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Kaspar Hauser.
shouldered, with a black beard. He wore a cloak of blue cloth,
with two or three capes, and a round black hat.
Here were seven witnesses, all evidently describing the same
person, and at the same time agreeing remarkably with the account
given by Kaspar Hauser. The description as to size, complexion,
hair, and beard answers to the characteristics of Major Hennen.
hofer, and the identification is made more certain by the fact that
the stranger, like Hennenhofer, was disfigured by the smallpox.
Hennenhofer was not personally known in Ansbach ; but Lord
Stanhope was, and he was reported to have been seen in the
vicinity on the day of the murder. The two were known to have
left Karlsruhe together about a fortnight before, and Hennenhofer
was still away from home at the date of the Ansbach tragedy,
although he took care to make his appearance the next evening
at the coffee-house of the village near his castle.
The circumstantial evidence is all the more valuable because
at the time of the assassination neither Lord Stanhope nor Hennen-
hofer was suspected of being concerned in the plot against Kaspar
Hauser’s life.
The evidence goes to prove that Hennenhofer himself gave the
fatal blow, although doubtless other agents were on the ground to
protect his flight after the deed was done. It will be remembered
that soon after the attempted assassination in Nuremberg, Lord
Stanhope appeared upon the scene and was visited by two men,
one of whom answered to the description of the stranger seen in
Ansbach on the day of the murder. Kaspar Hauser could not
describe the man who attacked him in Nuremberg, because the
face was veiled or masked. On that occasion also two men were
seen leaving Daumer’s house, and two men were with Stanhope
at his hotel.
The evidence given by the workman, Leich, in Ansbach, as to
the manner of the stranger towards Kaspar Hauser, when they
were walking together, is very significant.
According to the strict rules of German etiquette, Kaspar,
Hauser, unless of higher rank than his companion. should have