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.

"The country calls once more for help, and this time the call is
addressed to me, too, for now I have courage and strength. It cast me a
great in ward struggle, believe me, to abstain when in 1813 she gave her
first cry, and only the conviction held me back that thousands of others
were then fighting and conquering for Germany, while I had to live far
the peaceful calling to which I was destined. Now it is a question of
preserving our newly re-established liberty, which in so many places has
already brought in so rich a harvest. The all-powerful and merciful Lord
reserves for us this great trial, which will certainly be the last; it is
for us, therefore, to show that we are worthy of the supreme gift which
He has given us, and capable of upholding it with strength and firmness.

"The danger of the country has never been so great as it is now, that is
why, among the youth of Germany, the strong should support the wavering,
that all may rise together. Our brave brothers in the north are already
assembl