refused to do, saying that she was willing to admit having fallen into an error, but not to accuse herself of imposture; whereupon he began to seem strangely suspicious of the event which she had it so much at heart to conceal. Then, trembling lest the birth and retreat of her child should be discovered, and he destroyed, she had signed the document drawn up by Pastor Mickelson.

“But, before God and man,” she said, in this new declaration, “I protest here against my own signature, and take my oath that it was extorted from me by violence and terror. If, under these circumstances, I denied the truth for the first time in my life, all mothers will understand my fault, and God will pardon me.”

Once in possession of this terrible declaration, the baron, fearing, perhaps, a recantation, or the exposure of his crimes, formally refused to restore his victim to freedom, declaring that she was mad, and doing his best to make her so, by a system of harsh captivity, privations, insults and intimidations. Some peasants who were courageous enough to express a sympathy for her, and to try and set her free, he had beaten after the Russian fashion, in the guard-room, where she could hear their cries. Stenson and Karine he threatened with the same treatment if they continued to urge that the baroness should be set at liberty, and these faithful friends had been obliged to feign compliance with his wishes, so as not to be separated from their unfortunate mistress.

At last, suffering and grief did their work upon the poor victim. She sank into a rapid decline, and, feeling that she was soon to die, she wrote out for her son this account of her sorrows; wherein, however, she implored him never to seek revenge, in case circumstances impossible to foresee should make him acquainted with the mystery of his birth before the baron’s death. She was convinced that this implacable, rich, and powerful man would pursue her son, if he knew of his existence, in whatever corner of the earth he might be hidden. She prayed, therefore, that he might live a long time “in a humble station, in ignorance of his rights, and that he might rather love the arts or sciences than be ambitious of wealth and power, source of so many evils, and of such cruel passions, on the earth.” The poor mother added, notwithstanding, in anticipation of a future discovery, that her son, to whom she had given the name Adelstan-Christian, had, at his birth, black hair, and “fingers made like those of his father and his ancestors.” Finally she gave him her supreme benediction, and enjoined upon him to believe implicitly, and to regard as sacred, all the statements of Stenson and Karine—the witnesses of the sufferings of her captivity, and of the constant and unalterable lucidity of her mind in spite of the calumnious reports that had been spread abroad as to her pretended state of madness and fury.

“My soul is calm,” she said, at the approach of death. “I am prepared to depart, full of resignation, of hope, and confidence, to a better world. I pardon my executioners, and I have only one regret in leaving this sad life—that of abandoning my son; but the unexpected success of his flight has taught me to rely upon Providence, and the devoted friendship of those who have saved him.”

The signature was large and firm, as if a last effort of life had warmed the heart of the poor dying woman at this supreme hour. It was dated, “This 15th of December, 1746.”

Besides the declaration of the baroness, the casket contained a sort of formal report, drawn up by Stenson, of the last moments and death of his unfortunate mistress. This report, which the minister also read, was dated the twenty-eighth of December of the same year, and was as follows:

“They deprived her of sleep up to her last hour. Johan and his gang, who occupied the guard-room, kept on night and day swearing, yelling, and blaspheming in her very ears, and the baron, her brother-in-law, came every day, under the pretence of seeing that she was well-treated, to tell her that she was mad, and overwhelm her with insults and reproaches, because of the pretended plot which he had defeated. The only plot—and with the help of God it succeeded!—was, by patience and silence, to persuade this persecutor that madame had really been mistaken about her condition, and that he had nothing to fear in the future.

“Upon his side, Pastor Mickelson, not less cruel and importunate, came even to madame’s death-bed to tell her that, having lived in a land of papists, she was imbued with false doctrines, and to threaten her a hundred times with hell, instead of giving her the consolations and hopes to which every Christian soul has a right.