“Kaspar Hauser." All endeavors to draw | child, he would most likely have let him from him, however, whence he came, where run about with his own ten. But to shut he had lived, or any other matter connected him up in a dark den, and there for sevenwith himself, were vain. He appeared to teen years feed and visit him, was a piece be from sixteen to seventeen years of age. of labor and mystery which no common laHe was of middle size, broad-shouldered, borer would subject himself to. There was and of a perfect regularity of build. His evidently a nobler parentage, and another skin was white and fine, his limbs were de- story, for which this was but a clumsy sublicately moulded, his hands small and beau- stitute. tifully formed; and his feet, which were as He was handed over by the captain of soft in texture and finely shaped as his horse to the police the very evening that he hands, bore not the slightest trace of hav- was found, and he was treated by them as ing been compressed in shoes. He showed a helpless person from some unknown the utmost abhorrence of all food or drink, place. The greatest curiosity was excited except dry bread and water. His speech regarding him, as soon as the case was was confined to a very few words or sen- known, and the Bürgermeister Binder espetences in the old Bavarian dialect, as cially exerted himself to penetrate the mys "Reuta wähn, wie mei Votta Wähn is :" tery which surrounded him. The result of "I wish to be a trooper, as my father was. "much inquiry, partly from himself, and He exhibited the most utter unacquaintance partly from circumstantial evidence, was with the commonest objects and most daily appearances of nature, and a total indifference to the comforts and necessities of life. In his wretched dress was found a handkerchief marked K. H.; and he had also in his pocket a manuscript Catholic prayer-book. The writer of the letter which he had brought in his hand professed to be a poor laborer, and the father of ten children, and said that the boy had been left by his unknown mother at his door; that he had taken him in, and brought him up secretly, teaching him reading, writing, and Christianity. The letter was dated 1828, from the Bavarian frontiers, but the place not named. Within it was another letter, purporting to be from the mother, and written in Roman characters, saying that the boy was born on the 30th of April, 1812; that his mother was a poor maiden, who could not support him, and his father a soldier in the 6th regiment of light horse, now dead. That she requested the laborer to keep him till he was seventeen, and then send him to the regiment.

The whole of the story was soon felt to hang very badly together. It was not likely that a mother, determining to expose her child, would lay it at the door of a poor laborer with ten children, and expect him to keep it seventeen years. It was less likely that any poor laborer in such circumstances could or would so faithfully support a burden of this kind for so many years, and then so punctually convey him to the place appointed. Besides, what motive could the man have for concealment? The mother might have, but what could the poor laborer have? If he had received the

that he had been kept from his childhood
in a dark, subterranean place, where he
could not once stretch himself properly, it
was so small, and there he had remained,
clad only in a shirt and trowsers, and fed
on bread and water. Occasionally he found
himself attacked with very heavy sleep, and
on awaking from these peculiar sleeps he
found that his clothes had been changed,
his nails cut, and the place had been
cleaned out. His only amusement was
playing with two wooden horses. For some
time, however, before he was carried off to
Nuremberg, the man who tended him, but
whose face he never saw, had come fre-
quently into his cell, had guided his hand
in writing with a pencil on paper, which
had delighted him very much, and had
taught him to say he would be a soldier as
his father had been; that he was from Re-
gensburg; and "I don't know."
length
the man,'
as he always called
him, came one night, carried him out of his
dungeon, made him try to walk, on which
he fainted, and at last brought him to the
gate of Nuremberg.

