THE HISTORY OF A DELUSIOX. 733 



THE HISTORY OF A DELUSION". 



By M. G. VALBERT. 



IN the year of grace 1838, MM. d'Ennery and Anicet Bourgeois 

 presented at the Theatre l'Arabigu a drama entitled " Gaspard 

 llauser." In the same year " The Poor Idiot of the Cellar of Elberg " 

 was played at le Gaite, the Poor Idiot being also Gaspard or Caspar 

 llauser. Although he had been dead five years, impressible people 

 still continued to be interested in the puzzle of his identity. The 

 world had been full of his name and of the fame of his mysterious ad- 

 ventures, and he had been surnamed the child of Europe. To-day we 

 French have almost forgotten him ; but the Germans have not ceased 

 to be occupied with him and to search for the solution of an enigma 

 which has caused floods of ink to be shed, and has been the occasion 

 of violent and abusive polemics. 



In 1872, Dr. Julius Meyer published " Authentic Communications 

 respecting Caspar Hauser." He provoked a lively response from pro- 

 fessor Daumer, who published a new and learned study on the child 

 of Europe, " upon his innocence, his sufferings, and his origin." He 

 declared in it that "every good German was bound to believe in the 

 princely origin of Caspar Hauser, and that one could not doubt it with- 

 out making proof of rationalistic and satanic incredulity." In 1882 

 an anonymous pamphlet was published at Ratisbon which was intended 

 to demonstrate again to the world that Caspar was the son of the Grand- 

 duchess Stephanie, and the legitimate heir of the grand-duchy of 

 Baden. A few years previously, the Emperor William had induced 

 the grand-duke, his son-in-law, to shut the mouths of calumniators by 

 publishing some documents which were preserved in the archives at 

 Carlsruhe. The anonymous author, however, pretended to have de- 

 rived his materials from important papers left by a person in a very 

 high position, who was no other than the Grand-duchess Stephanie 

 herself. Strong in such testimony, he had undertaken to throw light 

 upon a long-kept secret and into the mysteries of a dark and iniquitous 

 intrigue. 



The anonymous author knew how to write and how to tell a story, 

 and we read his book with as much interest as caution. The court of 

 Ratisbon, trying the case, adjudicated concerning the author and his 

 story that the famous pamphlet had been compiled from previous docu- 

 ments which were destitute of all authority, and that it swarmed with 

 inexact, false, and, more than once, wild allegations. The publisher, 

 who appealed from the judgment, was condemned to pay costs, and 

 forced to withdraw the book from the market. A full and serious 

 history of the pretended idiot has just been published by Herr Antonius 

 von der Linde, in two rather overlarge octavo vulumes. Although it 



