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. Sand conducted himself during his residence in Erlangen as exemplarily as before, yet he was at the same time an active member of the Teutonia there; in fact he was twice a leader of this union, and drew up a constitution for the Burschenschaft, under the title of the Erlangen Burschenschaft-Custom. From Erlangen and Jena he made several short journeys, and amongst them the one to Eisenach, which proved so influential on his future life. There he joined in the celebration of the festival on the Wartburg, on the 18th of October, 1817, and his part in this transaction he thus describes:--
"On the 17th of October I arrived in Eisenach, and was chosen on the festival-committee. I here helped to keep order; heard the speeches on the Wartburg, but did not speak myself; I went in the evening to the fire, and saw the books burnt. On the following morning I heard speeches for the reconcilement of the disputes of many of the student-quarrels of former years, and listened to the splendid orations on the Fatherland. I accompanied the Burschen to the church, and partook of the sacrament; then was the festival ended, and I returned to Jena." He adds, that it had been a festival simply for the elevation of the sacred cause, and that no determinate object besides had been contemplated.
In Jena, Sand continued to educate himself, in order, as he expressed himself, the better to look about himself, and to ground himself fairly in the different departments of knowledge; till suddenly the inner call for ever summoned him away. His teachers there gave their testimony that he always appeared as a grave, quiet, and discreet man, zealously striving after excellence. That he was accustomed to speak little, since speaking appeared a difficulty to him; but that what he did say, was always prudent, well-considered, and sensible, and that his deportment had nothing displeasing in it, although it was energetic and firm. During his abode in Jena, he was a member of the so-called Burschenschaft, but at the same time also of another company, which he termed a Literary Union. He made from Jena a journey into North Germany, and visited many of the most celebrated battle-fields of both past and modern times. After his return he proceeded again with his studies with unremitting diligence, and had obtained permission from his parents to continue another half-year in Jena, when he suddenly broke off, on the 9th of March, 1819, at four o'clock in the morning, and set out on his last fatally eventful journey towards Mannheim.
We have thus followed the thread of Sand's history to this period with sufficient minuteness, and we have permitted ourselves to sketch it with the more exactness, since it is particularly interesting to trace all the causes which could conduct a character, otherwise so excellent, to such a crime;--as, moreover, conjectures respecting these causes can only be rightly founded on a real knowledge of the circumstances of the case, and from these only can those conclusions be drawn, which were, though without effect, employed in the defence of this singular man. In his history we behold the fac-simile of the history of the whole Burschenschaft to which he belonged. A description of his person, from that officially drawn up, may precede the relation of his unhappy deed. In the protocol it stands thus:--