At

Every circumstance testified to the truth of these facts. He stumbled slowly forward in attempting to walk. He appeared to have no guidance or control of his limbs. His feet, which had never been used to boots, were now thrust into them, and evidently gave him the greatest torture. Walking occasioned him to groan and weep. His eyes could not bear the light, but became inflamed; and the formation of the bones and muscles of his legs demonstrated that he had sat all his life long. At first he had no idea whatever of the qualities of

From the police-office he was removed to the prison for vagabonds and beggars. Here the keeper at first regarded him as an impostor, but soon found him actually to be in the state of a little child; and the jailor's children played with him, and taught him to speak.

things; nor of distances. He was delighted | he could not tell. In his delirium he had with the flame of a candle, and put his fin- often said, "Man come-don't kill me. I ger into it. At the police office he exhi- love all men-do no one anything. Man, bited no symptoms of interest in anything, I love you too. Don't kill-why man kill?" of confusion, or of alarm. Feigned cuts Strict official inquiry was made into the were made at him, and thrusts, but he did circumstances, but no further light was not even wink in consequence. The sound thrown upon them. It was evident, howof bells made no impression on him; but ever, that some diabolical mystery hung on drums beating near him he was thrown over him. There were powerful enemies into convulsions. somewhere, and it was now evident that they had taken alarm. The public curiosity had spread far and wide the fame of this strange youth, and it was evident that he might yet recollect things which might lead to a detection of his origin. Amongst those who now became deeply interested in him was Lord Stanhope, who undertook the whole charge of his education, and removed him to Anspach. Here he was placed for awhile as clerk in the registrar's office of the Court of Appeal; and he was quietly performing his duties when Lord Stanhope began to talk of adopting him and bringing him to England. This most probably sealed his fate; for one evening, December 14, 1833, as he was returning from the office, a stranger accosted him in the street, and on pretence of giving him news from Lord Stanhope, and intelligence regarding his origin, induced him to accompany him into the castle gardens, where he suddenly stabbed him in the left side. Hauser had strength enough to reach home, and to utter a few indistinct words, when he fainted. The police were instantly summoned, but before they arrived Kaspar Hauser was dead. No trace of the murderer could be found.

The public curiosity regarding him and his story grew, and numbers flocked from all sides to see him. They brought him toys. Von Feuerbach visited him after he had been considerably more than a month in Nuremberg, and found his room stuck all over with prints and pictures which had been given him, and money, playthings, and clothes lying about in regular order, which every night he packed up, and unpacked and arranged every morning. He complained that the people teazed him; that he had head-aches, which he had never known in his cell.

On the 18th of July he was released from the prison, and given into the care of Professor Daumer, who undertook to bring him up and educate him; and an order was issued by the magistrates that he should not be interrupted by any more visitors. Here being shown a beautiful prospect from a window, he drew back in terror; and when afterwards he had learned to speak, and was asked why he did so, he said it was because a wooden shutter seemed to have been put close before his eyes, spattered all over with different colors His sense of smell was most acute, and often gave him great agony. He could not bear to pass through or near a churchyard, because the effluvia, unperceived by others, affected him with horror. He was extremely amiable, and attached himself with the utmost affection to Professor and Mrs. Daumer.

It is no wonder that a fate so melancholy upon a life so strange should rouse the public mind to an extraordinary degree. It was felt that the eyes of those who, for some unknown purpose, but as clearly from most important grounds, had thus treated this unfortunate youth, who had inflicted on him a treatment which Professor Feuerbach styled "a crime against the life of a soul," had never been removed from him. It was evident that no ordinary persons, and no ordinary fears, were concerned. It became the subject of deep popular inOn the 17th of October he was found quiry; and the public knowledge of certain bleeding and insensible, from a dreadful strange events in a certain high quarter led wound in the forehead, in a cellar. He gradually to a conviction which now exists was supposed to be dead; but he finally with a wide and deep effect on the popular recovered, and stated that "the man" had mind in Germany. We will proceed to entered the house in the absence of the state what this conviction is, and on what family, having his face blacked, and had it rests, from a little volume entitled, wounded him; how he got into the cellar" Einige Beiträge Zur Geschichte Caspar VOL. XI. No. IV.

32

Hausers, nebst einer dramaturgischen Einleitung von Joseph Heinrich Garnier."

CASPAR HAUSER.

