The fact, however, which finally and at once sealed the determination of Sand, was the appearance of the work of Stourdze, and Kotzebue's standing forth as his defender. Stourdze, a Russian, published a most odious and miserable volume, in which he lauded absolute monarchy, railed against freedom of the press, misrepresented the spirit of the German High Schools in the most abominable terms, and at the same time advised that they should be stripped of all their rights and privileges, and laid under the strictest discipline. The author was formally accused by the Burschenschaft of Jena for his calumnies, to the Grand Duke of Weimar, who laid the case before the _Bundestag_. Stourdze defended himself in the public papers; two youths, not students, but belonging to the Burschenschaft, afterwards challenged him to single combat, whom, however, he answered only with words in the newspapers. Sand now brooded a whole half-year in irresolution over this thought--whether he should devote himself as the instrument for taking out of the way this, in his eyes, so dangerous an enemy of the weal of the German people. "The determination," said he, "must first progress in myself to a greater maturity, since I have partly to contend in myself with the natural shrinking from the performance of such a deed, and partly with the oft recurring thought that I am worthy of and qualified for something better, by the character of my mind, and my already acquired accomplishments. I have also waited for a third, since I had as good a right to wait for a third, as he to wait for me. But as I found no one, this was likewise a ground of determination for myself. Oft have I thought--'thou canst quietly live on, if but a third person undertake the deed.' This waiting was thus properly only a wish that another might step before me; for the rest, however, I knew no such third."