"I will act,therefore;and though driven violently away from my fair dreams of the future,I am none the less full of trust in God;I even experience a celestial joy,now that,like the Hebrews when they sought the promised land,I see traced before me,through darkness and death,that road at the end of which I shall have paid my debt to my country.
"Farewell,then,faithful hearts:true,this early separation is hard;true,your hopes,like my wishes,are disappointed;but let us be consoled by the primary thought that we have done what the voice of our country called upon us to do;that,you knew,is the principle according to which I have always lived.You will doubtless say among yourselves,'Yes,thanks to our sacrifices,he had learned to know life and to taste the joys of earth,and he seemed:deeply to love his native country and the humble estate to which he was called'.
Alas,yes,that is true!Under your protection,and amid your numberless sacrifices,my native land and life had become profoundly dear to me.Yes,thanks to you,I have penetrated into the Eden of knowledge,and have lived the free life of thought;thanks to you,I have looked into history,and have then returned to my own conscience to attach myself to the solid pillars of faith in the Eternal.
"Yes,I was to pass gently through this life as a preacher of the gospel;yes,in my constancy to my calling I was to be sheltered from the storms of this existence.But would that suffice to avert the danger that threatens Germany?And you yourselves,in your infinite lave,should you not rather push me on to risk my life for the good of all?So many modern Greeks have fallen already to free their country from the yoke of the Turks,and have died almost without any result and without any hope;and yet thousands of fresh martyrs keep up their courage and are ready to fall in their turn;and should I,then,hesitate to die?
"That I do not recognise your love,or that your love is but a trifling consideration with me,you will not believe.What else should impel me to die if not my devotion to you and to Germany,and the need of proving this devotion to my family and my country?
"You,mother,will say,'Why have I brought up a son whom I loved and who loved me,for whom I have undergone a thousand cares and toils,who,thanks to my prayers and my example,was impressionable to good influences,and from whom,after my long and weary course,I hoped to receive attentions like those which I have given him?Why does he now abandon me?'
"Oh,my kind and tender mother!Yes,you will perhaps say that;but could not the mother of anyone else say the same,and everything go off thus in words when there is need to act for the country?And if no one would act,what would become of that mother of us all who is called Germany?
"But no;such complaints are far from you,you noble woman!I understood your appeal once before,and at this present hour,if no one came forward in the German cause,you yourself would urge me to the fight.I have two brothers and two sisters before me,all noble and loyal.They will remain to you,mother;and besides you will have for sons all the children of Germany who love their country.
"Every man has a destiny which he has to accomplish:mine is devoted to the action that I am about to undertake;if I were to live another fifty years,I could not live more happily than I have done lately.
Farewell,mother:I commend you to the protection of God;may He raise you to that joy which misfortunes can no longer trouble!Take your grandchildren,to whom I should so much have liked to be a loving friend,to the top of our beautiful mountains soon.There,on that altar raised by the Lord Himself in the midst of Germany,let them devote themselves,swearing to take up the sword as soon as they have strength to lift it,and to lay it down only when our brethren are all united in liberty,when all Germans,having a liberal constitution;are great before the Lord,powerful against their neighbours,and united among themselves.
"May my country ever raise her happy gaze to Thee,Almighty Father!
May Thy blessing fall abundantly upon her harvests ready to be cut and her armies ready for battle,and recognising the blessings that Thou host showered upon us,may the German nation ever be first among nations to rise and uphold the cause of humanity,which is Thy image upon earth!
"Your eternally attached son,brother and friend,"KARL-LUDWIG SAND.
"JENA,the beginning of March,1819."
Sand,who,as we have said,had at first been taken to the hospital,was removed at the end of three months to the prison at Mannheim,where the governor,Mr.G--,had caused a room to be prepared for him.There he remained two months longer in a state of extreme weakness:his left arm was completely paralysed;his voice was very weak;every movement gave him horrible pain,and thus it was not until the 11th of August--that is to say,five months after the event that we have narrated--that he was able to write to his family the following letter:--MY VERY DEAR PARENTS:--The grand-duke's commission of inquiry informed me yesterday that it might be possible I should have the intense joy of a visit from you,and that I might perhaps see you here and embrace you--you,mother,and some of my brothers and sisters.
"Without being surprised at this fresh proof of your motherly love,I have felt an ardent remembrance reawaken of the happy life that we spent gently together.Joy and grief,desire and sacrifice,agitate my heart violently,and I have had to weigh these various impulses one against the other,and with the force of reason,in order to resume mastery of myself and to take a decision in regard to my wishes.
"The balance has inclined in the direction of sacrifice.