RQ 
Kaspar Hauser. 
and to discover a being to whom he was bound by the strongest 
natural ties would be for him the greatest possible happiness. 
To make matters worse for Kaspar, Frau Meyer, the wife of 
his teacher, received from Frau Bieberbach in N uremberg a letter 
(written February 19, 1832), containing the blackest accusations 
against Kaspar Hauser, and warning Frau Meyer against him as 
a lying, slanderous, ungrateful, heartless wretch, a serpent whom 
she had warmed in her bosom, etc. etc. 
The letter was a scandalous production, so violent and ex- 
aggerated in its tone as to carry its own condemnation ; but al- 
though Frau Meyer's reply (dated April 18, 1832) was more 
temperate, it was plain that the poison had affected both husband 
and wife, and that Kaspar’s faults would thenceforth be regarded 
through Frau Bieberbach’s magnifying glasses. 
As Frau Bieberbach had nothing further to do with Kaspar 
Hauser’s history, what there is to be said about her may as well 
be said here. She was a nervous invalid (afflicted with zympho- 
mania, as her physician told Herr von Tucher), and about a year 
after that letter was written she ended her life by throwing herself 
out of a window while suffering one of the paroxysms of fury to which 
she had long been subject. 
Kaspar’s acquired tendency to untruthfulness was always 
strengthened by undue severity on the part of his guardians, and 
the worrying examinations through which he was put by Herr 
Meyer, whenever he was suspected of having told a lie, only made 
him prevaricate anew. Herr Meyer was also dissatisfied with his 
pupil's slow progress in acquiring knowledge, and it is certain 
that Kaspar took less interest in his studies under this new teacher 
than he had felt in his more sympathetic surroundings in Nurem- 
berg. Besides, he was excited at the prospect of a speedy de- 
parture from Ansbach ; he was going to travel and see the world, 
and live in splendour in England with his adopted father. It 
was no wonder that his thoughts were often astray, and that he 
was disposed to resent the continual dictation of Meyer and Hickel 
in the petty affairs of his monotonous life. Frau Mever troubled