160
Kaspar Hauser.
tinct purpose. Indeed, a recent apologist has owned that Hicke]
merely chose the epistolary form as a vehicle for his information,
and made a great blunder in doing so.
There is something almost fiendish in Hickel’s evident enjoy-
ment of Kaspar Hauser’s unhappiness. He dilates upon Kaspar’
strong desire to go to England, and his bitter disappointment at
every postponement of the plan.
As early as May 12, 1832, he announces, with apparent
pleasure, that the leaf is turned, that the failure to make any satis-
factory discovery in Hungary had awakened many doubts in Lord
Stanhope’s mind which must lead to an entire alteration of feeling
towards Kaspar Hauser. ‘The Earl might still be willing to sup-
port his protégé, but his confidence in him was gone, and conse-
quently a great change must come over Kaspar’s envied pro-
sperity. “‘ Taken from the city of Nuremberg, bereft of the Earl's
confidence, treated with small sympathy in Ansbach, he is now in
the hands of individuals who, without entirely adopting Lord
Stanhope’s adverse opinion, will yet leave nothing undone to dis-
cover truth and detect imposture.”
He writes again, September 24, 1832, that the Earls long
silence bodes no good for Kaspar Hauser’s future, and prophecies
that if light be not soon shed upon the mystery, if it be not
speedily determined whether crime or deception lies at the
bottom of the story, all further sympathy on the part of the public,
as well as on that of the Earl, will be withdrawn.
Hickel professed to be very anxious to publish his letters with
as little delay as possible, but although he lived until 1862, they
did not appear until ten years after his death, and then only as an
appendix to Mever’s book.
The year 1872 was rich in Kaspar Hauser literature. Among
other contributions, a certain anonymous article which went the
rounds of the newspapers created much comment. The writer
stated that in 1849, when the Prussian troops held Baden, he was
told by a lieutenant in the Baden army that Hennenhofer (whom
the officer knew intimately), fearing that his papers might be
