We have seen by what attentions Sand was surrounded; their humanity never
flagged for an instant. It is the truth, too, that no one saw in him an
ordinary murderer, that many pitied him under their breath, and that some
excused him aloud. The very commission appointed by the grand-duke
prolonged the affair as much as possible; for the severity of Sand's
wounds had at first given rise to the belief that there would be no need
of calling in the executioner, and the commission was well pleased that
God should have undertaken the execution of the judgment. But these
expectations were deceived: the skill of the doctor defeated, not indeed
the wound, but death: Sand did not recover, but he remained alive; and it
began to be evident that it would be needful to kill him.

Indeed, the Emperor Alexander, who had appointed Kotzebue his councillor,
and who was under no misapprehension as to the cause of the murder,
urgently demanded that justice should take its course. The commission of
inquiry was therefore obliged to set to work; but as its members were
sincerely desirous of having some pretext to delay their proceedings,
they ordered that a physician from Heidelberg should visit Sand and make
an exact report upon his case; as Sand was kept lying down and as he
could not be executed in his bed, they hoped that the physician's report,
by declaring it impossible for the prisoner to rise, would come to their
assistance and necessitate a further respite.

The chosen doctor came accordingly to Mannheim, and introducing himself
to Sand as though attracted by the interest that he inspired, asked him
whether he did not feel somewhat better, and whether it would be
impossible to rise. Sand looked at him for an instant, and then said,
with a smile--