sweet community of thought which distance cannot interrupt, in
which I find my only joys, and which, in spite of men, will always be
granted us by the Lord, our Father.

"As for my physical state, I knew nothing about it. You see, however,
since at last I am writing to you myself, that I have come past my first
uncertainties. As for the rest, I know too little of the structure of my
own body to give any opinion as to what my wounds may determine for it.
Except that a little strength has returned to me, its state is still the
same, and I endure it calmly and patiently; for God comes to my help,
and gives me courage and firmness. He will help me, believe me, to find
all the joys of the soul and to be strong in mind. Amen.

"May you live happy!--Your deeply respectful son,

"KARL-LUDWIG SAND."

A month after this letter came tender answers from all the family. We
will quote only that of Sand's mother, because it completes the idea
which the reader may have formed already of this great-hearted woman, as
her son always calls her.

"DEAR, INEXPRESSIBLY DEAR KARL,--How Sweet it was to me to see the
writing of your beloved hand after so long a time! No journey would have
been so painful and no road so long as to prevent me from coming to you,
and I would go, in deep and infinite love, to any end of the earth in
the mere hope of catching sight of you.

"But, as I well know both your tender affection and your profound
anxiety for me, and as you give me, so firmly and upon such manly
reflection, reasons against which I can say nothing, and which I can
but honour, it shall be, my well-beloved Karl, as you have wished and
decided. We will continue, without speech, to communicate our thoughts;
but be satisfied, nothing can separate us; I enfold you in my soul, and
my material thoughts watch over you.

"May this infinite love which upholds us, strengthens us, and leads us
all to a better life, preserve, dear Karl, your courage and firmness.

"Farewell, and be invariably assured that I shall never cease to love
you strongly and deeply.

"Your faithful mother, who loves you to eternity."

Sand replied:--

"January 1820, from my isle of Patmos.

"MY DEAR PARENTS, BROTHERS, AND SISTERS,--

"In the middle of the month of September last year I received, through
the grand-duke's special commission of inquiry, whose humanity you have
already appreciated, your dear letters of the end of August and the
beginning of Septembe