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while they were given to understand that the youth’s importance
~onsisted entirely in being Lord Stanhope’s protégé, and not in any
romantic theories concerning his possible origin. Thus, prejudiced
against the foundling by his sole protector, and authorised to treat
him according to their own judgment, Meyer and Hickel began
with zeal their course of petty persecution, each in his own way :
Meyer as a pedantic pedagogue, impatient of intellectual de-
ficiency and unmerciful towards moral weakness; Hickel as an
astute policeman, ever on the alert to expose imposture and de-
tect crime. It is out of their own mouths that they are to be
~ondemned ; for Kaspar, like the child he was, forgot each quarrel
as soon as it was over, and never complained to outside persons,
excepting on one occasion when he defended himself before
Feuerbach, in reply to Hickel’s accusations.
Meyer's ©“ Report” and Hickel’s * Letters ” are the sources from
whence are derived a knowledge of how the boy fared at the
nands of those two untrustworthy guardians.
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February 19, 1832, Hickel went alone to Hungary, sent thither,
at the expense of Stanhope, to examine into the story concerning
Priest Miiller and Governess Dalbonne, and to visit the castie
and towns whose names had appeared to waken a vague memory
in Kaspar’s mind. The journey was, of course, fruitless.
On Hickel’s return Kaspar met him with the question :
“ Have you found my parents?” and received for reply a con-
lemptuous glance, with the words :
“You probably know best whether 1 have found your parents
or not!”
All this was lost upon Kaspar, who, although thinking much
and deeply upon the subject, was unable to sift, and compare, and
reason upon the various theories which occupied so many brilliant
and experienced minds, while he was entirely innocent of the de-
ception implied by Hickel’s answer. He often told Professor
Daumer in tle Nuremberg days that if he could only find his
father it would be all the same to him whether he found him in a
palace or in a hovel: he felt alone, and a stranger in the world,