THE HISTORY OF A D EL U SI OX. 735 



The report soon spread through Nuremberg that the police had in 

 prison a strange being, of queer appearance, who only answered, " I 

 don't know," to every question that was asked him. The innocent 

 became the object of a lively curiosity, and, in a short time, of tender 

 compassion. The public came to see him, they examined him from 

 head to foot, and tried to make him talk. Nuremberg had at the time 

 as its head burgomaster a very respectable, good-hearted man, of a 

 simplicity that was easily taken in. He put himself in relations with 

 Caspar Hauser and obtained from the mute his story of some things 

 which he had, he said, been peremptorily forbidden to reveal. , From 

 his most tender infaucy he had lived shut up in a close cellar, having 

 two little windows that let in only a very uncertain and dim light. 

 He had lived there for long years, dragging himself on the hard 

 ground, without ever getting a sight of the sky, the sun, or the moon, 

 or hearing a human voice, the song of a bird, the cry of an animal, or 

 the sound of a footstep. His ration of food was brought to him while 

 he was asleep : when he awoke he would perceive near his straw mat 

 a piece of bread and a mug of water. For companions in his captivity 

 he had nothing but a few wooden playthings. 



One morning he had seen his door open, and a middling-sized man, 

 rather poorly dressed, told him that he should know his father some 

 day, and that he was destined to be a cavalry man as he had been, but 

 must first learn to read and write and cipher. The unknown man 

 came back every five days afterward to teach him the alphabet. At 

 last, one night the unknown took him on his back, carried him out of 

 the cellar, dressed him, and taught him how to walk. They traveled 

 together for several days and nights, and then " the black man " gave 

 Caspar the two letters, with his final instructions, and disappeared like 

 a dream. 



The burgomaster took the pains to tell this wonderful history to all 

 Germany, and all Germany was moved by it. But a few brave minds 

 refused to put any faith in it. They argued that Caspar Hauser hardly 

 looked like a young man who had been sequestered for many years in 

 a close, dark cellar, and that he had neither the color nor the face nor 

 the walk of such a person. He looked well, and had a good figure and 

 the freedom of all his limbs. Was it probable, too, that such a pris- 

 oner, who had never used his legs, had performed a march of several 

 days and nights without the soles of his feet bearing the mark of a 

 blister or an abrasion ? 



The striking contradictions between his new ways of speaking and 

 acting, and his attitude in the first days, should also be remarked. He 

 had come to Nuremberg with too tight boots, but they did not prevent 

 his going and coming with ease. Other, larger ones, were given him. 

 On putting them on, he pretended to be as awkward about them as a 

 monkey that has to wear boots for the first time ; and to be not able 

 to stand up or to walk. When he was presented to Herr von Wes- 



