7.) 
Kaspar Hauser. 
to Baden-Baden to meet Major Hennenhofer, who came oyer 
from Mahlberg by appointment, and from Baden-Baden Stanhope 
went alone to Mannheim, where he remained several weeks, his 
business there being to discover how much knowledge of the 
Kaspar Hauser secret was in the possession of Grand-Duchess 
Stephanie, and to convince her, if possible, that the suspected 
identity of the foundling with her elder son was groundless and 
absurd. At that time she felt no distrust of Lord Stanhope’s 
honesty ; they talked over the matter freely together, and if she 
really lost faith in her previous convictions upon that subject, the 
change in her sentiments was undoubtedly due to her confidence 
in Stanhope’s assertions and arguments. He was apparently 
acting under instructions from the Court of Baden, and yet at that 
very time Grand-Duke Leopold was meditating a plan by which 
the abducted Prince might at a later period be restored to his 
rights, to the satisfaction of all concerned. As early as December, 
1830, Lord Stanhope wrote to Hennenhofer that Leopold intended 
having the Prince properly educated and brought back to 
Karlsruhe under an assumed name. He should then marry 
Leopold’s daughter, Alexandrine, under which circumstances all 
difficulties in the way of recognition and restitution would be 
easily overcome. Stanhope declared in the same letter that 
Leopold was the most chivalrous Prince he had ever met with ; 
because he not only uttered knightly sentiments, but was ready to 
2xemplify them in his conduct, and as soon as the political con- 
dition of Europe would allow, he was sure to set an example of 
justice and generosity which would astonish the diplomatic 
world. 
Political danger was then, as it is now, the excuse for all the 
sins and shortcomings of rulers and diplomatists ; but it is prob- 
able that Leopold really meant to repair the wrong caused by 
the criminal ambition of his nearest relations, and his noble resolve 
stands in refreshing contrast to the black treachery of Stanhope, 
who, while secretly praising the chivalry of the usurper, was 
deliberately destroying the last hope in the breast of the mother 
of the rightful sovereign.