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Kaspar Hauser.
His description of his prison life is doubtless correct, for the
impressions then made were few and constantly repeated, and,
therefore, enduring. But in trying to recall what happened after
his release, he was all astray. He had no idea of time and dis-
tance—the objects he saw were entirely strange, and his attention
was absorbed by his acute physical sufferings.
Later revelations permit the construction of a probable theory
respecting that strange journey.
It is impossible that Kaspar Hauser could have walked from
Falkenhaus (which is now believed to have been the place of his
‘mprisonment) to Nuremberg. The distance is between twenty
and thirty miles, and the road passes through several villages, and
is well travelled at all times. He must bave been conveyed in a
carriage, and concealed from .the passers-by. He remembered
having fainted as soon as he left his cell, and he probably fainted
many times before becoming ‘accustomed to the open air, remain-
ing between the attacks in too weak a state to admit of any
Jefinite idea of his surroundings.
For several months after he reached Nuremberg the motion of
a carriage put him immediately into a profound sleep, and such
an effect would have been still more powerful at the time of his
removal from prison. Besides, he may have been partially
stupefied with opium, as he often had been during his confine-
ment.
The attempts at walking may have occurred on the way, as a
necessary practice in view of the contemplated desertion of his
guide ; or they may have been made in some house or garden in
Nuremberg, secured beforehand by the conspirators for the
purpose.
The boy at that time had no idea of any place excepting the
aarrow prison he had just left ; and he could not walk more than
a few steps at a time; so that for him a small garden would
appear as large as a forest, and a few minutes’ painful exercise
would represent hours or days of endurance.
The walks he took were doubtless at night, as his eyes were
‘00 weak to bear the sun. and besides. the risk of discovery would
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