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, they told him, same
collision between the students and the soldiers was feared, and as the
military preparations were very thorough, such a collision could not be
otherwise than fatal to his friends. Sand answered that he was ready
that very moment, and only asked time enough to take a bath, as the
ancients were accustomed to do before going into battle. But as the
verbal authorisation which he had given was not sufficient, a pen and