the distance was twenty-two feet.  Sand flew instantly to Wonsiedel, and reached it, although the enemy had despatched their best runners in pursuit.  Then the garrison, seeing the success of their enterprise, took fresh courage, and united their efforts against the besiegers, hoping everything from Sand’s eloquence, which gave him a great influence over his young companions.  And, indeed, in half an hour he was seen reappearing at the head of some thirty boys of his own age, armed with slings and crossbows.  The besiegers, on the point of being attacked before and behind, recognised the disadvantage of their position and retreated.  The victory remained with Sand’s party, and all the honours of the day were his.

We have related this anecdote in detail, that our readers may understand from the character of the child what was that of the man.  Besides, we shall see him develop, always calm and superior amid small events as amid large ones.

About the same time Sand escaped almost miraculously from two dangers.  One day a hod full of plaster fell from a scaffold and broke at his feet.  Another day the Price of Coburg, who during the King of Prussia’s stay at the baths of Alexander, was living in the house of Sand’s parents, was galloping home with four horses when he came suddenly upon young Karl in a gateway; he could not escape either on the right or the left, without running the risk of being crushed between the wall and the wheels, and the coachman could not, when going at such a pace, hold in his horses:  Sand flung himself on his face, and the carriage passed over him without his receiving so much as a single scratch either from the horses or the wheels.  From that moment many people regarded him as predestined, and said that the hand of God was upon him.

Meanwhile political events were developing themselves around the boy, and their seriousness made him a man before the age of manhood.  Napoleon weighed upon Germany like another Sennacherib.  Staps had tried to play the part of Mutius Scaevola, and had died a martyr.  Sand was at Hof at that time, and was a student of the gymnasium of which his good tutor Salfranck was the head.  He learned that the man whom he regarded as the antichrist was to come and review the troops in that town; he left it at once and went home to his parents, who asked him for what reason he had left the gymnasium.

“Because I could not have been in the same town with Napoleon,” he answered, “without trying to kill him, and I do not feel my hand strong enough for that yet.”

This happened in 1809; Sand was fourteen years old.  Peace, which was signed an the 15th of October, gave Germany some respite, and allowed the young fanatic to resume his studies without being distracted by political considerations; but in 1811 he was occupied by them again, when he learned that the gymnasium was to be dissolved and its place taken by a primary school.  To this the rector Salfranck was appointed as a teacher,