"The first prince was a murderer, and introduced the purple to conceal the stains of his deed in this blood color."-SCHILLER'S Fiesco.

[The author, after glancing at some of the many rumors of the crimes of palaces which, spite of the censorship of the press and the swarming of police, still circulate in Germany, proceeds as follows:-]

To these princely family-histories I add, as no unfitting topstone, the singular fate of Caspar Hauser. In the territory of Baden the story runs from end to end, that the unfortunate Hauser was the true heir of the throne of Baden, a son of the GrandDuke Karl and the adopted daughter of Napoleon, Stephanie Tascher. If this rumor stood nakedly and alone, we should hesitate to make it public; but it stands linked with such a train of facts, which we produce for our justification, that we entertain at least a doubt, a bitter doubt.

Karl

finally triumphed; the married pair disco-
vered the truth, and became attached to
each other. Their eldest child was the
Princess Louise, who was born in 1811.
Their marriage seemed to promise to be-
come one of the happiest in the world, but
the evil demon again presented itself.
was amiable, but weak; a knot of dissipated
people acquired an influence over him; he
was regularly ruined, and died of exhaus-
tion in the thirtieth year of his life. He
had had in the whole five children; three
princesses, who still live; and two princes,
one born in September, 1812, who died (?)
in a few weeks; the other born in 1816,
who died in the following year. Karl,
therefore, left no male heir; and, at his
death, who succeeded to the throne?-The
evil genius of his father-his father's bro-
ther Ludwig, and that after the next elder
brother, the Margrave Frederick, had died
in the preceding year 1817, and died, too,
of a sudden death.

Since, then, this Grand-Duke Ludwig, the predecessor of the present reigning grand-duke, is the principal figure in the In the time of the French Revolution, in infernal picture that we now unroll, it is Baden ruled the Margrave Karl Frederick, necessary in a few words to denote his chaa brave and able man, and one of the few racter. Possessing a powerful constitution, sovereigns whom the public could honestly he was full of vehement and contradictory praise. At an already advanced age, he passions. He was dissolute to the highest made a left-handed marriage with a lady of the court, Fräulein Geyer von Geyersberg. The fruits of this marriage were the three Margraves, formerly the Counts von Hochberg, of whom the eldest, through a singular concurrence of circumstances, yet sits on the grand-ducal throne.

degree, irreconcilable in his hatred, constant in friendship, or more properly, grateful for personal services rendered him which were truly of a very dubious kind, consisting in procuration and base adulation, arbitrary and despotic, and yet so able, that perhaps never was there a prince who could rely so unconditionally on the devotion of his soldiers; at a signal from him they would have fired on father and mother. He was, moreover, persevering and determined in his resolves and opinions, and, finally, not wanting in personal courage, to which he added tolerable knowledge of military affairs.

The heir apparent to the throne (namely, the eldest son of the Margrave Frederick) died during the lifetime of his father a violent death, while on a journey to the north, in the year 1801. The carriage was upset, and his neck was broken. He left, however, a son, Karl, who succeeded on the death of his grandfather in 1811. This was the husband of Stephanie, whom he married in 1806. Stephanie, now in advanced age, is esteemed a lady of fascinating manners, full of intellect and goodness of heart; but in the flower of her youth she united in herself all which constitutes the perfect charm of a young Frenchwoman. Notwithstanding, for a long time she deigned not to confer on her husband a word or look. An evil demon appeared to stand Without allowing ourselves to speculate between them, and it did stand between how far these circumstances were ordered them; who it was we shall anon see. or effected by a human hand, since the inSound sense and natural goodness, however, quiry is impossible, so much is certain, he

Let us now take a retrospective review of the whole succession of deaths which must happen, in order to open to him the way to the throne: and we find his eldest brother, who was killed by the overturning of his carriage; his next elder brother, who also died a sudden death; his brother's son, who died in the bloom of his years; and the two male children of this nephew, who both perished in their infancy.

