56
Kaspar Hauser.
sudden and unexpected that some persons believed he was
poisoned, while others talked of a fatal shock, caused by a ghost
which appeared to him in the royal chapel.
The story ran that one night the guard whose beat lay near the
chapel reported that the windows were brilliantly illuminated at
midnight.
The next night another guard made the same statement, and
Ludwig being told of it, went himself to the chapel to discover
the cause.
There he saw, seated upon the throne in a blaze of light, his
predecessor, Kail, holding by the hand a young child, and the
sight affected the guilty Grand-Duke so powerfully that he fell ill
and died in a few hours.
It was said also that on his accession to the throne he was
visited by Karl’s spectre, accompanied by two children.
Whatever other worth such rumours may have, they show at
least that a suspicion of foul play concerning the infant children of
Grand-Duke Karl had taken firm root in the public mind.
Another significant circumstance connected with the death of
Ludwig was the fact that, in conformity to his express command,
he was not buried with his ancestors in the royal vault at Pforz
heim, although the last of the regular line, but was interred in a
new vault, which he had caused to be built in Karlsruhe some time
SYefore his death.
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The decease of the ruling Prince was a great embarrassment to
he Government, as the rumours concerning his legitimate
successor could no longer be ignored. The chief officials of the
State met in secret council on the very day of the Grand-Duke’s
death, the session being opened by a speech from the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Herr von Berstett,who declared in plain words what
probably all of them knew in their secret thoughts, namely, that
‘he successor to the Crown was living in ignorance of his rights,
and that the question before the Council was to determine
whether the abducted Prince or the presumptive heir was to be
yroclaimed as the ruler of Baden. The rightful claimant of the