CHAPTER V.
KARL LUDWIG SAND.
Karl Ludwig Sand was born at Wunsiedel, a little town in the district of Baireuth, lying in the Fichtel Mountains, on the 5th of October, 1795. His father was pensionary officer of justice; and the family, which consisted of three sons and two daughters, lived in the most delightful domestic harmony. Sand grew up in his paternal city, under the most careful guidance of his parents, whose good and thorough education, and moral training, such are his own words, in comparison with that of many, he never was able sufficiently to praise. There lay in him the strongest and most delightful recollection of his birthplace. Its very situation, he asserted, in the bosom of noble mountains, in the midst of the great Fatherland, had wrought powerfully upon his disposition of mind, which, especially since much sickness in his early youth, had always been very still. In truth, Sand passed his years of childhood in great weakness and many bodily ailments. In his seventh year he took naturally the small-pox, and of a very bad kind, which left behind them serious effects, especially a dangerous ulcer in the head, of which the grisly scars always continued visible. On that account the physicians forbade all mental exercise, and his proper instruction could only be commenced at home in his tenth year. His father explained, that a dejection of mind which long clung to him was a consequence of the weakness which these complaints had left upon; and therefore, where parents in general would put restraint on young people of lively temperament, he, on the contrary, had always been anxious that his son's disposition should not be further depressed. After Sand had received his first instruction from the tutor, he was sent to the Lyceum, in Wunsiedel. He afterwards followed his teacher to the Gymnasium in Hof, there acquired the first elements of general education, and proceeded in the study of ancient languages. Even at this early period he entertained a vehement hatred to the French. As in the spring of 1812 a great military train passed through Hof, he would neither see the march of the French nor especially Napoleon, since he believed that he could not endure to be in the presence of the arch enemy of his native land, without an attempt to rush upon him and destroy him.
He returned thence to his parents, with whom he continued till they resolved to send him to Regensburg, where he proceeded towards the end of the year 1812, with his tutor Saalfranc, and always called to mind with extreme pleasure his abode there. The testimonies of his life and habits during his sojourn in Hof and Regensburg, are greatly to his credit His good capacity, his restless diligence, his deep study, and not less his highly moral conduct, were greatly applauded. In his 18th year awoke in Sand the resolve to co-operate in doing battle with the common foe of his country. He may speak for himself.
"As in the spring of 1813 the French fled homewards, and Germany began to rouse itself to take vengeance for the shame inflicted on it, there awoke in me a new-born joy, a fresh mind, a new life; and from that hour I doubted no more of a complete liberation from the old slavery, although the heavens became so unpropitious to the Germans. With eager heart and yet with all possible circumspection, I lived in the newspapers of the time; and in the autumn of 1813, which I spent at home, I obtained the permission to join myself to the host of Germany, when in the meantime, came the intelligence of the battle of Leipsic, which rendered my going forth unnecessary."
Sand returned once more to Regensburg, and proceeded thence to the university of Tübingen. Here he passed quietly the winter half-year of 1814–15, and had begun the second half-year when Napoleon returned from Elba, and Sand felt himself called to stand forth with his countrymen in defence of Germany. His testimonies from Tübingen were highly creditable, yet they expressed suspicions that during his abode there he had been a member of a political union called Teutonia. Sand then first, on the day before his departure, announced to his parents his determination to enter into the army, and took farewell of them by letter. The style and tendency of his letter differ essentially from his subsequent compositions. We see in it only the youth full of zeal and fervour for his country,--who, pure, and without mixture of his subsequent political religious exaltation, avows his intimation to fight to the death for his country and kindred. "With an inward struggle," wrote he amongst other things, "held I myself back the last time when the liberation of Germany was at stake, and it was only the conviction that many thousands then stood in the field, eager for battle and victory for the welfare of Germany, that could detain me." In another place--"The spirit at home and in Bavaria may be as it will, I hold it for the highest duty to fight for the liberty of my German Fatherland; of my dear parents, brothers, and sisters; and of all the good people who love me; and, should numbers gain the advantage over us, to contend to the very last gasp, and triumph over a tyrant in death. Ever shall your beloved images hover round me; ever will I have God before my eyes and in my heart, that I may be strengthened to bear with serenity all the fatigues and dangers of this holy war. Yet wherefore make the hearts of each other so heavy? We alone have the right, the sacred cause. There is a righteous God, and how then shall we not have the victory?"
The letter concludes with the words of Theodore Körner, which Sand had often in his mouth--
Though rages hell itself,
God, thy mighty hand,
Hurls down the tower of lies.
Perchance high o'er the slaughtered foes The Star of Peace shall rise.
Sand set out with two friends on the way through Stuttgard to Heidelberg, where he stayed some days, and then went on to Mannheim, where he announced himself to the general staff of Graf Rechberg, and was received as cadet in the volunteer Jägers of the Rezat Circle. Before his departure from Tübingen, a friend presented him with a small riband which he continually wore during the campaign, and afterwards, at his arrest, it was still found round his neck. It was green and white. The troops, which Sand's brother also had now joined, already in Homberg, met the news of the victory of Waterloo; they marched forward, however, to Meaux, and into the neighbourhood of Fontainbleau, but soon after drew into cantonments in Auxurre, and from thence marched directly back, and entered Anspach the 2d of December, 1815. Sand remembered his military career with the highest dissatisfaction, since, as he expressed himself, he had never had the good fortune to kill a Frenchman. He had written upon his riband these words:--"With this dedicated I myself in 1815 to death. Was it not in earnest? Would I have recrossed the Rhine again except as a conqueror!"
Sand betook himself to Erlangen, and occupied himself there two years with the study of theology. Here it happened that in the summer of 1817, one of his dearest friends, while bathing, was drowned before his eyes, and he himself was in great danger of his life. This loss operated so strongly on his mind, that as he himself declared, he believed that the spring of life was now over, and that its summer had now shown itself. Consoled by his teachers and friends, he now gave the first proof of his talents for preaching in the High Church at Erlangen, continued there till the end of the half year, and then went to Jena.