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Kaspar Hauser.
being presented to Queen Caroline (the widowed stepmother of the
reigning sovereign, King Ludwig I.), who was a Princess of Baden,
and aunt of the deceased Grand-Duke Karl. She received Voy
Feuerbach in private audience, and after his return to Ansbach
he drew up a report of his conclusions respecting Kaspar Hauser,
and sent it to the Queen at her request. A copy of the report
was found among Feuerbach’s papers after his death, and wag
embodied in the memoir written by his son, which was published
in 1852. The following are the principal points of the docu
ment :(—
“I. Kaspar Hauser is not an illegitimate, but a legitimate child,
as is proved by the great care taken to keep his birth a secret.
The means are out of all proportion to the end, supposing him to
be illegitimate, no matter of how high parentage.
“II. The persons entrusted with the secret were possessed of
extraordinary power and means for the carrying out of their
criminal undertaking.
“III. Kaspar Hauser must be a person upon whose life or
death great interests are centred, as is shown by the recent
attempt to murder him.
“IV. It is evident from the circumstances that the crime
against Kaspar Hauser’s liberty was not prompted by hatred or
revenge, but solely by selfish interest.
“V. He must be a person of high birth, of princely origin.”
To sum up: “Kaspar Hauser is the legitimate son of royal
parents, and was put out of the way in order to open the succession
to other heirs. As no such child is known to have disappeared,
it follows that he is supposed to be dead. The only royal house
upon which such suspicion can fall is the House of Baden,
wherein all the heirs of the recular line died within a short time.