Crushes the serpent's head.
And his favourite quotation from the poem "Call to Arms," "Salvation lies," etc. as given above. So prepared, Sand left the university city of Jena. His journey towards Mannheim was by no means hurried, but extended itself to fourteen days. He had read in the papers that Kotzebue would not set out for Russia till the spring, and the anxiety respecting the consequences of the deed produced procrastination, and occasioned him again an unceasing self-struggle. From Erfurt he travelled to Frankfort with two merchants, and when they came to Eisenach he persuaded his two companions to take their dinner on the Wartburg. On this occasion he is said to have asserted--"Here have sacred words been spoken, and from this place will yet go forth much good." He also wrote there in in the Stamm-book for the students, these words:--"What wilt the old nightcaps (humdrums, dreamy but inactive people) do for you? Depend upon yourselves, and build up to God an altar in your own hearts."--Then his favourite quotation from Körner.
From Frankfort he went on to Darmstadt; where, as in the places already mentioned, he lodged with his kind friends. In Darmstadt he remained some days. He states that he had not been quite well, and had given himself up to his reflections. One of his friends accompanied him a part of the way thence, and at Sand's request, cut off his long hair, which attracted attention on the road. He arrived at Lorsch, and intended to have gone from there to Wurms; but his reluctance to his enterprise became so great, that he determined on the following day to advance at once upon the danger. He now read once more the Gospel of St. John, which he carried with him in separate sheets, and Körner's poem "Through."
On the 23d of March he arrived in Mannheim, at half-past nine in the morning, and went to the Vineyard hotel. There he breakfasted without the host's perceiving any agitation of mind in him, and about eleven o'clock was conducted by a waiter of the inn to the house of Kotzebue. He then went back, on pretence of tying a handkerchief round his neck, as he found it too cold with open breast. Again arrived at Kotzebue's residence, he caused the waiter to retire, and announced himself through the maid who opened the door, as a gentleman from Mietau. Kotzebue, however, was not at home, and he was requested to call again at five in the evening. He therefore took a walk to the Rhine, and inquired where lay the wood of Neckerau, and its distance, and at one o'clock returned to the inn. He conducted himself during dinner with great equanimity, ate moderately, and drank a choppin[[7]] of wine. His companions at table were two clergymen from the Upper Rhine country, with whom he conversed partly on topics of general history, and partly on the Reformation and Luther. He stayed with the company till towards five o'clock, and then said that he must yet pay a visit to Kotzebue. This time he met his victim. He announced himself, and was shown into a room on the right hand of which lay Kotzebue's study, separated only from it by a small cabinet, while the nursery and the sitting-room of the family lay on its left side. On the proceedings in this room Sand himself observed,--"The servant spent some minutes in going about in the room or speaking; he then called me in, but still continued standing in the doorway, and spoke in a low voice towards the interior of the room. I was finally admitted, and Kotzebue stepped into the room from the door on the left hand. I saw him appear at the half-open door, and then enter as the door was quite open. I went about six steps forward into the room and greeted him. He stepped somewhat nearer to the door, and I then turned myself towards him on the side of the entrance.[[8]] The most fearful thing to me was that I must dissemble. I said that I had a desire to call on him as I travelled through the place, and, after some pro and con, I added,--'I pride myself'--which Kotzebue probably interpreted otherwise than as I meant,--then drew I the dagger, and continued--'not in thee! Here, thou traitor to the Fatherland!' and with the last word I struck him down.
"I named myself Henry from Mietau, since I believed that Kotzebue would not admit me if I announced myself a native German. It was much more probable under the name of a Courlander; and Kotzebue actually said--'You are from Mietau?'
"How many blows I gave him I cannot say: as little, which was the first. It was quickly done. I drew the dagger out of the left sleeve, where I had secured it in a sheath, and gave him several stabs in the left side. Kotzebue spoke not a word during the attack, only uttered a cry of alarm, the instant that he saw me rush upon him with uplifted arm. He stretched out his hands, and fell immediately at the entrance of the room on the left hand, about three steps from the same. How I should have wounded him in the face I know not. Probably it may have happened through his holding his hands and arms before him, and moving them about. I held the dagger so that the edge was above the thumb and the fist, and struck directly out, neither from above nor from below. Kotzebue fell together in a sitting posture. I then looked him in the face to see how it was with him. I wished to ascertain the effect of the attack, and a second time looked him in the face. He continually winked with his eyelids, so that one could now see the whites of his eyes, and now nothing. I therefore concluded that he was not dead; but I interfered no further with him, because I was persuaded that enough had been done."
Sand having completed his act, turned towards the window in order to regain his old standing place, but that turn produced a deciding influence on his fate. "I saw," said he, "in turning round, a little child, which during the deed had sprung into the room from the left-hand door. Its cry produced in me such a mingled feeling that I was instantly determined to recompense it for the injury I had done it by stabbing myself with the small sword. The blow struck on the left breast, and went several inches deep. I drew forth the steel, and the effect was an instant gush of blood, which I perceived as I descended the stairs became, with the pain, more perceptible."
The cry of anguish of the victim under the hands of his murderer, brought in a few seconds thither the family and inmates of the house; but the horrible spectacle must naturally so violently have affected them, that they scarcely retained a clear remembrance of the first moments which followed the discovery. According to Sand's own account, as they bore Kotzebue into the next room, the wild outcry and deep alarm sunk by degrees; the whole room as well as the open-standing door was left vacant, and he had time to descend the steps and reach the outer door. When, however, he came there, he found already many other persons collected by the outcry, and must then have despaired of his escape, and therefore sought to secure the publication of his "Death-Blow." His original intention, that of sticking it up somewhere with the small dagger, was prevented by his having let it fall during the action, and he therefore took the paper from his pocket, and delivered it to the servant, who was then rushing out of the house to call the watch, saying, "There, take that!" Then cried Sand with a loud voice, to the people who had run together,--"Live for ever, my German Fatherland, and we amongst the German people, who strive to advance the condition of a pure humanity!"
He then kneeled down, and said in a low voice,--"I thank Thee, God, for thy victory;" prayed, placed with both hands the small sword against his breast, and drove it directly and deliberately into it till it stood fast; then withdrew his hands and fell forward on his right side. The people who hurried to the spot, found him lying in his blood, drew forth the dagger, and washed the wound with vinegar. In the mean time the watch and the police had arrived, and the murderer under the usual guard was carried on a handbarrow to the hospital.
Kotzebue died in the arms of his daughter. It was probably the first blow, which, piercing the pericardium and the artery of the lungs, caused his speedy death.