"I confess that, like all my brothers and sisters, I owe to you that
beautiful and great part of my education which I have seen to be lacking
to most of those around me. Heaven alone can reward you by a conviction
of having so nobly and grandly fulfilled your parental duties, amid many
others."

After having paid a visit to his brother at St. Gall, Sand reached
Tubingen, to which he had been principally attracted by the reputation of
Eschenmayer; he spent that winter quietly, and no other incident befell
than his admission into an association of Burschen, called the Teutonic;
then came tester of 1815, and with it the terrible news that Napoleon had
landed in the Gulf of Juan. Immediately all the youth of Germany able to
bear arms gathered once more around the banners of 1813 and 1814. Sand
followed the general example; but the action, which in others was an
effect of enthusiasm, was in him the result of calm and deliberate
resolution. He wrote to Wonsiedel on this occasion:--

"April 22, 1813

"MY DEAR PARENTS,--Until now you have found me submissive to your
parental lessons and to the advice of my excellent masters; until now I
have made efforts to render myself worthy of the education that God has
sent me through you, and have applied myself to become capable of
spreading the word of the Lord through my native land; and for this
reason I can to-day declare to you sincerely the decision that I lave
taken, assured that as tender and affectionate parents you will calm
yourselves, and as German parents and patriots you will rather praise my
resolution than seek to turn me from it.