The Dream

The story opens with a little girl sheltering herself from the snow in the portal of a Cathedral dedicated to Saint Agnes. There under the protection of its roof, a statue of Agnes and carvings of the other maiden saints seem to watch over the girl through the cold night. Nearby, the home and workshop of an ecclesiastical embroiderer is nestled into the church architecture, and in the morning, the embroiderer’s wife, Hubertine, looks out and sees the child dying from the cold. Hubert and Hubertine take Angelique in and raise her, since they have no child of their own.