was the murderer of his nephew, the mur-theatre a dancer, Mademoiselle Werner; derer of Karl. he had two children by her, and afterwards At the time of the Congress of Vienna, created her Countess of Langenstein. Exa rumor was abroad that he had procured tensive and various as were his intrigues, poison to be given him in Vienna; and the to this lady he showed an unvarying consuicide of Karl's valet which took place in stancy; he visited her every day, reposed that city, and the cause of which never in her the most unbounded confidence, and could be discovered, was soon connected left her at his death the bulk of his priwith it in the public mind, and regarded vate property, which was considerable. as the consequence of the stings of consci- Near the residence of this Mademoiselle ence. Yet Karl died not till 1818: it did, Werner was that of the park-ranger Hauser, indeed, appear as if his health had suffered who had earlier been chamberlain to Luda shock since his sojourn in Vienna; yet wig of Baden, still stood in high favor with we willingly admit that Karl died in direct him, and whose daughter daily visited her consequence of his debaucheries; but, if neighbor, where she often saw the grandwe cast a glance at the loose companions duke too. Both Mademoiselle Werner who seduced him into these disgraceful ex- and the daughter of the park-ranger are cesses, we at once discover none but people good, plain, unpretending women, of the who, after the death of the nephew, became the particular favorites of the uncle.

middle class, to whom people willingly listen when they talk out of their own heads, One of these, Von Gensau, colonel of the or become the echoes of persons of fashion. guards, led a life of constant scandal, con- In this way, on one occasion came flying to tracted false debts, embezzled even fees be- me a feather, which once hung in the pinlonging to the war-office, for which a poor ion of one of the Hauser family. devil of the name of Bernauer, who served The conversation was of Hennehofer; of both gentlemen as secretary, soon after the his brilliant career; and whether, in case accession of the present grand-duke, was of a change in the government, he might arrested, and for two years continued under not be a loser. By no means," was the trial at Carlsruhe. But Ludwig was too answer, "he knows too much." That much shrewd, and too zealous an observer, for he could not have grown in her garden; it was acquainted himself with the whole gossip evidently the observation of the ruler, who of the city, and knew it all, for the debau- had let it fall in confidential talk with his cheries of his colonel of guards to escape mistress. I could well comprehend on him, which the very children. in the streets what occasion the grand-duke might have were familiar with, and yet he never dropped this expression. Major Hennebrought him to account for them. Was hofer stood in connexion with Mademoiselle there a criminal secret between the two- Werner, he was even about to marry her the cement of this enduring connexion? sister; he had no private property; noThe reward for having ministered diligent- thing but his pay. În the intimate converly to the excesses of the nephew, which ex-sations concerning this marriage, in which hausted his strength? Was there a secret the grand-duke took a lively interest, and between them? Probably there was more which he particularly desired, it was quite in character that the princely favorite or

than one!

Another favorite of the Grand-Duke her sister, who was looking for a secure Ludwig was the Major Hennehofer, in provision, should observe to the duke that whom many believe that they see the mur-the future bridegroom depended entirely derer of Caspar Hauser. This man has, in- on his pay, and might lose it under a sucdeed, talent, but unrestrained by principle, cessor. To which the reply was the requiand capable of anything. He made a strik-site consolation. "He is indispensable to ingly rapid career in Germany. The war the successor, he knows too much." But of 1813 found him a commissary, if I mis- what did he know?

take not, at Gernsbach. He was about Perhaps it was how both the heirs male had the person of Karl, as a ranger; but under perished so speedily while the sisters all reLudwig he rose speedily to the rank of mained alive. The people from the first Minister of Foreign Affairs. Those must regarded the affair as very striking, and said have been important services which were rewarded with so rapid an advancement. Was he also in the secret?

The grand-duke openly took from the

all sorts of things about it: the deaths were also attended with truly extraordinary eir

cumstances.

