Mang ;
ad fi
NH
0 hin.
CComs
Khow
Aske]
IGer ty
23elf af
ot feel
lence,
Vand
mem
op
hild-
COULk
1d the
rine
ars
every
mf
ATO
STO,
dn
Caspar
Tm
this
neik
nents
NN
nil
S166
Kaspar Hauser.
63
conviction. Kaspar recognised many Hungarian words, especially
such as a child would be likely to hear from its nurse ; but the
excitement caused by hearing once familiar sounds, and trying to
recall faint reminiscences of his infancy, was so great that the
experiment could not be long continued.
Kaspar’s general health was at this period extremely delicate,
and continually growing worse, partly because of his mental dis-
content.
His daily intercourse with the Bieberbach family was not at all
‘0 his taste. Frau Bieberbach evidently expected to find in him
an amusing companion, a household plaything, whose attentions
she could command at any moment.
But Kaspar was averse to feminine society, and was, besides,
obliged to study diligently in order to keep up with his class in
school ; consequently, he remained most of the time in his own
room, instead of making himself agreeable in the parlour. When
arged too hard, or followed too closely, he invented excuses for
refusing to join the family circle, and was thereupon reproached
and denounced as a liar. He was spied upon continually, every
zvasion and falsehood being sifted to the bottom by a system of
cross-questioning which was intensely aggravating to his excitable
nerves. He was frequently reproved at great length by Herr
Bieberbach, besides being scolded almost incessantly by Frau
Bieberbach. He was called vain, conceited, arrogant, deceitful,
and disobedient to his face ; while behind his back his faults were
magnified and spread abroad for the criticism of an inquisitive
oublic. Kaspar, on his side, did not hesitate to speak his mind
concerning the treatment he received, and during one of the
Juarrels he became so desperate that he struck his fists upon the
-able and exclaimed, “I would rather die and be done with it!”
Frau Bieberbach never forgave that expression, and her at
first excessive affection for Kaspar turned, as is usual in such
cases, into a correspondingly violent hatred.
Soon after that unpleasant scene Kaspar, Leing in his own
room, mounted a chair to reach a book upon a high shelf, and,