"Within the last few days I have also received your dear letter of the 2nd of December,my kind mother,and the grind-duke's commission has deigned to let me also read my kind brother's letter which accompanied yours.You give me the best of news in regard to the health of all of you,and send me preserved fruits from our dear home.I thank you for them from the bottom of my heart.What causes me most joy in the matter is that you have been solicitously busy about me in summer as in winter,and that you and my dear Julia gathered them and prepared them for me at home,and I abandon my whole soul to that sweet enjoyment.
"I rejoice sincerely at my little cousin's coming into the world;I joyfully congratulate the good parents and the grandparents;I transport myself,for his baptism,into that beloved parish,where I offer him my affection as his Christian brother,and call down on him all the blessings of heaven.
"We shall be obliged,I think,to give up this correspondence,so as not to inconvenience the grand-duke's commission.I finish,therefore,by assuring you,once more,but for the last time,perhaps,of my profound filial submission and of my fraternal affection.--Your most tenderly attached "KARL-LUDWIG SAND."Indeed,from that moment all correspondence between Karl and his family ceased,and he only wrote to them,when he knew his fate,one more letter,which we shall see later on.
We have seen by what attentions Sand was surrounded;their humanity never flagged for an instant.It is the truth,too,that no one saw in him an ordinary murderer,that many pitied him under their breath,and that some excused him aloud.The very commission appointed by the grand-duke prolonged the affair as much as possible;for the severity of Sand's wounds had at first given rise to the belief that there would be no need of calling in the executioner,and the commission was well pleased that God should have undertaken the execution of the judgment.But these expectations were deceived:the skill of the doctor defeated,not indeed the wound,but death:Sand did not recover,but he remained alive;and it began to be evident that it would be needful to kill him.
Indeed,the Emperor Alexander,who had appointed Kotzebue his councillor,and who was under no misapprehension as to the cause of the murder,urgently demanded that justice should take its course.
The commission of inquiry was therefore obliged to set to work;but as its members were sincerely desirous of having some pretext to delay their proceedings,they ordered that a physician from Heidelberg should visit Sand and make an exact report upon his case;as Sand was kept lying down and as he could not be executed in his bed,they hoped that the physician's report,by declaring it impossible for the prisoner to rise,would come to their assistance and necessitate a further respite.
The chosen doctor came accordingly to Mannheim,and introducing himself to Sand as though attracted by the interest that he inspired,asked him whether he did not feel somewhat better,and whether it would be impossible to rise.Sand looked at him for an instant,and then said,with a smile--"I understand,sir;they wish to know whether I am strong enough to mount a scaffold:I know nothing about it myself,but we will make the experiment together."With these words he rose,and accomplishing,with superhuman courage,what he had not attempted for fourteen months,walked twice round the room,came back to his bed,upon which he seated himself,and said "You see,sir,I am strong enough;it would therefore be wasting precious time to keep my judges longer about my affair;so let them deliver their judgment,for nothing now prevents its execution."The doctor made his report;there was no way of retreat;Russia was becoming more and more pressing,and an the 5th of May 1820 the high court of justice delivered the following judgment,which was confirmed on the 12th by His Royal Highness the Grand-Duke of Baden:
"In the matters under investigation and after administration of the interrogatory and hearing the defences,and considering the united opinions of the court of justice at Mannheim and the further consultations of the court of justice which declare the accused,Karl Sand of Wonsiedel,guilty of murder,even on his own confession,upon the person of the Russian imperial Councillor of State,Kotzebue;it is ordered accordingly,for his just punishment and for an example that may deter other people,that he is to be put from life to death by the sword.
"All the costs of these investigations,including these occasioned by his public execution,will be defrayed from the funds of the law department,on account of his want of means."We see that,though it condemned the accused to death,which indeed could hardly be avoided,the sentence was both in form and substance as mild as possible,since,though Sand was convicted,his poor family was not reduced by the expenses of a long and costly trial to complete ruin.