sii 
Preface. 
It is generally believed that the sacrifice of a number of lives, 
among them Feuerbach’s valuable life, was involved in the 
Kaspar Hauser tragedy, and it is certain that an immense amount 
of money—money which came originally from the people and 
ought to have been expended in their interests—was employed 
for the covering up of a plot which insulted the public confidence, 
and betrayed the loyalty of honest subjects. 
I freely admit that in the evidence offered many things are 
asserted which cannot as yet be proved. 
This must necessarily be the case whenever greater pains are 
taken to keep back the truth than to reveal it, and investigators 
must be willing to accept probability, instead of certainty, until 
the time for complete revelation arrives. 
Thus, the paternity of the Hochberg children cannot be settled 
beyond question. Legally, they were the offspring of Karl 
Friedrich ; according to popular belief they owed their existence 
to Margrave Ludwig; and his refusal to marry when so much 
depended upon the continuance of the Zihringen line was a 
strong proof of the justice of the suspicion. It is not likely that 
Ludwig would have resisted the wishes of the nation and the 
promptings of his own ambition for the sake of his morganatic 
step-brothers ; nor would he have helped to organise a wicked 
and dangerous plot against the real heirs, in order to introduce a 
semi-royal line, unless his own dearest interests would be served 
thereby. 
The account of the abduction and several other important 
incidents are taken from a book purporting to contain a portion 
of Hennenhofer’s memoirs, the material having been stolen by his 
private secretary. Hennenhofer never published any memoirs 
himself, and it is denied that he ever wrote any; but the internal 
evidence of authenticity is strong, and there is much to prove 
that he did write a full account of the plot, in order to protect 
himself from punishment, or to revenge himself if punished. 
An intimate acquaintance of his once declared that Hennenhofer 
sent all his papers concerning Kaspar Hauser to Switzerland in 
1849, with instructions to publish them at the end of the century.