Before the death of each of the princes.

appeared the white lady. This white lady, as every one knows, bestowed formerly, and for ages, her visits on many of the great families of Germany, and each appearance was the herald of death. In the Castle of Blankenburg in the Hartz country, you may see a very striking full-length portrait of her. The white lady appeared at the cradle of the princes successively, bowed herself in grief over it, and the terrified nurses fled away.

I have read with much pleasure the stories of the white lady and of the banshee, in the Irish popular legends; but as all these bore an ancient date, I had drawn the conclusion that the white lady had long since vanished, and appeared no more. I deduce, therefore, from this present fact, another meaning, one which certain persons in Carlsruhe adopted, that the white lady was no other than the Reichsgräfin, formerly maid of honor, Geyer von Geyersberg, the mother of the present grand-duke, and that she destroyed the children.

Karl Frederick, at an advanced age, con-
tracted a left-handed marriage with the
maid of honor, Mademoiselle Geyer von
Geyersberg, who was very young, and she
bore the margraf particularly strong and
healthy children. The courtiers made re-
marks thereon, and plenty of people set it
down to their own satisfaction, that the
real father of these children was no other
than their own half-brother, the evil demon
of our history, Ludwig of Baden; and cer-
tainly he who could seduce his father's wife
to a crime of this kind, could easily lead
her to the infinitely lesser sins of stealing
or smothering other people's children.
if, indeed, these partly worn-out rumors
were based on fact, there are other myste-
rious circumstances in the history of Lud-
wig, which can only be explained by the
intimate relation between father and son,
between a man and his successor.

But

When Ludwig ascended the throne, he was yet a vigorous man. He had two healthy and strong children by his mistress This woman must have been an unnatu- the Gräfin Langenstein; he was not a ral monster towards her own children. man to be dreaming of dying soon; he was She was recklessly extravagant and irregu- ambitious to the highest degree; why then lar in her life; credit, she had none amongst did it never occur to him to marry, that the rich, to whom she was too well known; he might be able to leave his throne to his her agents went continually about amongst own children-that throne, which, accordthe dwellings of the poor, and exacted f.oming to all appearances, he had grasped only them, under menaces and the most deceit- by a whole series of crimes? The most ful promises, their little savings for their powerful reasons of state must indeed urge own necessities. She is dead, but curses upon him the policy of hastening such a and imprecations on her memory daily marriage. resound around her grave, from thou- Between the courts of Bavaria and Baden, sands of those whose families she re- there existed and still exist the most seduced to poverty or whose poverty she rious and earnestly contested claims to the aggravated to ruin. Her eldest son is possession of the Pfalz, the richest and most now Grand-duke of Baden; her two other beautiful portion of Baden. After the sons are Margraves of Baden, and all death of the Grand-Duke Ludwig, there three are very rich; yet it has occurred to remained none of the family of the Marnone of them to rescue the memory of their grave Karl Frederick, except the children mother! They left her, during the latter of the Reichsgräfin von Hochberg, i. e. years of her life, in a condition of indigence Madam Geyer von Geyersberg, who had and destitution, which she endeavored to been so created. But these were the fruit escape by compelling from widows and or- of a left-handed marriage, i e. of a marphans their last mites: and now that she riage in which the children inherited the is in her grave, they will not, by a small quality, not of the father, but of the mother part of their superfluous wealth, purchase only. Thus the ruling family legally exher an exemption from the curses of these pired with Ludwig of Baden; and Bavaria unhappy ones! When the mother appears might now make good its claims on the so infamous to her own children, what shall Pfalz, and Austria its claims on the Breiswe think of her? We must believe every- gau, which, in consequence of the French thing, the moment that we can be shown Revolution, had been given to Baden, at what interest she could have to become the the expense of Bavaria. It became doubtaccursed work-tool of the murder in ques-ful even whether the Reichsgräfin Hochberg could establish the claims of her chilWe have already said, that the Margraf dren to the old hereditary portion of Baden

tion.