02
Kaspar Hauser.
and showing throughout the strongest disposition to condemn
Kaspar Hauser.
Soon after this time, Stanhope’s letters ceased—at least he
wrote no more to Feuerbach and Kaspar Hauser.
Kaspar was uneasy and unhappy—disappointed because he
was not likely to be summoned to England, and distressed be-
cause he knew that Lord Stanhope regarded him as an impostor.
Hickel did not scruple to acquaint him with Stanhope’s change
of feeling, and Meyer also became more harsh and contemptuous
in consequence of Kaspar’s loss of favour with his protector.
The young man would have been more unhappy than he was
if it had not been for his childlike disposition, which enabled him
to forget his troubles easily, and to feel cheerful whenever his
surroundings were agreeable. He had many acquaintances in
Ansbach, and was often invited to family feasts and assemblies of
young people, where he enjoyed himself heartily, and pleased
everyone by his ready good-nature.
In October, 1832, he was placed under the religious direction
of Pastor Fuhrmann, and went at stated times to repeat his
catechism and listen to the clergyman’s explanations of the
doctrines of the Lutheran Church. Pastor Fukrmann became
deeply interested in his pupil, because of his intelligent and in-
quiring mind, and strongly attached to him on account of his in-
nocent spirit and affectionate heart. Kaspar was full of doubts
and questions, which he expressed with the same fearless naiveté
which had so’ often embarrassed his earlier teachers; but he
readily accepted the obligations of the moral law, and often sur-
prised and pleased his instructor by the exhibition of an instinc-
tive conscientiousness which gave good promise of future excel-
lence of character.
Meanwhile Lord Stanhope kept silence, and Kaspar’s domestic
relations became more and more unpleasant. He grew to dislike
Hickel intensely, and felt afraid of him besides. Hickel’s man-
ner from the beginning was coarse and tyrannical. Even as early
as the quarrel about the journal, he had declared that he could
hardly keep his hands off Kaspar, on account of his obstinacy in
