on the morrow. Mr. Widemann made him sit in a chair and
take the required position, and went into all the details of the
execution with him. Then Sand, perfectly instructed, begged him not to
hurry and to take his time. Then he thanked him beforehand; "for," added
he, "afterwards I shall not be able." Then Sand returned to his bed,
leaving the executioner paler and more trembling than himself. All these
details have been preserved by Mr. G----; for as to the executioner, his
emotion was so great that he could remember nothing.

After Mr. Widemann, three clergymen were introduced, with whom Sand
conversed upon religious matters: one of them stayed six hours with him,
and on leaving him told him that he was commissioned to obtain from him a
promise of not speaking to the people at the place of execution. Sand
gave the promise, and added, "Even if I desired to do so, my voice has
become so weak that people could not hear it."

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,