Notwithstanding these cares,Sand was for three months between life and death.
When,on the 26th of March,the news of Kotzebue's assassination came from Mannheim to Jena,the academic senate caused Sand's room to be opened,and found two letters--one addressed to his friends of the Burschenschaft,in which he declared that he no longer belonged to their society,since he did not wish that their brotherhood should include a man about to die an the scaffold.The other letter,which bore this superion,"To my nearest and dearest,"was an exact account of what he meant to do,and the motives which had made him determine upon this act.Though the letter is a little long,it is so solemn and so antique in spirit,that we do not hesitate to present it in its entirety to our readers:--"To all my own "Loyal and eternally cherished souls "Why add still further to your sadness?I asked myself,and I hesitated to write to you;but my silence would have wounded the religion of the heart;and the deeper a grief the more it needs,before it can be blotted out,to drain to the dregs its cup of bitterness.Forth from my agonised breast,then;forth,long and cruel torment of a last conversation,which alone,however,when sincere,can alleviate the pain of parting.
"This letter brings you the last farewell of your son and your brother.
"The greatest misfortune of life far any generous heart is to see the cause of God stopped short in its developments by our fault;and the most dishonouring infamy would be to suffer that the fine things acquired bravely by thousands of men,and far which thousands of men have joyfully sacrificed themselves,should be no more than a transient dream,without real and positive consequences.The resurrection of our German life was begun in these last twenty years,and particularly in the sacred year 1813,with a courage inspired by God.But now the house of our fathers is shaken from the summit to the base.Forward!let us raise it,new and fair,and such as the true temple of the true God should be.
"Small is the number of those who resist,and who wish to oppose themselves as a dyke against the torrent of the progress of higher humanity among the German people.Why should vast whole masses bow beneath the yoke of a perverse minority?And why,scarcely healed,should we fall back into a worse disease than that which we are leaving behind?
"Many of these seducers,and those are the most infamous,are playing the game of corruption with us;among them is Kotzebue,the most cunning and the worst of all,a real talking machine emitting all sorts of detestable speech and pernicious advice.His voice is skillful in removing from us all anger and bitterness against the most unjust measures,and is just such as kings require to put us to sleep again in that old hazy slumber which is the death of nations.
Every day he odiously betrays his country,and nevertheless,despite his treason,remains an idol for half Germany,which,dazzled by him,accepts unresisting the poison poured out by him in his periodic pamphlets,wrapped up and protected as he is by the seductive mantle of a great poetic reputation.Incited by him,the princes of Germany,who have forgotten their promises,will allow nothing free or good to be accomplished;or if anything of the kind is accomplished in spite of them,they will league themselves with the French to annihilate it.That the history of our time may not be covered with eternal ignominy,it is necessary that he should fall.
"I have always said that if we wish to find a great and supreme remedy for the state of abasement in which we are,none must shrink from combat nor from suffering;and the real liberty of the German people will only be assured when the good citizen sets himself or some other stake upon the game,and when every true son of the country,prepared for the struggle for justice,despises the good things of this world,and only desires those celestial good things which death holds in charge.
"Who then will strike this miserable hireling,this venal traitor?
"I have long been waiting in fear,in prayer,and in tears--I who am not born for murder--for some other to be beforehand with me,to set me free,and suffer me to continue my way along the sweet and peaceful path that I had chosen for myself.Well,despite my prayers and my tears,he who should strike does not present himself;indeed,every man,like myself,has a right to count upon some other,and everyone thus counting,every hour's delay,but makes our state worse;far at any moment--and how deep a shame would that be for us!
Kotzebue may leave Germany,unpunished,and go to devour in Russia the treasures for which he has exchanged his honour,his conscience,and his German name.Who can preserve us from this shame,if every man,if I myself,do not feel strength to make myself the chosen instrument of God's justice?Therefore,forward!It shall be I who will courageously rush upon him (do not be alarmed),on him,the loathsome seducer;it shall be I who will kill the traitor,so that his misguiding voice,being extinguished,shall cease to lead us astray from the lessons of history and from the Spirit of God.An irresistible and solemn duty impels me to this deed,ever since I have recognised to what high destinies the German;nation may attain during this century,and ever since I have come to know the dastard and hypocrite who alone prevents it from reaching them;for me,as for every German who seeks the public good,this desire has became a strict and binding necessity.May I,by this national vengeance,indicate to all upright and loyal consciences where the true danger lies,and save our vilified and calumniated societies from the imminent danger that threatens them!May I,in short,spread terror among the cowardly and wicked,and courage arid faith among the good!
Speeches and writings lead to nothing;only actions work.