two of the prison officials, and behind the chaise came a second
conveyance with the municipal authorities.

The air was very cold: it had rained all night, and the dark and cloudy
sky seemed to share in the general sadness. Sand, too weak to remain
sitting up, was half lying upon the shoulder of Mr. G-----, his
companion; his face was gentle, calm and full of pain; his brow free and
open, his features, interesting though without regular beauty, seemed to
have aged by several years during the fourteen months of suffering that
had just elapsed. The chaise at last reached the place of execution,
which was surrounded by a battalion of infantry; Sand lowered his eyes
from heaven to earth and saw the scaffold. At this sight he smiled
gently, and as he left the carriage he said, "Well, God has given me
strength so far."

The governor of the prison and the chief officials lifted him that he
might go up the steps. During that short ascent pain kept him bowed, but
when he had reached the top he stood erect again, saying, "Here then is
the place where I am to die!"

Then before he came to the chair on which he was to be seated for the
execution, he turned his eyes towards Mannheim, and his gaze travelled
over all the throng that surrounded him; at that moment a ray of sunshine
broke through the clouds. Sand greeted it with a smile and sat down.

Then, as, according to the orders given, his sentence was to be read to
him a second time, he was asked whether he felt strong enough to hear it
standing. Sand answered that he would try, and that if his physical
strength failed him, his moral strength would uphold him. He rose
immediately from the fatal chair, begging Mr. G----to stand near enough