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,