Meanwhile the scaffold was being erected in the meadow that extends on the left of the road to Heidelberg.  It was a platform five to six feet high and ten feet wide each way.  As it was expected that, thanks to the interest inspired by the prisoner and to the nearness to Whitsuntide, the crowd would be immense, and as some movement from the universities was apprehended, the prison guards had been trebled, and General Neustein had been ordered to Mannheim from Carlsruhe, with twelve hundred infantry, three hundred and fifty cavalry, and a company of artillery with guns.

On, the afternoon of the 19th there arrived, as had been foreseen, so many students, who took up their abode in the neighbouring villages, that it was decided to put forward the hour of the execution, and to let it take place at five in the morning instead of at eleven, as had been arranged.  But Sand’s consent was necessary for this; for he could not be executed until three full days after the reading of his sentence, and as the sentence had not been read to him till half-past ten Sand had a right to live till eleven o’clock.

Before four in the morning the officials went into the condemned man’s room; he was sleeping so soundly that they were obliged to awaken him.  He opened his eyes with a smile, as was his custom, and guessing why they came, asked, “Can I have slept so well that it is already eleven in the morning?” They told him that it was not, but that they had come to ask his permission to put forward the time; for, they told him, same collision between the students and the soldiers was feared, and as the military preparations were very thorough, such a collision could not be otherwise than fatal to his friends.  Sand answered that he was ready that very moment, and only asked time enough to take a bath, as the ancients were accustomed to do before going into battle.  But as the verbal authorisation which he had given was not sufficient, a pen and paper were given to Sand, and he wrote, with a steady hand and in his usual writing: 

“I thank the authorities of Mannheim for anticipating my most eager wishes by making my execution six hours earlier.

“Sit nomen Domini benedictum.

“From the prison room, May 20th, day of my deliverance. 
“Karl-Ludwig sand.”

When Sand had given these two lines to the recorder, the physician came to him to dress his wound, as usual.  Sand looked at him with a smile, and then asked, “Is it really worth the trouble?”

“You will be stronger for it,” answered the physician.

“Then do it,” said Sand.

A bath was brought.  Sand lay down in it, and had his long and beautiful hair arranged with the greatest care; then his toilet being completed, he put on a frock-coat of the German shape—­that is to say, short and with the shirt collar turned back aver the shoulders, close white trousers, and high boots.  Then Sand seated himself on his bed and prayed some time in a low voice with the clergy; then, when he had finished, he said these two lines of Korner’s: