DREYFUS 
 
 AND 
 
 THE 
 SHAME 
 
 r\r? 
 
 FRANCE 
 
 G.M.STEVANS 
 
 ILLUSTRATED
 
 THE ACCUSED AVERRING HIS INNOCENCE
 
 DREYFUS 
 
 AND THE 
 
 SHAME OF FRANCE 
 
 INCLUDING 
 
 THE VIEWS OF ZANGWILL, ZOLA AND OTHER 
 
 FAMOUS WRITERS, SCHOLARS 
 
 AND STATESMEN 
 
 PREPARED BY 
 
 C. M. STEVANS 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 F. TENNYSON NEELY 
 
 PUBLISHER 
 114 
 
 FIFTH AVENUE 
 NEW YORK 
 
 BOSTON
 
 COPYRIGHT, 1899, 
 BY F. TENNYSON NEELY
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE GREAT ARMY SCANDAL OF 
 FRANCE. 
 
 Russia has had its Siberian horrors, Turkey 
 its Armenian atrocities, but France, brilliant 
 France, at the head of nations in the glories of 
 art, culture, and advanced civilization, surpasses 
 all in the infamy of its great national scandals. 
 
 Russia has discarded its Siberian terrors and 
 Turkey is maintaining order in Armenia, but 
 France still has its disgraced system of justice. 
 
 From the Mississippi scheme, early in the pre- 
 ceding century, to the Panama scandal, the 
 romance of French history exceeds in startling 
 situations the romance of her novelists. 
 
 But it was reserved for the close of the nine- 
 teenth century to see the greatest travesty on 
 justice yet recorded among enlightened nations. 
 
 As a human document, it is of surpassing in- 
 terest ; as an indictment against a nation, it is 
 like a brilliant and graphic historical novel. 
 5
 
 6 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 JUSTICE TO THE JEW. 
 
 This is the story of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, 
 a tragedy so appalling in its revelations of duplic- 
 ity and the oppressions of governments that the 
 heart chokes with horror and the mind staggers 
 before the inhumanity of man to man. 
 
 Dreyfus was an Alsatian by origin, a German 
 Jew whose people, coming under the French 
 tricolor, swore allegiance to the government. 
 Until 1894 the son was nothing more than a 
 remarkably bright member of the general staff 
 of the French army. He had wealth, a beauti- 
 ful wife, children, many friends, many enemies. 
 
 COMMENDED FOR ABILITY. 
 
 When in the war school of the government 
 preparing for the army he was considered a 
 phenomenon as a student. At the Polytechnic 
 he was often commended for ability. Perhaps 
 the praise so freely bestowed upon him turned 
 his head a bit. It is said that when he entered 
 the army he was proud of his successes, inclined 
 to disdain, apt to look down upon those who 
 failed. He was extremely ambitious. M. de 
 Blowitz writes : 
 
 "He cherished magnificent dreams. Now and 
 then he let some of them escape him. He en- 
 deavored to put himself en vedette, to dazzle his
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 7 
 
 chiefs, to rally about him all sorts of backers 
 to be, as the French say, quelquechose before 
 being quelqu'un. He created about him an at- 
 mosphere of ill will and irony." 
 
 CRY OF THE ANTI-SEMITES. 
 
 It was General Mirabel who first suggested 
 that Dreyfus should have a place on the general 
 staff of the army. It was Sandherr who pro- 
 tested, crying: 
 
 "But he is a Jew ! You are not going to bring 
 a Jew in here !" 
 
 Yet the Jew did enter, and he was keen to 
 learn and understand, cherishing always some 
 dream, never heeding the hostile attitude of the 
 men who never wished him where he was. 
 
 So contemptuously did the general staff hold 
 him that the expression which always passed 
 when he was referred to was, "The Jew." It 
 became a mania in the general staff offices to 
 throw everything onto his shoulders. 
 
 "Has anyone seen a red note-book which I 
 left on my table?" asked an officer of the staff 
 one day. 
 
 "I saw the Jew sneaking about here," an- 
 other immediately replied. "Ask him; he must 
 have seen it."
 
 8 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 GENERAL STAFF'S ENMITY. 
 
 Thus day by day grew up in regard to him 
 slowly but surely in the minds of the general 
 staff officers a spirit of disdainful or hateful sus- 
 picion. Unconsciously he was preparing for 
 himself his own doom. 
 
 This feeling of hatred toward him was strong- 
 est in the intelligence department of the army. 
 This department is situated at an isolated point 
 in the war office. One can enter there without 
 being seen. There treason is announced and 
 the rewards paid for revelations. There is the 
 gold which goes to contemptible spies and there 
 characters are made and unmade as vengeance 
 or spite inspires men to lower themselves to a 
 plane beneath the devils. 
 
 FACES KEEN HATRED. 
 
 In this mysterious bureau Dreyfus met with 
 the keenest hatred and suspicion. He was in- 
 dependent. He was in no need of money. He 
 was of an inquisitive turn of mind. And it was 
 into this bureau that he was sent to work, this 
 bureau where he was looked upon as an enemy 
 who had surreptitiously worked his way in. 
 Truly, the spy department of the French govern- 
 ment was well prepared to believe anything of 
 him.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 9 
 
 And Dreyfus he went his way, confident that 
 honor and fame awaited his efforts to become a 
 "first" soldier of the republic. 
 
 NO MOTIVE FOR ALLEGED CRIME. 
 
 Throughout his military career the record of 
 Captain Dreyfus was excellent. His promotions 
 were won by diligence and discipline. He had a 
 private fortune of more than moderate dimen- 
 sions. His wife was wealthy in her own right. 
 He had two young children. He had no debts. 
 His affection for France was proved by his aban- 
 donment of his native soil when it passed from 
 under the tricolor. There was an entire absence 
 of motive for the crime of which he was soon to 
 be accused. Such was the position of Alfred 
 Dreyfus in 1894. His only fault was that he 
 was a Jew. An agitation against Jews, begin- 
 ning in Russia, had spread across Germany into 
 France, and as early as 1892 had sufficient 
 strength to establish newspapers devoted to its 
 propagation. 
 
 There were leakages of army secrets in 
 France, and on several occasions prior to 1894 
 the public had been angered to learn that im- 
 portant French military devices had been be- 
 trayed to Germany. In 1894 suspicions were 
 aroused that there were traitors on the general
 
 io Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 staff, the center and soul of the national defense. 
 Subsequent developments indicate that the trait- 
 ors became convinced that a scapegoat must be 
 found. There appeared to be a traitor in the 
 bureau of military intelligence. Colonel Sand- 
 herr, the chief of that bureau, disliked Jews, and 
 objected when Dreyfus was sent him as an as- 
 sistant. Under such circumstances, it was easy 
 for the real traitors, with or without Sandherr's 
 connivance, to designate Dreyfus as the traitor. 
 In the summer of 1894 Jean Casimir-Perier 
 was President of France. M. Dupuy was 
 Premier. General Mercier was Minister of War. 
 The military attaches of the German and Italian 
 legations were Colonel Schwartzkoppen and 
 Major Panizzardi. These two attaches were 
 close personal friends. General Mercier was dis- 
 liked by several radical factions, and early in the 
 summer of 1894 the Intransigeant, the Libre 
 Parole, the Patrie, and the Presse had opened 
 fire on him on various grounds. With these 
 conditions understood, the annals of the Dreyfus 
 affair may begin. 
 
 BEGINNING OF THE DRAMA. 
 
 In September, 1894, one of the spies of the 
 intelligence department of the French war office 
 brought to his employers a document, torn into
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France, n 
 
 pieces, said to have been stolen from the Ger- 
 man embassy, where at that time Colonel Von 
 Schwartzkoppen was the military attache. The 
 document was carefully put together by the in- 
 telligence officers and was shown to the chiefs, 
 General Mercier, minister of war; General de 
 Boisdeffre, the chief, and General Gonse, the as- 
 sistant chief of the headquarters staff. At the 
 head of the intelligence department was Colonel 
 Sandherr and among his assistant officers was 
 Commandant Henry. On the staff were three 
 officers Picquart, Du Paty de Clam and 
 Dreyfus. Such was the personnel at the time 
 when the fatal fragments stated to come from 
 the German military attache's waste paper bas- 
 ket were brought into the war office. Put to- 
 gether they read as follows : 
 
 "Without news indicating that you wish to see 
 me I am sending you, nevertheless, sir, some in- 
 teresting information : ' 
 
 "i. A note on the hydraulic break of the 120 
 and on the way in which this piece behaved. 
 
 "2. A note on the covering troop (troupes de 
 converture). Some modifications will be entailed 
 by the new plan. 
 
 "3. A note on a modification in artillery 
 formations. 
 
 "4. A note relative to Madagascar.
 
 12 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 "5. The project for a firing manual for field 
 artillery, March 14, 1894. 
 
 "This last document is extremely difficult to 
 procure and I can only have it at my disposal 
 for a very few days. The minister of war has 
 sent a limited number of copies to the several 
 corps and these corps are responsible for it; 
 each officer is to send his copy back after the 
 maneuvers. If, therefore, you will take from it 
 what interests you and hold it afterward at my 
 disposal I will take it unless you should desire 
 that I should have it copied in extenso and then 
 send you the copy. I am about to go to the 
 maneuvers." 
 
 This is the first chapter of the Dreyfus case 
 which troubled France and agitated the whole 
 world during the closing years of the nineteenth 
 century. 
 
 STARTED BY ANTI-SEMITES. 
 
 It was to the ardent anti-Semite, Edouard 
 Drumont, that the delightful news came in an 
 anonymous letter, addressed to his editor, Mr. 
 Papillaud, that a traitor had been discovered 
 among the offices of the general staff at the min- 
 istry for war and that the traitor was a Jew. The 
 anonymous correspondent hinted that search 
 should be made among "the Dreyfuses, the
 
 Dreyfus and the Shaine of France. 13 
 
 Mayers and the Levys," and that there the traitor 
 would be found. On the last day of October, 
 1894, Papillaud received a letter giving the name 
 of Captain Dreyfus as being the culprit and stat- 
 ing that he had been in the Cherche Midi prison 
 since October 15. "People say he is traveling, 
 but they lie, because they would like to smother 
 the business. All Israel is astir. Tout a vous, 
 Henry." The ardent Drumont plunged himself 
 and his paper at once into a matter so congenial. 
 He found that the arrest had actually taken place 
 and that the charge was against an officer named 
 Alfred Dreyfus, a Jew, of the intelligence depart- 
 ment of the war office. He was accused of hav- 
 ing sold documents to a foreign power, under- 
 stood to mean Germany. 
 
 It subsequently came out that the arrest had 
 been made on October 15 by Colonel Du Paty 
 de Clam, an officer attached to the general staff, 
 acting under the orders of General Mercier, min- 
 ister of war ; that Dreyfus had been imprisoned 
 at the Cherche Midi jail, and that extraordinary 
 precautions had been taken to keep the arrest 
 secret from the public and even from his own 
 family. His wife, it was said, was terrified into 
 silence by Colonel Du Paty de Clam. Paris 
 became more and more interested and eventually 
 excited over the affair. No one at that time,
 
 14 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 however, realized how important an event had 
 occurred, and the- newspapers continued to give 
 what details they could under the title of "le 
 traitre" (the traitor). All kinds of rumors were 
 afloat. According to some the accused man 
 had supplied an Italian officer with plans for the 
 mobilization of the army corps stationed near 
 the Italian frontier; important documents had 
 been missed by the minister of war. Others as- 
 serted that mobilization plans had been com- 
 municated to Germany and Austria. There was 
 a general demand that the minister of war should 
 make the whole truth public without delay. 
 
 CABINET COUNCIL IS HELD. 
 
 Finally, on November i, 1894, a cabinet coun- 
 cil was held, at which General Mercier, the min- 
 ister of war, stated that he had advised the mili- 
 tary governor of Paris to conduct an inquiry into 
 the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus of the Four- 
 teenth regiment of artillery, attached to the gen- 
 eral staff of the army, charged with having 
 divulged to a foreign country the contents of 
 secret documents belonging to the ministry of 
 war. On the following day the French govern- 
 ment did a deed which was worthy of the secret 
 machinations of the Venetian council of ten in
 
 THE TRAP SET FOR DREYFUS 
 
 Colonel du Paty de Clam dictating to Captain Dreyfus the test 
 letter in which some of the terms of the Bordereau were mentioned. 
 Captain Dreyfus was then and there arrested by M. Cochefert, the 
 chief of the detective service.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 17 
 
 the middle ages. Colonel Panizzardi, the Italian 
 military attache in Paris, had been freely spoken 
 of in Paris as being implicated in the treachery 
 of Dreyfus, Italy as well as Germany being one 
 of the bugbears of the French. On November 
 2, the day following the announcement of the 
 arrest of Dreyfus, the French government inter- 
 cepted a telegram from Panizzardi to his govern- 
 ment begging that if they had no relations with 
 Dreyfus the Italian ambassador in Paris might 
 be instructed to publish a denial in order to avoid 
 remarks in the press. The telegram was sup- 
 pressed from Dreyfus and his counsel by order of 
 General Mercier and only came to light long 
 after the revision movement had begun. 
 
 Dreyfus was, after his arrest, at once taken 
 to the Cherche Midi military prison, of which 
 Major Forzinetti was the governor. Command- 
 ant Henry, who, with the detectives, escorted 
 Dreyfus to the prison, gave Forzinetti an order 
 from the minister of war according to which 
 Captain Dreyfus, accused of high treason, was 
 not to be entered on the prison register ; he was 
 to be kept in secret confinement and not to be 
 allowed to communicate with any but the chief 
 warder and Forzinetti, and he and the chief 
 warder were strictly prohibited from divulging 
 to anyone the fact of the arrest.
 
 1 8 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 NARRATIVE OF FORZINETTI. 
 Forzinetti has related what passed in the 
 prison before the court-martial was held, and 
 his narrative is one of the most interesting and 
 most terrible of all the documents connected with 
 the case. "On October 14, 1894," he says, "I 
 received a confidential dispatch from the war 
 office. It informed me that on the following 
 morning a field officer would call at the prison 
 in order to acquaint me with a secret communi- 
 cation. On the 1 5th Lieutenant Colonel 
 D'Aboville, in full uniform, handed me a dis- 
 patch, informing me that Captain Dreyfus of the 
 Fourteenth regiment of artillery, serving on the 
 general staff of the army, would be imprisoned 
 on the charge of high treason, and that I was 
 personally responsible for his safe custody. 
 Colonel D'Aboville asked me to give my word 
 of honor that I would strictly carry out the min- 
 ister's injunctions. The prisoner was to have 
 no sort oi communication with the outer world 
 and was to have neither knife, paper, pen or 
 pencil. He was to be treated in the matter of 
 food as an ordinary criminal, but this order was 
 canceled upon my remark that it was illegal. 
 The colonel, without going into particulars, or- 
 dered me to take whatever precautions I might 
 deem necessary to prevent the fact of the pris-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 19 
 
 oner's arrest being known in the prison or out- 
 side. He asked to see the cells set apart for offi- 
 cers, and selected one for Captain Dreyfus. He 
 told me to be on my guard against the intrigues 
 of the Haute Juiverie as soon as the news of 
 arrest should reach their ears. I saw nobody 
 and nobody attempted to get at me. I never 
 visited the prisoner except in company of the 
 chief warder, who alone had the key of the cell. 
 Nobody saw the prisoner during his detention 
 except in my presence. When, after his arrival, 
 I went to see the prisoner he was in a state of 
 excitement impossible to describe like a mad- 
 man. His eyes were bloodshot, and he had 
 upset everything in his room. I was able at 
 length to quiet him. I felt that he was innocent." 
 
 EXAMINED BY PATY DE CLAM. 
 
 "Major Du Paty de Clam," continues For- 
 zinetti, "who had arrested Dreyfus at the war 
 office, called from the i8th to the 24th with the 
 special authority of the minister of war (Mercier) 
 to examine the prisoner. The major asked me 
 whether he could not enter Dreyfus' cell noise- 
 lessly with a bull's eye sufficiently powerful to 
 throw a flood of light on the face of the prisoner, 
 whom he wanted to take by surprise in order 
 to upset him. I said it was not possible. He
 
 2O Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 examined the prisoner twice, and each time dic- 
 tated to him sentences taken from the famous 
 document (the bordereau) in order to compare 
 the two writings. 
 
 DREYFUS' MENTAL AGONY. 
 
 "During the whole of this period Captain 
 Dreyfus was in a state of terrible excitement. 
 In the hall one could hear him moaning, crying, 
 talking aloud, protesting his innocence. He 
 knocked against the furniture, against the walls, 
 and did not seem aware of the injuries he was in- 
 flicting upon himself. He had not a moment's 
 rest, and when overcome with fatigue and agony 
 he lay, dressed, on his bed. His sleep was 
 haunted by horrible nightmares. He had such 
 convulsions during his sleep that he sometimes 
 fell on the floor. During this agony of nine 
 days he took nothing but beef tea and a little 
 wine with sugar. 
 
 DE BOISDEFFRE "LOOKS ANNOYED." 
 
 "On the 24th, in the morning, his mental state, 
 bordering on insanity, seemed so serious that, 
 anxious to screen my responsibility, I reported 
 it to the minister of war (Mercier) and to the 
 governor of Paris. In the afternoon I was sum- 
 moned by General de Boisdeffre, and accom-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 21 
 
 panied him to the war office. The general 
 asked me my opinion. I replied without hesita- 
 tion that Dreyfus was not guilty. General de 
 Boisdeffre entered the minister's room alone, 
 and, coming out again, looking annoyed, he said 
 to me, 'The general is leaving Paris to attend 
 his niece's wedding, and gives me full powers 
 during his absence. Try and keep Dreyfus alive 
 until his return, and the minister will do what 
 he pleases.' General de Boisdeffre told me to 
 send the prison doctor to Dreyfus. He pre- 
 scribed some soothing drugs. 
 
 DU PATY DE CLAM AGAIN. 
 
 "Major Du Paty de Clam called nearly every 
 day after the 27th to examine Dreyfus and to 
 get new specimens of his handwriting. His real 
 object was to wring an admission of guilt, 
 against which Dreyfus never ceased to protest. 
 
 "MY ONLY CRIME IS TO BE BORN A 
 JEW." 
 
 "After the verdict Dreyfus was taken back to 
 his cell, where I saw him about midnight. On 
 seeing me he burst into sobs, and said, 'My only 
 crime is to be born a Jew.' His despair was 
 such that I was afraid for his mind, and had him 
 watched day and night/
 
 22 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 "A DREADFUL MISTAKE." 
 
 "I have been for many years at the head of 
 military prisons, and have some knowledge of 
 prisoners, and I can assert emphatically that a 
 dreadful mistake has been committed. My su- 
 periors have known my opinion from the first. 
 Several generals and statesmen are just as cer- 
 tain as I am of Dreyfus' innocence, but cowardice 
 prevents them from speaking." 
 
 Thus did Forzinetti, who is a gentleman and 
 no coward, frankly give his opinion and risked 
 thereby the ruin of his career. 
 
 THE COURT-MARTIAL. 
 
 Dreyfus was tried by court-martial at the 
 Cherche Midi prison on December 19, 1894. It 
 was a trial with closed doors and no allusion 
 was permitted to documents. Early in the morn- 
 ing the accused man was brought before his 
 judges. Colonel Maurel-Pries was president 
 of the court. The other members were Lieuten- 
 ant-Colonel Echemann, Commandants Floren- 
 tine, Patron and Gallet, Captains Roche and 
 Freystaetter. Commandant Brisset prosecuted 
 on behalf of the government. There was much 
 anxiety among the public to catch sight of the 
 prisoner, and the approaches to the court were
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 23 
 
 crowded. The high rank of the accused, and 
 the serious charges alleged against him, charges 
 which always appeal to the most violent passions 
 of the French the very word "treason" throws 
 them into paroxysms had aroused the attention 
 of the whole country. Special precautions were 
 taken to prevent any disturbance, and Dreyfus 
 was, in fact, removed from the prison to the court 
 before the crowd had assumed large proportions. 
 The court was filled with officers of all arms and 
 grades, and some fifty reporters were allowed to 
 be present. Profound silence reigned in the hall 
 as Dreyfus, preceded by the adjutant apparitor 
 and escorted by Republican guards, entered. 
 Something like a thrill of emotion passed 
 through the audience as the prisoner, tall and 
 soldierly in appearance, advanced firmly to the 
 bench set apart for him and bowed to the court. 
 It was noticed, however, that his eyes were filled 
 with tears, and that he preserved his self-control 
 with difficulty. The president then opened the 
 trial with an interrogation of the prisoner, who 
 stated that his name was Alfred Dreyfus ; that he 
 was thirty-five years of age, and was a captain of 
 artillery; born at Mulhouse in Alsace. The 
 president then called upon Major Brisset, who 
 rose and requested that the proceedings might 
 be conducted with closed doors, on the ground
 
 24 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 that publicity would be "against the public in- 
 terest." This was opposed by Maitre Demange, 
 counsel for Captain Dreyfus, who submitted 
 his reasons why the trial should be public. The 
 president, however, forbade the advocate to 
 make any reference to the actual matter of the 
 charge against the prisoner. Then ensued a 
 long discussion between the representative of 
 the prisoner, the president of the court, and the 
 government commissioner. "There are other in- 
 terests at stake," exclaimed Major Brisset, "than 
 those of the defense and of the prosecution." 
 Maitre Demange, the counsel for Dreyfus, on 
 referring to the "solitary document," was cut 
 short by the president of the court; upon his 
 continuing to refer to it the court rose. On re- 
 suming a quarter of an hour afterwards the court 
 reprimanded Maitre Demange for having in- 
 sisted upon "raising the discussion of the essen- 
 tials of the case" and pronounced for closed 
 doors. 
 
 WITH CLOSED DOORS. 
 
 The court was cleared and the trial was con- 
 tinued in private, the witnesses being Du Paty de 
 Clanv Colonel Henry of the intelligence depart- 
 ment, and three experts in handwriting, Pelletier, 
 Charavay and Teyssoniere. The indictment,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 25 
 
 which was prepared by Major d'Ormescheville, 
 was read, and the experts were examined at 
 length. Pelletier denied the identity of Dreyfus' 
 handwriting with that of the bordereau ; Chara- 
 vay thought they were written by the same hand, 
 but afterwards said that he "would never have 
 any one condemned to imprisonment for life on 
 that expertise of his." Du Paty de Clam de- 
 scribed the different experiments he had made 
 on Dreyfus, and his various observations of his 
 conduct, such as "nervous movements of the 
 foot when interrogated," and "trembling" when 
 asked to do some copying from dictation, one 
 of the documents dictated being a duplicate of a 
 missing document. Colonel Henry said he was 
 persuaded of the guilt of the prisoner, for rea- 
 sons apart from those which appeared in the 
 indictment, and when pressed to speak out he 
 exclaimed: "I am a soldier, and my cap must 
 ignore what is in my head." 
 
 IMPRISONMENT FOR LIFE AND 
 DEGRADATION. 
 
 The verdict, anxiously awaited by the crowd 
 outside, was given late in the evening. The 
 president of the court read it out by gaslight to 
 the prisoner. The verdict was "Guilty," and
 
 26 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 the sentence was perpetual imprisonment in a 
 fortified place and military degradation. 
 
 THE DEGRADATION. 
 
 The degradation of the unhappy man was car- 
 ried out at the Ecole Militaire on January 5, 
 1895. The symbols of his rank were stripped 
 from him; his sword was broken. "Dreyfus," 
 exclaimed the general in command, "you are un- 
 worthy to bear arms. In the name of the French 
 people we degrade you." Dreyfus raised his 
 arms, and, with head erect, cried, "I am innocent. 
 I swear that I am innocent. You degrade an 
 innocent man." The crowd replied with a fierce 
 shout of "A mort ! A mort !" "Death to him !" 
 Passing a group of reporters on his shameful 
 forced march round the square before the as- 
 sembled troops, Dreyfus said to them, "You 
 will tell France that I am innocent." "Hold 
 your tongue, miserable," was the reply, "Traitor ! 
 Judas ! Dirty Jew !" was the clamorous and re- 
 echoing cry roaring in his ears from the vast 
 throngs.
 
 THE DEGRADATION: THE LAST ACT OF THE 
 CEREMONY 
 
 After his uniform had been stripped of all marks of his rank, 
 and his sword had been broken, the unhappy officer was made to 
 march round the barrack square in front of the troops. He pre- 
 served his fortitude in an extraordinary degree, and never seemed 
 to falter.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 29 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 DEPORTATION TO DEVIL'S ISLAND. 
 
 And so, amid insults and jeers and scoffs, the 
 "traitor" in his stripped uniform was handed over 
 to the gendarmes, stepped into the prison van 
 which awaited him and passed on to his doom 
 life-long imprisonment on an island, one of the 
 lies du Salut, off the coast of Guiana, known as 
 the Island of the Devil. He disappeared from 
 France and Europe ; disappeared, as his judges 
 and persecutors thought, forever and the 
 thought pleased them well; disappeared into a 
 living grave. But he left upon the brink of it 
 a wife and a few a very few friends. To her, 
 before he was put on board the ship bound for 
 the Devil's Island, he wrote the following letter : 
 
 "In promising you to live, to keep firm until 
 my name is rehabilitated, I have made you the 
 greatest sacrifice that a man of feeling a man of 
 honor from whom they have torn his honor, 
 can make. Provided only that God help me, 
 that my physical strength does not leave me.
 
 30 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 The will is there and my conscience, which re- 
 proaches me with nothing, bears me up. So 
 then, my darling, do all in the world you can to 
 find the true culprit; never relax your efforts 
 for a moment. It is my only hope." 
 
 The wife was true to this solemn charge. 
 
 The war office, Mercier, Sandherr, Gonse, De 
 Boisdeffre, Henry, Du Paty de Clam, were well 
 pleased with the result of the court-martial. 
 Sandherr (since dead) pronounced it to be the 
 chef d'ouvre of the headquarters staff. Major 
 Du Paty de Clam was promoted to a colonelcy. 
 
 Two years passed, during which that not un- 
 usual event in France, a change of ministry, oc- 
 curred. Meline became premier, Hanotaux for- 
 eign minister, Lebon colonial minister. General 
 Billot succeeded Mercier at the war office. 
 Colonel Picquart was now head of the intelli- 
 gence department. To him was brought one day 
 in March, 1896, as had been brought before to 
 Sandherr, the alleged produce of a spy's rum- 
 maging in waste paper baskets at the German 
 embassy. It was a postcard, known as a petit 
 bleu, torn into fragments. When put together 
 it read as follows : 
 
 "I await before everything a more detailed ex- 
 planation than that which you gave me the other 
 day upon the question at issue. I beg you, there-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shaine of France. 31 
 
 fore, to give it to me in writing 1 , so that I can 
 judge if I may continue my relations with the 
 
 firm of R or not." 
 
 The card was directed to "M. le Commandant 
 Esterhazy, 27, Rue de la Bienfaisance." 
 
 ENTRANCE OF ESTERHAZY. 
 
 Who was "M. le Commandant Esterhazy?" 
 That was quickly found out; he was a major of 
 infantry and with an unfavorable record. Pic- 
 quart continued his researches and obtained 
 specimens of Esterhazy's writing. It was the 
 writing of the bordereau. Bertillon, the expert 
 who had "identified" the writing of the bordereau 
 with the writing of Dreyfus, pronounced the 
 specimen of Esterhazy's writing which Colonel 
 Picquart showed him to be the writing of the 
 bordereau. Picquart himself became convinced 
 that Esterhazy was the writer of the document 
 which had ruined Dreyfus. He appealed to Gen- 
 erals Gonse and De Boisdeffre. "It is my duty 
 to assure you," he said, "that it is necessary to 
 act at once." Unfortunately the generals were 
 of opinion, it would seem, that "if nothing were 
 said nobody would be any the wiser." But there 
 were two men in the war office who were dis- 
 mayed at Picquart's discovery, Du Paty de 
 Clam and Commandant Henry. General Billot,
 
 32 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 who was now minister of war, remained im- 
 mobile. 
 
 With the advent upon the scene of Picquart 
 and Esterhazy the affaire Dreyfus entered upon 
 a new phase. The public, who up to that time 
 knew little or nothing, began to know some- 
 thing; the persecutors of Dreyfus became con- 
 spirators. Picquart had arisen as the champion 
 of innocence. The headquarters staff and those 
 of the intelligence department concerned in the 
 condemnation of the prisoner of the He Du 
 Diable set to work to counteract Picquart. The 
 active conspirator was Henry. Dreyfus must 
 be further discredited, Esterhazy must be pro- 
 tected. Picquart must be headed off. Billot, the 
 war minister, had been impressed by Picquart's 
 discoveries. The line of action taken by the con- 
 spirators was to prejudice him against Picquart 
 and to furnish fresh and convincing proof 
 against Dreyfus. Thenceforth the affaire be- 
 comes a maze of intrigue and lying and forgery. 
 The deadly maremma of the Dreyfus case began 
 to unfold itself before France. 
 
 CAMPAIGN OF CONSPIRATORS. 
 
 The conspirators' campaign began in the 
 press 1 . In September, 1896, there appeared in 
 the Eclair an article stating that Dreyfus had
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 33 
 
 been really convicted on documents secretly 
 communicated to the court-martial and that one 
 of these actually mentioned Dreyfus by name, 
 as it contained the words "Decidement cet ani- 
 mal de Dreyfus devient trop exigeant." [This 
 was a false quotation, the original being "ce 
 
 canaille de D ," no name being given.] This 
 
 was the first intimated to the public that there 
 was a secret dossier, secretly communicated to 
 the judges, and it told in the public mind rather 
 in favor of Dreyfus than against him. It was 
 at this time also that Bernard Lazare brought 
 out his first pamphlet in favor of the innocence 
 of Dreyfus. 
 
 Upon this Mr. Castelin, deputy for the Aisne, 
 gave notice of an interpellation of the govern- 
 ment, to be made on November 18, 1896. It 
 became, therefore, essential that War Minister 
 Billot should make up his mind, for it was he 
 that would have to deal with the interpellation 
 in the chamber. 
 
 Henry was equal to the occasion. As was 
 afterward known, he forged the necessary docu- 
 ment for the strengthening of Billot's mind. It 
 was a note (in atrocious French) from Paniz- 
 zardi, the Italian, to Schwartzkoppen, the Ger- 
 man attache, and it read as follows : 
 
 "My Dear Friend: I read that a deputy is
 
 34 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 going to interpellate upon Dreyfus. If * * * 
 I shall say that I never had relations with that 
 Jew. That is agreed. If you are asked say like- 
 wise, for no one must ever know what has passed 
 with him." 
 
 Henry showed this precious production to 
 De Boisdeffre and Gonse, and they showed it to 
 Billot ; none of them showed it to Picquart. Bil- 
 lot, however, referred to it in conversation with 
 Picquart, who at once challenged its authenticity. 
 But it was good enough for Billot. He went to 
 the chamber, stated solemnly that the Dreyfus 
 court-martial was "regularly composed," that 
 the appeal was unanimously rejected, that the af- 
 fair was a chose jugee and that the reasons of 
 state which necessitated, in 1894, the hearing of 
 the case in camera had lost none of their weight. 
 
 Picquart was then got rid of by being sent 
 on a "mission," first to Nancy, then to Besancon 
 and the Alps, then to Algiers and finally to the 
 extreme south of the frontier of Tunis, where he 
 was appointed to the command of the Fourth 
 regiment of Algerian sharpshooters, General 
 Gonse oracularly remarking that Picquart had 
 been "hypnotized by the Dreyfus-Esterhazy 
 question." Colonel Henry, victorious so far over 
 Picquart, succeeded him as chief of the intelli- 
 gence department. Picquart's friends were not
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 35 
 
 told where he was and his letters were opened 
 by the war office before being sent on to him. 
 
 In May, 1897, Picquart wrote to Henry depre- 
 cating the mystery which was made as to his 
 whereabouts in Paris. Henry wrote back to the 
 effect that the mystery was the result of his own 
 action in opening letters in the post, in attempt- 
 ing to suborn officers to speak of a certain writ- 
 ing being that of a certain person, with other 
 allusions which so alarmed Picquart that he came 
 to Paris on leave, saw M. Leblois, his friend and 
 lawyer, and placed in his hands Henry's letter 
 and correspondence he had had with General 
 Gonse. He then returned to his duty in Tunis. 
 The proposed inquiry as to Esterhazy on the 
 lines of Picquart's idea was dropped. All seemed 
 to be going on just as the conspirators wished. 
 
 THREE NEW CHAMPIONS APPEAR. 
 
 But the friends, the syndicate, as the anti- 
 Semites sneeringly called it, of Dreyfus were 
 active. His wife and they had not forgotten his 
 despairing cry, "It is my only hope." M. 
 Scheurer-Kestner, vice-president of the senate, 
 and an Alsatian countryman of Dreyfus, arose 
 as a defender of right and justice. With him 
 M. Matthieu Dreyfus, the prisoner's brother, 
 united in the denunciation of Esterhazy, and,
 
 36 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 later, Emile Zola, joined the thin ranks of the 
 honest men who dared to speak up for truth and 
 justice. In November, 1897, Matthieu Dreyfus, 
 by advice of Scheurer-Kestner, wrote to the sec- 
 retary for war accusing Esterhazy of being the 
 author of the bordereau, and requesting that 
 justice be done to his brother. 
 
 SCHEURER-KESTNER, VICE-PRESI- 
 DENT OF THE SENATE. 
 
 M. Scheurer-Kestner, vice-president of the 
 senate, was one of the vast majority of French- 
 men who believed in the guilt of Dreyfus, be- 
 cause they could not believe that the headquar- 
 ters could have made a mistake, and at the same 
 time he was among those few who wondered 
 what motive a rich officer like Dreyfus, occupy- 
 ing a high position, could possibly have in be- 
 traying his country. The story goes that M. 
 Scheurer-Kestner once expressed this thought 
 at dinner when an officer present said he could 
 explain the motive. Dreyfus had bought a house 
 in Paris, paying for it 228,000 francs (over 
 9,000), and thus he had need of large sums of 
 money. The officer went on to say that he had 
 this fact from a member of the court-martial 
 that tried Dreyfus. Scheurer-Kestner found 
 the story absolutely false, and began to make
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 37 
 
 further inquiries. He met Leblois, Picquart's 
 friend, who laid the case before him ; gave him 
 Gonse's letters to Picquart; he called on Billot, 
 urging him to make inquiries ; and, having con- 
 vinced himself of the innocence of Dreyfus, took 
 his position without hesitation as the principal 
 mover in the revision movement, informing sev- 
 eral of his colleagues of the definite conclusion 
 at which he had arrived. This was in July, 1897. 
 The Figaro now boldly called for revision, and 
 the revision campaign, which began under the 
 auspices of Scheurer-Kestner, gained strength, 
 slowly and amid immense difficulties, but surely. 
 But ruin still marked the path of the conspirators. 
 Forzinetti was cashiered for declaring to M. 
 Henri Rochefort his belief in the innocence of 
 Dreyfus. Picquart's premises in the Rue Yvon 
 Villarcean were searched, and he himself recalled 
 from his mission in Tunis, to be examined by 
 General de Pellieux, the government commis- 
 sioner, in matters pending against Esterhazy.
 
 38 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 "VIVE ESTERHAZY!" 
 
 For Esterhazy, with the boldness of despair 
 shall we say? demanded that a court-martial 
 should be held on him, and held it was, in Janu- 
 ary, 1898. The offenses charged against him 
 were that he had written the bordereau and was 
 in treasonable correspondence with Schwartz- 
 koppen. He admitted that the handwriting of 
 the bordereau was his own, but that it was a trac- 
 ing made by Dreyfus upon his writing, and then 
 put together. As to the petit bleu, that was a 
 forgery by Picquart. The court-martial which 
 was a court even more remarkable than that 
 which had condemned Dreyfus, accepted Ester- 
 hazy 's story, and acquitted him. Picquart was 
 a witness, but when he entered the box the court 
 immediately made itself a secret court. Ester- 
 hazy left the court with his companion, Mdlle. 
 Pays, on his arm, and the pair received an ova- 
 tion in the street from the public. "Vive Ester- 
 hazy ! Vive 1'armee !" was' their cry.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 41 
 
 After Esterhazy's acquittal Picquart was ar- 
 rested and imprisoned, and then tried before a 
 military court of inquiry, charged with showing 
 and divulging documents, and giving to his 
 lawyer Leblois his correspondence with General 
 Gonse. The last charge only was found proved, 
 and Picquart went back to prison and was after- 
 wards dismissed from the army. 
 
 "J'ACCUSE." 
 
 And now, as the next development, no less a 
 person than Emile Zola took up the cudgels for 
 the prisoner of the He du Diable. In January 
 of the present year Zola addressed a letter to the 
 president of the republic, published in the Au- 
 rore, in which was a series of formal accusations, 
 each beginning with "J'accuse," against the 
 courts-martial which had tried Dreyfus and 
 Esterhazy. Zola's object was to be prosecuted 
 for defamation, so that light could be thrown 
 on the great case. That object was only par- 
 tially attained. The minister of war resolved to 
 prosecute, but in order to prevent the re-opening 
 of the Dreyfus case the matter selected from 
 Zola's letter a very long one was confined to 
 the following: 
 
 "I accuse the first court-martial of having vio- 
 lated the law in condemning an accused person
 
 42 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 on a document kept secret. And I accuse the 
 second court-martial of having by order screened 
 this illegality, committing in its turn, that which 
 in a judge is a crime knowingly acquitting a 
 guilty person." 
 
 TRIAL OF ZOLA. 
 
 The president of the Court of Assize which 
 tried him did what he could to prevent Zola's 
 witnesses from giving evidence which bore _on 
 the Dreyfus trial, and there were formidable bar- 
 riers which could be relied upon to keep out the 
 light. There was the chose jugee, otherwise the 
 Dreyfus trial; the huis clos, or closed doors of 
 both the Dreyfus and Esterhazy trials ; the ques- 
 tion of "state secrets," and "professional se- 
 crets." Maitre Labori, Zola's counsel, unable to 
 contend against these obstacles, was not, how- 
 ever, wholly debarred from giving his own com- 
 plete view of the Dreyfus case, and from eliciting 
 from witnesses what seemed to establish certain 
 facts of the greatest importance, namely, the ille- 
 gality of Dreyfus's condemnation, the error as to 
 the bordereau, and the identity of its real author. 
 The case, as heard on the 7th of February last, 
 went from the first against Zola, for, strange as 
 it may seem to those who are not familiar with 
 the remarkable methods of the administration of
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 43 
 
 justice in France, the judge, M. Delegorgue, 
 decided that he could not call evidence on the 
 points raised by the prosecution and on the 
 charges made in his famous letter to the presi- 
 dent of the republic. During the second day of 
 the trial Zola exclaimed that he wished to be 
 treated as fairly as thieves or murderers were 
 treated. They had the right to defend them- 
 selves, but he was deprived of it. There were 
 many wrangles between judge and counsel, and 
 the advocate-general followed, and the court de- 
 cided that no question foreign to the indict- 
 ment would be allowed. 
 
 "MY DUTY IS NOT TO TELL THE 
 TRUTH." 
 
 M. Casimir-Perier, the ex-president, on being 
 sworn, interrupted the judge by saying, "Pardon 
 me, I cannot swear to tell the truth since that is 
 just what I may not tell. My duty is not to tell 
 the truth." General de Boisdeffre created con- 
 siderable sensation by stating that "in his own 
 view the guilt of Dreyfus was certain, and that 
 there were facts both anterior and subsequent to 
 the trial which made his certainty quite unshak- 
 able." General Mercier, former minister of war, 
 expressed his opinion that Dreyfus was legally 
 adjudged a traitor. Esterhazy, who sheltered
 
 44 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 himself behind refusals to reply, General de Pel- 
 lieux, who made a violent speech, and hinted 
 darkly at a day of danger and butchery for the 
 sons of the jurymen, Picquart and others were 
 examined amidst more or less disorder and in- 
 cessant obstruction of Zola's advocate by the 
 judge. The evidence thus brought forward, and 
 Maitre Labori's tremendous onslaught, caused 
 the greatest commotion. The general staff, 
 much perturbed, decided to take firm steps to 
 secure Zola's conviction. 
 
 A BOGEY TO FRIGHTEN THE JURY. 
 
 General Pellieux and General de Boisdeffre 
 made some remarkable observations to the jury. 
 "If," said the former, "the chiefs are discredited 
 in the eyes of the soldiers, your sons, gentlemen 
 of the jury, will be led to the slaughter." Gen- 
 eral de Boisdeffre threatened the resignation of 
 the chiefs of the army, and, as a final coup, the 
 new "secret documents," already referred to, was 
 produced in court by General Pellieux that 
 "letter" from Panizzardi to Schwartzkoppen at 
 the time of the Castelin interpellation intercepted 
 by the vigilance of the government! General 
 Pellieux invited his colleagues De Boisdeffre and 
 Gonse to confirm this ; they did so. Zola's coun- 
 sel, however, was not permitted to see the docu-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 45 
 
 ment nor to cross-examine the generals upon it. 
 Picquart had the courage to say that the docu- 
 ment was a forgery. It had turned up at the 
 moment it was wanted to show that Esterhazy 
 was not the author of the bordereau, and its 
 wording was against its genuineness. Alto- 
 gether he had always considered it a forgery. 
 The jury, who had been under tremendous pres- 
 sure during the whole trial, brought in the only 
 verdict they dared to bring a verdict against 
 Zola and against the Aurore by a majority of 8 
 to 4. The defendants were condemned to a fine 
 of 120!. each; Zola to one year's and the editor 
 of the Aurore to four months' imprisonment. 
 Later on Zola carried his case to the Court of 
 Appeal, which quashed the judgment of the 
 court of Assize on the ground that the action 
 should have been brought by the court-martial 
 which he had libelled, and not by the minister of 
 war. A second trial accordingly took place, at 
 which Zola declined to be present, and was ac- 
 cordingly sentenced once again. He shook the 
 dust of his country from his shoes and went into 
 exile into a more honest land. 
 
 MINISTER OF WAR CAVAIGNAC "FIN- 
 ISHES" THE DREYFUS CASE. 
 
 In June, 1898, in consequence of trie elections,
 
 46 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 the Meline cabinet gave way to the Brisson cabi- 
 net. M. Sarrien became minister of justice ; M. 
 Cavaignac was appointed minister of war the 
 man of men to put an end to the Dreyfus case. 
 He was resolved to do this, and he made a per- 
 sonal study of it. The result of the minister's 
 studies were given to France and the world in a 
 great speech in the chamber. Considerations 
 superior to reasons of law, he said, now made it 
 necessary for the government to bring before 
 the chamber and the country the facts which had 
 come to confirm the conviction of Dreyfus. The 
 guilt of Dreyfus was an absolute certainty, and 
 it was based on Dreyfus' own confessions and 
 on documents in the intelligence departments. 
 The "confession" was the alleged remark made 
 by Dreyfus in the presence of Captain Anthoine 
 and repeated by him to Captain d'Attel, to the 
 effect that what he, Dreyfus, had handed over 
 was worth nothing, and that if he had been let 
 alone he would have had more in exchange. 
 Another "confession" was noted by Captain Le- 
 brun Renault, who commanded the escort on the 
 day of Dreyfus's degradation, and was to the 
 effect that Dreyfus had said it was not original 
 documents but copies that were handed over, and 
 that they were in any case unimportant papers, 
 and that he did so in order to obtain serious
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 47 
 
 ones. The documents adduced by M. Cavaignac 
 in his speech were not the famous bordereau, but 
 three others. One of them, dated in March, 
 1894, referred to a person named D. ; the second, 
 dated in the following month, contained the ex- 
 pression "Cette canaille de D " the same as 
 
 that in the other document brought forward by 
 the Eclair: and, lastly, the absolute proof which 
 had been brought by General Pellieux to the 
 Zola trial. As to this document, said M. Cavaig- 
 nac, its authenticity depended not only on its 
 origin, but on its similarity with a document 
 written on the same paper, and with the same 
 blue pencil, and that its "moral authenticity" 
 was established by its being part of a corre- 
 spondence exchanged between the same persons, 
 Panizzardi, the Italian attache, and Schwartzkop- 
 pen, the German attache, in 1896. The chamber 
 hailed M. Cavaignac's speech as a final blow to 
 Dreyfus and all who believed in him, and ordered 
 it to be placarded all over France. 
 
 Alas, poor Cavaignac! Alas, poor France! 
 Within a few weeks the edifice built upon these 
 documents whose "material and moral authen- 
 ticity" Cavaignac had weighed, and the 3,600 
 communes of France had read, placarded on 
 their walls crumbled to dust.
 
 48 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 ESTERHAZY AS AN UHLAN. 
 
 But Cavaignac did even more. He ordered 
 Esterhazy to be brought before a court of mili- 
 tary inquiry, not, apparently, to answer any spe- 
 cific charge, but to justify his military career. 
 Now, during the military career of Esterhazy, it 
 is alleged that he wrote to his cousin, Madame 
 de Boulancy, in 1882, a certain letter which was 
 among a batch seized by General de Pellieux in 
 the proceedings preliminary to the court-mar- 
 tial on Esterhazy, a letter which was highly un- 
 complimentary to the French nation and army. 
 It is "an accursed people," he said, and he is con- 
 vinced that they are "not worth even the cart- 
 ridges for killing them." He would be quite 
 pleased to be slain as a captain of Uhlans while 
 he was sabring them, and the sight of Paris "be- 
 neath the red sun of battle, given over to pillage 
 by a hundred thousand drunken soldiers," is his 
 "favorite dream." Not pleasant reading, surely, 
 for the members of the French secret court of in-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 49 
 
 quiry. Other little matters relating to his pri- 
 vate life, the writing of threatening letters to the 
 president of the republic (written, it seems, at 
 Du Paty de Clam's dictation), and certain irreg- 
 ular proceedings before and after his court-mar- 
 tial were before the court, the judges of which 
 answered the questions submitted to them as fol- 
 lows: Upon the facts before the court ought 
 Esterhazy to be cashiered? 
 
 1 . For habitual misconduct. Ayes, 3 ; Noes, 2. 
 
 2. For grave offense against discipline. No, 
 unanimously. 
 
 3. For offense against honor. Ayes, I ; 
 Noes, 4. 
 
 General Zulinden, the military governor of 
 Paris, in sending the finding of the court to 
 Cavaignac, minister of war, pointed out that, as 
 the decision was not unanimous, it would be in 
 accordance with the usage of the army to inflict 
 only a disciplinary punishment by withdrawing 
 Esterhazy from the active list. The minister de- 
 cided, however, that Esterhazy should be cash- 
 iered. 
 
 Not long after, Du Paty de Clam was removed 
 from the active list. Cavaignac dealt also with 
 Picquart, who had written to the premier offer- 
 ing to prove that one of the three documents 
 spoken of by Cavaignac in the chamber was a
 
 50 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 forgery. He was proceeded against, however, 
 for having communicated to Leblois documents 
 affecting the defense of the state, and lodged in 
 jail. 
 
 A BOLT FROM THE BLUE. 
 
 Such were the principal events of the sum- 
 mer of 1898 ; but it was not to pass without one 
 other event which shook the placarded com- 
 munes of France to their respective centers. 
 Suddenly, in August, 1898, came the startling 
 news that Colonel Henry, the head of the intel- 
 ligence department, the mainstay of the prosecu- 
 tion of Dreyfus, the Henry who had found new 
 proofs of guilt when they were wanted, the con- 
 scientious soldier who had asserted that "his cap 
 must not know what was in his head," who had 
 pointed to Dreyfus in court as the traitor with a 
 dramatic "le traitre, le voila," had confessed to 
 having forged the very documents quoted by the 
 minister of war, Cavaignac, as absolute proofs of 
 Dreyfus' guilt ! Then came the news that Henry 
 was a prisoner in Mont Valerien, and, finally, 
 that he had cut his throat with a razor. The 
 death of Henry was the death-knell of Cavaignac 
 as war minister. He resigned. General de Bois- 
 deffre resigned with him. Zurlinden was ap- 
 pointed war minister. He also studies the Drey-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 53 
 
 fus papers, and at the end of a week resigns and 
 goes back to his governorship of Paris. General 
 Chanoine takes his place. Esterhazy at once 
 crosses the frontier, for there is no knowing 
 what Henry may have said. The air is cleared a 
 little of some of its pestilential vapors. 
 
 "HAUTE POLITIQUE." 
 
 And now the question arose, among many 
 other questions which have not yet been fully 
 answered, how the forgery was brought home 
 to Henry? What led M. Cavaignac to resume 
 inquiries into the Dreyfus case after his con- 
 clusive speech which had been triumphantly pla- 
 carded all over France? Was it his consuming 
 zeal for the continued study of the case, or was 
 it from the fact that the German and Italian 
 governments, which had long before denounced 
 the Panizzardi-Schwartzkoppen correspondence 
 as forgeries, insisted upon being believed? 
 Weeks before the Zola trial the two govern- 
 ments had informed the French minister for for- 
 eign affairs that the forgeries had been revealed 
 to them probably by the forger himself, a man 
 named Lemercier-Picard, who afterwards 
 hanged himself. The French government and 
 the war office had utterly disregarded the repudi- 
 ations of the Italian and German governments
 
 54 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 that they had had any connection with Dreyfus. 
 Was M. Cavaignac now compelled by them to 
 take notice of that repudiation, and had that led 
 to the catastrophe of Colonel Henry? It is be- 
 lieved that the discovery of Henry's forgery 
 arose from the smartness of Captain Cuignet, of 
 the intelligence department, who, with an extra 
 strong lamp, had detected that the paper of the 
 "absolute proof" document produced by General 
 Pellieux at the Zola trial was not identical with 
 the paper of the rest of the correspondence as 
 M. Cavaignac had thought it was. However 
 this may be, the chief of the intelligence depart- 
 ment of the French army, the accuser of Dreyfus, 
 the enemy of Picquart, the supporter of Ester- 
 hazy, confessed himself the forger of a document 
 which was intended to rivet still tighter the 
 chains' on a helpless and possibly innocent pris- 
 oner, and, having so confessed, killed himself. 
 
 THE TURN OF THE TIDE. 
 
 To Sarrien, the strong minister of justice, and 
 to Picquart, always honest and fearless, belong 
 the honor, under the Brisson cabinet, of promot- 
 ing the work of the revision of the court-martial. 
 Revision was now in the air. The effect pro- 
 duced by the suicide of Henry was tremendous. 
 "It carried conviction," says Mr. Conybeare in
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 55 
 
 his book on the Dreyfus case, "to many who 
 were wavering, and stirred the consciences of 
 thousands of Republicans who had hitherto pre- 
 tended to themselves that no responsibility lay 
 on them. A majority of the constituencies were 
 now in favor of revision." Brisson's cabinet was 
 committed to it, though of course Zurlinden, and 
 after him Chanoine, ministers of war, remained 
 obdurate, shutting their eyes to the light and 
 keeping their brains in the conveniently addled 
 state demanded by the "honor of the army." Pic- 
 quart, with his clear brain and wide-open eye, 
 applied to Brisson from prison for leave to write 
 to him all he knew; he was referred to Sarrien, 
 who was ready to listen and to read. Picquart 
 accordingly wrote (in September, 1898), describ- 
 ing the secret dossier as he knew it in 1896, and 
 stating that the fact that it had been secretly 
 communicated to the judges of Dreyfus' court- 
 martial was well known to Mercier, De Bois- 
 deffre, Sandherr, Gonse, Henry, and Du Paty de 
 Clam. Zurlinden, minister of war, hearing of 
 this, forwarded to Sarrien a memorandum show- 
 ing that Picquart was not to be trusted, and 
 ought, in fact, to be prosecuted for forging the 
 petit bleu. Zurlinden pushed matters still fur- 
 ther. He applied to the cabinet to bring Pic-
 
 56 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 quart to a court-martial for that alleged offense. 
 The cabinet, all honor to it, refused. 
 
 Sarrien, taking the measure of Zurlinden, went 
 on, and at a ministerial council held in the middle 
 of September, under the presidency of the presi- 
 dent of the republic, made a statement. He ad- 
 duced paragraph 4 of article No. 443 of the Code 
 of Criminal Instruction, which provides for the 
 re-opening of a case if after a condemnatory ver- 
 dict facts should transpire or occur, or docu- 
 ments unknown at the time of trial should be 
 shown to be of a nature calculated to establish 
 the innocence of the person condemned ; and he 
 then passed on logically to the confession of 
 forgery by Henry, and found that it was calcu- 
 lated to throw a legitimate suspicion upon his 
 evidence for prosecution before the military trib- 
 unal which sentenced Dreyfus. The ministerial 
 council was divided in opinion. The war min- 
 ister, Zurlinden, was, of course, against the re- 
 opening of the case, so was M. Tillaye, the min- 
 ister of public works. The president himself, it 
 is said, considered that embarrassments might 
 arise as, indeed, they undoubtedly would, and 
 will, for many who have been connected with the 
 affair. The specter of la haute politique, of for- 
 eign complications, was present as always, and 
 the military reign of terror was not yet over.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 57 
 
 But in the end the matter was referred to the 
 permanent commission of revision of the minis- 
 try of justice not to decide upon the guilt or in- 
 nocence of Dreyfus, but upon the question 
 whether the case should or should not be re- 
 tried by carrying it to the court of appeal. The 
 commission met but could not agree, and then 
 the Brisson cabinet took the short cut which, 
 but for the necessity of endless formality so char- 
 acteristic of the French, one would have thought 
 could have been taken at first ; it applied through 
 the procureur to the court of appeal direct. M. 
 Bard, one of the members of the court, was in- 
 structed to report upon the case, and thus, under 
 Brisson and Sarrien, was taken the first great 
 step towards revision, and the first legal blow 
 dealt at the military party.
 
 58 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 FALL OF THE BRISSON CABINET. 
 
 But terrific obstacles were yet to be overcome 
 and disasters were to be endured those swift 
 and sudden disasters which gather strength, and 
 fall, swift and sudden as tropical thunderstorms, 
 in Latin countries. Within a month of the carry- 
 ing of the question to the Court of Appeal there 
 was a debate in the chamber on the action of the 
 government (on October 25, 1898), during which 
 Chanoine, minister of war, mounted the tribune 
 and announced that, as representing the army, he 
 could not be a party to revision. The Brisson 
 cabinet immediately resigned, and on the 3ist 
 a new cabinet succeeded, Dupuy (who was in 
 ofnce at the time of Dreyfus' court-martial) as 
 premier ; Lebret, minister of justice ; Freycinet, 
 minister of war; Delcasse, foreign minister 
 an anti-revisionist cabinet ; Lebret, especially, 
 a determined enemy of revision. Here, then, 
 was a blow to the cause and it was most bitterly 
 felt; but there remained the great fact the ap-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 59 
 
 plication to the Court of Appeal had been made, 
 and could not be interfered with. The new 
 cabinet admitted as much on assuming office. 
 
 PICQUART AGAIN ARRAIGNED. 
 
 Zurlinden and Chanoine, however, had their 
 way with the gallant Picquart. They could not 
 forgive his letters to Sarrien, and on September 
 21 he was brought before the Correctional 
 Tribunal on the charge of communicating docu- 
 ments. The military party demanded that he 
 should be surrendered to them to be tried, later, 
 for forgery. The judge yielded, but Picquart, 
 before being removed, uttered in the court the 
 following words the clear, trumpet blast of an 
 honest man and a brave one : 
 
 "I absolutely oppose my being surrendered. 
 I submit my cause to your wisdom, but I have 
 something further to say. It is only here, and 
 a few minutes ago, that I learned the reality of 
 the abominable plot; in which this morning I 
 still could not believe. It is the charge of forgery 
 in regard to the petit bleu. You would have un- 
 derstood the matter more plainly if this trial had 
 taken place, for it would have enlightened you 
 with regard to the good faith of my accusers. 
 I shall perhaps this evening go to the Cherche 
 Midi, and now is probably the last time prior to
 
 60 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 secret trial that I can say a word in public. I 
 would have people know, if there be found in 
 my cell the rope of Lemercier Picard, or the 
 razor of Henry, that I have been assassinated. 
 For a man like myself cannot for an instant think 
 of suicide. I shall face this accusation erect and 
 fearless, and with the same serenity with which I 
 have ever met my accusers. That is what I had 
 to say, Monsieur le President." 
 
 This speech was received with shouts of "Vive 
 Picquart !" and "A bas les faussaires !" Picquart 
 was handed over to his enemies, but he had 
 saved himself from assassination by those bold 
 and memorable words. Eventually he was de- 
 livered from the clwtches of his persecutors by 
 an application to the Court of Appeal, which de- 
 cided that the proceedings pending against him 
 should be superseded ; that the charge of forgery 
 and some of the other charges should go to the 
 Criminal Court, and two other charges to the 
 military tribunal. And thus Picquart went back 
 to a civil prison, there to linger another inno- 
 cent man deprived of liberty. The man Lemer- 
 cier Picard, to whom he referred, was one of the 
 gang of forgers who attempted to hoodwink 
 M. Reinach, a leading member of the Dreyfus 
 syndicate, and did hoodwink Rochefort, of the 
 Intransigeant, who accused Reinach and the
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 61 
 
 syndicate with the forgery. Reinach got dam- 
 ages for libel, and Lemercier Picard was found 
 hanging by a noose in the attic where he lived. 
 
 BEFORE THE COURT OF APPEAL. 
 
 On October 27, "1898, the Criminal Court of 
 the Cour de Cassation the Court of Appeal 
 met to receive and consider M. Bard's report. 
 M. Bard said that in falling upon an officer of 
 the army the sentence upon Dreyfus excited 
 legitimate emotion, but also party passion. Even 
 before the verdict, before the prisoner could ex- 
 plain himself, prejudices against him were sown 
 broadcast among the public, and even later, 
 when the appeal for revision was addressed to 
 the minister of justice, opinion was aroused by 
 many and various means. "The echoes from out- 
 side," said M. Bard, "cannot disturb us here, for 
 we have but a single passion, that of justice and 
 truth." The bordereau was the essential docu- 
 ment of the case against Dreyfus, and Colonel 
 Henry's word the word of a self-confessed 
 forger was the only guarantee as to its origin. 
 The forgery by Henry, considering the circum- 
 stances in which it was committed and revealed, 
 left nothing of the original trial of 1894 intact, 
 especially as the handwriting experts of 1897 
 had completely contradicted the handwriting ex-
 
 6a Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 perts of 1894. "It is not too much to affirm," 
 said M. Bard, "that the accusation was now en- 
 tirely nullified. It might indeed be asked 
 whether, as an acquittal was incumbent, the 
 court ought not to certify, as it did last January, 
 in quashing a judgment of an Algiers court- 
 martial, that there was no crime, and simply 
 annul the judgment without ordering a fresh 
 trial. Whatever might be the opinion of the 
 court on the judgment of 1894, it would not for- 
 get that the military authorities were opposed 
 to revision. It was the function of the Court of 
 Appeal to bring the truth to light. It was a 
 delicate task, but it would be derogatory to the 
 court to suspect it of shirking. Already there 
 had been too many derelictions of duty in this 
 long series of incidents. Free from all the con- 
 siderations or suggestions which had inspired 
 others, and solely anxious for justice, the court 
 had a great duty before it, and it would follow 
 the dictates of its conscience." After M. Bard 
 the court was addressed by M. Manau, pro- 
 cureur-general, and by M. Mornard, counsel for 
 Madame Dreyfus, and, on October 29, the court 
 delivered judgment as follows : 
 
 "In view of the letter of the minister of justice 
 of September 20, 1898 : 
 
 "In view of the arguments submitted by the
 
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 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 65 
 
 public prosecutor attached to the Court of Cas- 
 sation, denouncing to the court the condemna- 
 tion pronounced by the first court-martial of the 
 Military Court of Paris on December 22, 1894, 
 on Alfred Dreyfus, then captain of artillery, at- 
 tached to the general staff of the army ; 
 
 "In view of all the documents of the case, and 
 also of articles 443 to 446 of the code of crim- 
 inal procedure, amended by the law of June 10, 
 1895, on the admissibility, in proper form, of an 
 application for revision; 
 
 "Whereas the court has had the matter 
 brought before it by its public prosecutor, in 
 virtue of an express order of the minister of jus- 
 tice, acting 1 after having taken the opinion of 
 the commission established by article 444 of the 
 code of criminal procedure ; 
 
 "Whereas the application comes within the 
 category of cases provided for by the last para- 
 graph of article 443, and has been introduced 
 within the period fixed by article <\\/\ ; 
 
 "Whereas, finally, the judgment, the revision 
 of which is asked for, has the force of chose 
 jugee. 
 
 "As regards the state of the case : 
 
 "Whereas, the documents produced do not 
 place the court in a position to decide on all the
 
 66 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 merits of the case, and there is ground for mak- 
 ing a supplementary inquiry. 
 
 "For these reasons, the court declares the ap- 
 plication in proper form and legally admissible ; 
 states that it will institute a supplementary in- 
 quiry; and declares that there is no ground for 
 deciding at the present moment on the public 
 prosecutor's application for the suspension of the 
 penalty.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 67 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 PREMIER DUPUY'S GREAT MOVE. 
 
 Revision was at last fairly in sight. On 
 October 29, 1898, the criminal chamber of the 
 Appeal Court decided to proceed and take evi- 
 dence. Then came the outrageous attacks on 
 the court. Beaurepaire, president of the civil 
 chamber of the court, joined in the attack on his 
 colleagues. Then came the Loi de desaisisse- 
 ment of the Premier Dupuy, by which the ad- 
 judication of the Dreyfus case was transferred to 
 the united chambers of the court, the Criminal 
 Chamber, the Civil Chamber, and the Chambre 
 des Requetes, thus declaring the highest crim- 
 inal court in the country incapable of dealing 
 with evidence. The conspiracy against revision 
 raised its head again stronger than ever. This 
 was, in fact, the supreme effort of the con- 
 spirators, and the military party rejoiced exceed- 
 ingly. 
 
 REVIVED HOPES. 
 And now,. behold, the unexpected happened!
 
 68 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Death once more stepped in and swept out of the 
 path a secret adversary of the cause of revision, 
 a man who was always under the thumb of its 
 enemies the president of the republic himself, 
 Felix Faure. This event led to the abortive at- 
 tempt of the hysterical Deroulede to induce Gen- 
 eral Roget and his troops who attended the fu- 
 neral of the president to march on the Elysee. 
 Still the deadly Loi de desaisissement stood in 
 the way. Rumors were rife that the majority of 
 the united chambers of the Court of Appeal 
 would pronounce against revision. Hopes sank 
 again, when again the situation was saved by 
 an event of the first importance the publication 
 by the Figaro of the entire evidence taken by 
 the Court of Appeal, evidence which had been 
 rigidly kept secret. The Loi de desaisissement 
 was counteracted, and thenceforth it was cer- 
 tain that whatever the eventual decision might 
 be it would have to be given before a public 
 which now knew the secret history of the Drey- 
 fus case. To the enterprise and courage of the 
 Figaro is due the enormous gain to the cause 
 of justice of public opinion. Secret things, hid 
 away by cowards, were dragged to light. Light 
 came at last, and the bats and owls shrunk from 
 it squeaking and gibbering in dismay.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 69 
 
 BALLOT-BEAUPRE'S REPORT. 
 
 The judges of the three chambers of the Court 
 of Appeal met at the Palais de Justice to hear 
 the report of M. Ballot-Beaupre, president of the 
 civil chamber of the Court of Appeal (the suc- 
 cessor of Beaurepaire), on the application in 
 favor of revision of the Dreyfus case. The report 
 was a long and exhaustive one, and it dealt with 
 the question of the bordereau as the one question 
 at issue. Is the bordereau in the handwriting of 
 Dreyfus? "Gentlemen," said M. Ballot-Beaupre, 
 "after a profound study of the question I, for my 
 part, have come to the conviction that the bor- 
 dereau was written not by Dreyfus but by Ester- 
 hazy." And the new fact unknown to the judges 
 in 1894 which in M. Ballot-Beaupre's opinion 
 was sufficient to establish the necessity for a new 
 trial was the existence of two letters written in 
 1892 and 1894 by Esterhazy upon the same kind 
 of water-marked and filagree tracing paper as 
 that upon which the bordereau was written. "I 
 do not ask you," concluded M. Ballot-Beaupre, 
 "to proclaim Dreyfus' innocence, but I say that 
 a fact unknown to the judges of 1894 tends to 
 prove it. This suffices to ordain the sending 
 before a new court-martial to bring in a definite 
 verdict with a full knowledge of the case."
 
 70 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 PROCUREUR GENERAL MANAU'S 
 ADDRESS. 
 
 The procureur-general, M. Manau, followed 
 and claimed that the paper on which the bor- 
 dereau was written had spoken. "It has named 
 the author of the bordereau," he said, "and this 
 fact alone suffices to establish the innocence of 
 Dreyfus, so far as the authorship of the bor- 
 dereau is concerned. What remains is that, who- 
 ever may be guilty, a crime of treason has been 
 committed, but Esterhazy, having been acquitted 
 of having written the bordereau, cannot be pros- 
 ecuted again, were he a hundred times guilty. 
 As to the innocence of Dreyfus, I do not ask you 
 to proclaim it that is for the new court-martial, 
 to which, if the court so decides, the case will 
 be referred. Your mission, gentlemen, is an- 
 other to say whether there are sufficient ele- 
 ments to prove that the judgment of the court- 
 martial of 1894 is tainted with suspicion. It 
 being now established that Dreyfus had nothing 
 to do with the bordereau, we will dispense our- 
 selves from entering upon a technical discussion 
 of the facts. That will be for the new court- 
 martial. It will be for them to reconcile the 
 opinions of the former ministers of war on that 
 point, and to discuss with their special science 
 the things which are unknown to us."
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 71 
 
 As to the question of motive, M. Manau 
 pointed out that Dreyfus had married Mile. 
 Hadamard, who had a large dowry. Colonel 
 Du Paty de Clam himself had admitted, in his 
 report, that Dreyfus led a regular life, and did 
 not live beyond his means. Then compare the 
 prospects and position of Dreyfus and those of 
 Esterhazy. The one had a splendid future before 
 him, while the other was a needy adventurer, 
 asking for money in all directions. 
 
 THE SECRET DOSSIER. 
 
 After an analysis of the secret documents, M. 
 Manau wound up by the emphatic declaration 
 that there was nothing in the secret dossier to 
 incriminate Dreyfus. "We do not yet under- 
 stand," he said, "why there was so much delay 
 in submitting them to investigation. Those 
 documents were secret only for Dreyfus, and 
 they cannot be brought up against him. He 
 knows, as the basis of his indictment and con- 
 viction, solely the bordereau and his alleged con- 
 fession. The examination of the secret papers 
 results in showing that of the three documents 
 by which M. Cavaignac sought to justify the 
 condemnation, two are forgeries and the third 
 does not apply to Dreyfus."
 
 72 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE "LEGEND OF THE CONFESSIONS." 
 
 The procureur finally came to what he called 
 the legend of Dreyfus' confessions, and then en- 
 deavored to prove the improbability of these 
 confessions on the part of a man who had never 
 ceased to plead and assert his innocence, and 
 who had proclaimed it aloud before the troops 
 on the day of his degradation. It was only in 
 November, 1897, that the story of the confession 
 was brought up at the request of General Billot. 
 That was an evident proof that the confessions 
 were not made by Dreyfus. M. Manau expressed 
 a severe opinion on M. Cavaignac, who had de- 
 pended for the proof of Dreyfus' guilt on a sheet 
 from a notebook destroyed by Captain Lebrun- 
 Renault. "I have the right," he declared, "to say 
 that these confessions never existed, and I 
 should like to know whether the incomprehensi- 
 ble evidence of M. Bertillon was not the first 
 cause of Dreyfus' condemnation." M. Manau 
 alluded to the accounts of officials who had been
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 73 
 
 in contact with Dreyfus, and who all affirmed 
 their belief in his innocence, and quoted letters 
 written from the He du Diable, wherein the pris- 
 oner protested against the imputations brought 
 against him. He had been told in 1894 that su- 
 perior interests were opposed to any search for 
 the real culprits. In his letters he asked that, 
 notwithstanding these interests, honor might be 
 restored to the name he bore, and that he should 
 be restored to his family. What was there more 
 human? The chief officer of the lie du Diable 
 declared that Dreyfus was an abominable being, 
 loving neither his wife nor his children. If so, 
 how could he write such letters?" 
 
 M. Manau, in conclusion, said : "I decline to 
 believe that the court can refuse Dreyfus the su- 
 preme relief which is being solicited for him. 
 The country, the world, and history are awaiting 
 the decision ; they will pass a judgment without 
 appeal. Before them and before the court we 
 assume the responsibility of our conclusions as 
 magistrates and as citizens with the conscious- 
 ness of having done our duty. These con- 
 clusions are : We affirm the existence of several 
 new facts which are of a nature to establish the 
 innocence of Dreyfus. Consequently, let it please 
 the court to pronounce the abrogation of the 
 judgment of December 22, 1894, and to send
 
 74 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Dreyfus, in the quality of an accused person, to 
 such court-martial as it may be pleased to desig- 
 nate." 
 
 THE "CONFESSION" OF DREYFUS. 
 
 Among the most important of the "proofs" 
 of Dreyfus' guilt in the eyes of his enemies was 
 the "confession" which he is alleged to have 
 made to Captain Lebrun-Renault, and to which 
 Procureur-General Manau referred as non-exist- 
 ent in the speech above quoted. On the day of 
 Dreyfus' degradation, Captain Lebrun-Renault 
 was in command of the escort of gendarmes 
 which conducted Dreyfus from the Cherche Midi 
 prison to the Ecole Militaire. Whilst waiting 
 in the guard-room Dreyfus, according to 
 Lebrun-Renault, said to him, "I am innocent. In 
 three years my innocence will be recognized. 
 The minister knows it, and Commandant Du 
 Paty de Clam came to see me some days ago in 
 my cell, and said that the minister knew it. The 
 minister knew that if I gave documents to Ger- 
 many they were unimportant ones, and that it 
 was for the purpose of getting for them more im- 
 portant ones." Lebrun-Renault stated that he 
 entered the remark in his pocket book, which 
 pocket book he destroyed at the end of the year, 
 according to his custom, but he kept the page
 
 GENERAL ROGET : " THIS IS INCORRECT" 
 
 Scene between Colonel Picquart and General Roget at the Dreyfus 
 trial, August 18.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 77 
 
 containing the eritry. In 1898 Cavaignac, min- 
 ister for war, sent for Lebrun-Renault, who pro- 
 duced the torn-out page. Cavaignac copied it, 
 and it was then destroyed by Lebrun-Renault, 
 who thought, as he says, that there was no more 
 use for it. Cavaignac, in his "great speech set- 
 tling the Dreyfus affair," in July, 1898, read out 
 the copy, as being one of the absolute proofs. 
 This confession has been to a certain extent a 
 stumbling-block to the outside public, who were 
 friendly to revision. It was a mystery of which 
 there was no definite explanation. 
 
 A VOICE FROM THE GRAVE. 
 
 And now comes a voice from the grave bear- 
 ing upon this very question, the voice of Sand- 
 herr, the head of the intelligence department 
 at the time of Dreyfus' arrest, and was up to 
 the time of his death in the plot against him. It 
 seems that M. de Civry, the director of the 
 Echo de 1'Armee newspaper, having heard of 
 the alleged "confession" wrote an article on 
 the subject a violent anti-Dreyfus article, of 
 course and sent a proof of it to Sandherr him- 
 self for revision before publication. Here is 
 Sandherr's reply, a most important document: 
 "Saturday, January 5, 1895. My dear De 
 Civry, No! do not publish the article which
 
 78 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Georgin has just shown to me. It would open 
 the door to useless discussions, for I tell you 
 sincerely that it is not exact. Dreyfus did not 
 confess to the captain of the Republican Guard 
 as he told you he did. This error might give 
 rise to various protests. It would be well, there- 
 fore, to pass it over in silence. The less you 
 speak of this sad affair in the Echo, the better 
 will it be for us." 
 
 A TANGLE OF SIDE ISSUES. 
 
 Of the extraordinary ramifications, side is- 
 sues, and underplot of the Affaire it has not 
 been possible to speak in a necessarily concise 
 history of the case. A complete narrative 
 would fill volumes. It has been, in many of its 
 phases, especially those in which Esterhazy 
 figures, what the French call a "Roman de 
 cape et d'epee ;" there have been veiled ladies ; 
 officers disguised in false beards and blue spec- 
 tacles; forged telegrams; rendezvous at dusk 
 in the park of Montsouris and at the cemetery 
 of Montmartre ; rumors of letters from crowned 
 heads; hundreds of closely printed columns in 
 the newspapers ranged on either side, full of 
 sound and fury, and signifying nothing; 
 "leagues" formed by both parties ; the "Droits 
 de 1'Homme" league of Reinach, Zola, Trarieux,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 79 
 
 Jaures, and Yves Guyot; the league of the 
 "Patrie Francaise," founded by Coppee, 
 Brunetiere, Lemaitre and Barres; the league of 
 " Patriot es," formed by the hysterical Deroulede, 
 who, at the funeral of President Faure, thought 
 to turn the nose of General Roget's horse in 
 the direction of the Elysee and bring about 
 the triumph of the army; and, lastly, the silly 
 vagaries of M. Quesnay de Beaurepaire, who 
 resigned his position as president of the Cham- 
 bre des Requetes section of the Court of Cas- 
 sation, because his colleagues of the Criminal 
 Chamber were too partial, and who has himself 
 been the victim of practical jokes and the cham- 
 pion discoverer of mare's nests ever since. To 
 these matters, some tragic and some comic, 
 some interesting, some beneath contempt all 
 of them the outcome of decadent national char- 
 acter it is only possible to allude passingly 
 in a brief history of the case. They will be re- 
 garded by posterity with amazement and per- 
 plexity,
 
 8o Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 FRANCE ONCE MORE. 
 
 Revision was decided upon, the war minister, 
 De Freycinet, having, in view of such an even- 
 tuality, sidled out of his office another of the 
 many instances of moral cowardice during the 
 case. Krantz, a stronger man, with broader 
 shoulders, took his place. The return of Drey- 
 fus to France was ordered. The final phase of 
 the Affaire Dreyfus began. All eyes were turned 
 to the island prison off Guiana to which the 
 cruiser Sfax had been ordered to bring the 
 prisoner back. What he suffered there during 
 the four years of exile the brutalities of his 
 keepers, and the colonial authorities in Paris, 
 the incredible cruelties inflicted on him, dia- 
 bolical cruelties such as the world has not heard 
 of for a hundred years of this terrible page of 
 the history mention can only be made here. 
 They have been revealed in all their hideousness 
 so recently as to be in the recollection of all, 
 and they have aroused the deep horror, and at
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 81 
 
 the same time the admiration of the world, hor- 
 ror for the torments, admiration for the heroic 
 soul of the man upon whom they were inflicted. 
 No greater hero ever stepped upon the deck of 
 a man-of-war than the convict of Devil's Island. 
 
 THE HOME-COMING OF DREYFUS. 
 
 "There is extraordinary energy in this man. 
 During twenty days he gave no sign of weak- 
 ness." Such was the succinct resume given by 
 the captain of the French cruiser Sfax of the 
 conduct of the "officer-prisoner" whom he took 
 on board at Cayenne on June 8, and landed at 
 Haliguen, on the Quiberon peninsula, in the 
 dead of the night of July I. Probably the cap- 
 tain had no idea of the tortures inflicted upon 
 officer-prisoner Dreyfus in the He du Diable 
 during four years of unjust punishment tor- 
 tures so hideous and so cruel that the recital 
 of them is like a chapter out of the annals of 
 some savage tyranny of the Middle Ages. Had 
 he heard, could he have been brought to be- 
 lieve those shocking outrages on humanity, he 
 would not have wondered at his prisoner's 
 demeanor on board his ship. The Sfax, even 
 with a closed cabin window and a sentry at the 
 cabin door, must have been a paradise to that 
 Devil's Island, with its brutal governor and its
 
 82 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 palisaded hut, and when the long-suffering vic- 
 tim went on deck the dash of the sea waves was 
 no longer on the iron shore of an island prison, 
 but against the side of a vessel which was bear- 
 ing him back to civilization and comparative 
 freedom. 
 
 Stringent regulations were in force during 
 the voyage of the prisoner of state, or, to use a 
 less grandiloquent and equally true phrase, the 
 victim of conspiracy. He was boycotted by the 
 whole ship's company, and had to write, and 
 receive in writing, all communications that 
 passed between him and Captain Coffinieres de 
 Nordeck. His new position was that of an offi- 
 cer under arrest on a serious charge for which 
 he was to be tried ; the regulations of the serv- 
 ice adapted to such circumstances were no 
 doubt inevitable, but the narrative of the voyage 
 of the Sfax adds another painful chapter to the 
 brutal records of the scandal of the century. It 
 is said of the prisoner that while on board he 
 seemed happy, and sometimes smiled as he 
 walked the deck and noticed the animated 
 scenes of the daily routine of the warship. 
 There were those on board besides the captain 
 who took an intelligent interest in the prisoner ; 
 some of them kept diaries which furnish inter- 
 esting details.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of Fraiice. 83 
 
 LEAVING THE ISLAND. 
 From them we learn that early on the morn- 
 ing of June 8 the Sfax was at the Isles du Salut 
 (of which the prison-island of Dreyfus, the He 
 du Diable, is one), there to coal and water. A 
 boat and a steam launch approached her from 
 the Goeland, the warship on the station. The 
 captain of the Goeland came on board, and 
 handed the captain of the Sfax -a sealed packet. 
 "In the steam launch," says one of the crew of 
 the Sfax in his diary, "we perceive a civilian 
 attired in a suit of dark blue cloth, and wear- 
 ing a cork helmet. He hides his head in his 
 hands. Sometimes he rises and takes a couple 
 of steps, and then he sinks down on a bench ; 
 he seems exhausted. We wonder who this per- 
 sonage can be. All sorts of rumors are cur- 
 rent among the crew, and after an hour's in- 
 terval the officers leave the captain's cabin. Or- 
 ders are given to the boat to go alongside the 
 launch to fetch the individual on board the 
 Sfax. The boat does this, and ten minutes 
 after we see ex-Captain Dreyfus ascending the 
 ladder with difficulty, and with uncertain step, 
 followed by the gendarmes, who have revolvers 
 in their belts. He staggers as he reaches the 
 deck, but he soon recovers his strength. With 
 a still trembling hand he salutes in the mili-
 
 84 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 tary style, drawing himself up with a quick 
 movement, as he is very bent. He has gray 
 hair and a dark red beard. His general appear- 
 ance is fairly good, in spite of the sea sickness 
 from which he is suffering." 
 
 ON THE SFAX. 
 
 Arrived on board, Dreyfus is taken to his 
 cabin by the second officer of the Sfax ; it is fur- 
 nished with wardrobe, table, washstand and bed, 
 and its porthole is strongly barred. On June 
 10 the Sfax weighed anchor, without having 
 coaled or watered, it seems, and sailed straight 
 for St. Vincent. "A guard was posted to watch 
 him night and day without leaving him, and 
 very strict orders were issued about this. He 
 is to take a turn on deck three times a day, in 
 the morning from nine till ten, and from eleven 
 till noon, and in the afternoon from four till five. 
 Every officer and sailor is expressly forbidden 
 to hold any communication with him. He is 
 served from the officers' table, but he has his 
 meals in his room. He spends his days in read- 
 ing and writing, and he often smokes. Some- 
 times he looks out of the porthole, remaining 
 deep in thought for a long while. His lug- 
 gage consists of two portmanteaus containing 
 linen, books and several packets of chocolate,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 85 
 
 small biscuits, and several bottles of toilet vine- 
 gar." Others who noted the prisoner's daily 
 life state that Dreyfus in the daytime used to 
 lean against the cabin door smoking and look- 
 ing through the glass at the operations of the 
 crew. He was not allowed newspapers, but he 
 read books, sometimes drew, and was often in 
 a reverie. He generally went to bed at seven, 
 but rose about midnight to smoke a cigarette, 
 and he regularly got up at five in the morning. 
 
 AT ST. VINCENT. 
 
 At 2:30 on the afternoon of June 18 the Sfax 
 arrived at St. Vincent a long voyage from 
 Guiana, but it appeared that the orders were 
 that she was to arrive at St. Vincent at a fixed 
 date. No letters or telegrams were allowed 
 to be sent from the port, as "the voyage of 
 Dreyfus was not to be revealed." Sailing from 
 St. Vincent the Sfax arrived on July i a date 
 no doubt also carefully set down in her orders 
 in a gale of wind and rain, not at Brest, or 
 L'Orient, or any of the ports which had been 
 watched for days by eager journalists, but at 
 Haliguen on the Quiberon peninsula. There 
 Dreyfus was landed. One paper only, the 
 Matin, of Paris, knew of the spot, and one pa- 
 per only, the Temps, was able to give an account 
 of the landing.
 
 86 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE LANDING. 
 
 It was to this latter journal that a telegram 
 came from M. Henry Ceard, who, it seems, 
 takes his summer's rest from literary labors on 
 the peninsula of Quiberon, at the village of Port 
 Haliguen. It appears that fishermen, who had 
 been out in the offing, announced that they 
 had seen the Sfax. Immediately the entire pop- 
 ulation, consisting of about 150 people, went 
 off to the pier, where a closed carriage, drawn 
 by two white horses, was drawn up, in which 
 was M. Viguie, director of the criminal depart- 
 ment. At the same time a company of the n6th 
 regiment of the line arrived. It was not, how- 
 ever, until a quarter to two that a launch was 
 heard approaching. "The men bring the boat 
 to land," writes M. Ceard, "Dreyfus is in the 
 middle of them. By the light of a lantern I 
 see him attired in a mackintosh, with a soft 
 traveling hat of the 'bolero' pattern on his head. 
 He gets out of the boat, and between two gen- 
 darmes, with slow and weary tread, he ascends
 
 MAITRE LABORI, LEADING COUNSEL FOR CAPTAIN 
 DREYFUS 
 
 A sketch from life by Paul Renquard, drawn at a sitting given on 
 the evening before the attempt on Me. Labori's life.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 89 
 
 the steps, and so goes on to the carriage 
 brought by M. Viguie. He enters it, the troops 
 surround the vehicle, which proceeds at a rapid 
 pace to the Quiberon station, a kilometer from 
 Port Haliguen." 
 
 ARRIVAL AT RENNES. 
 
 At Quiberon station a special train was wait- 
 ing consisting of four carriages, and it started 
 almost immediately after the prisoner and es- 
 cort had entered it. Due at Rennes at 5:15 it 
 arrived there about 6 :oo, but had been stopped 
 at La Rablais, a level crossing a mile or two 
 outside; there carriages were waiting in which 
 the party were driven to Rennes. The carriage 
 in which Dreyfus was seated was surrounded 
 by gendarmes, and as it approached the prison 
 the gates opened and two hundred gendarmes, 
 who had been kept inside, suddenly rushed out 
 and barred the street on either side of the en- 
 trance. Those who were present and many 
 journalists had been up night after night await- 
 ing the arrival got a glimpse of Dreyfus as he 
 hurried past. They noticed that he was wear- 
 ing a blue suit with a gray overcoat. He looked 
 startled and tired; his face was tanned, his hair 
 gray, and his reddish beard trimmed to a point. 
 His eyes seemed expressionless ; they looked at
 
 90 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 the ground, then at the warders, then at the 
 prison, but seem to see nothing, and to be look- 
 ing at something far away. To see him walk 
 thus, said an eye-witness of the arrival, with 
 his indifferent step, with vague eyes and fixed 
 thoughts, he seems to follow something which 
 he does not resist and which he obeys. He 
 seems to follow his destiny. A man behind 
 him, a sergeant-major, taps his shoulder and 
 points to door "C." Dreyfus enters it and dis- 
 appears disappears once more from the sight 
 of the world after this brief glimpse of him as 
 he passed on to his destiny but to reappear 
 again, as all honest men sincerely hope, with 
 the untarnished, unmutilated uniform of his 
 rank and with an undimmed sword by his side. 
 Some days previously Madame Dreyfus had 
 arrived at Rennes, Madame Godard, a well- 
 known resident, having placed her house at her 
 disposal. On the arrival of her husband, 
 Madame Dreyfus was at once informed, and ac- 
 corded permission to visit him. The meeting 
 between husband and wife was deeply touch- 
 ing. The prisoner has also been allowed to 
 see his counsel. Dreyfus was utterly ignorant 
 of all that had taken place during the past two 
 years, and the whole agitation and the various 
 incidents connected with the reopening of his
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 91 
 
 case came upon him as a revelation. He was 
 like a man raised from the dead. 
 
 MYSTERY ALWAYS MYSTERY. 
 The dire calamities which, according to the 
 anti-Dreyfus prophets, were to burst upon 
 France at the moment of his arrival in the coun- 
 try from the He du Diable riot and social con- 
 vulsion and civil war were not realized. 
 Even the firebrand Deroulede was found 
 on the side of comomn sense in de- 
 manding that if Dreyfus is proved innocent 
 in demanding that if Dreyfus is proved innocent 
 the ministers of war should be found guilty. 
 But nothing explosive marked the sad home- 
 coming of the sorely tried captain of artillery. 
 Of course it could not be done in a perfectly 
 simple, straightforward way. It was not pos- 
 sible, seemingly, for a mighty nation to land a 
 state prisoner by daylight and safeguard him 
 to his place of detention with the calm assur- 
 ance of the strength to do what the law de- 
 manded. No ; Dreyfus must be smuggled in in 
 the dead of night ; the journalists must be hood- 
 winked; the public must be kept in complete 
 ignorance; only "five men" must know the 
 place of landing; the very admiral in charge 
 of the port to which the Sfax was supposed 
 to be bound must not be enlightened.
 
 92 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 RECAPITULATION OF CASE AGAINST 
 DREYFUS AND CONDENSED 
 STATEMENT OF FACTS RE- 
 LATING THERETO. 
 
 In French criminal procedure, whether the 
 case be one for the civil courts or a court- 
 martial, the form of accusing a prisoner is to 
 propound a question (containing the charges 
 against him) to the judges or jury in the case. 
 In this second trial of Dreyfus, the charge 
 against him being that of treason, the question 
 put to his military judges was : 
 
 "Is Dreyfus guilty of having, in 1894, prac- 
 ticed machinations or of having had communi- 
 cations with a foreign power or its agents with 
 a view of inciting acts of hostility in the case 
 of war with France, or of having furnished the 
 means therefor by furnishing notes or docu- 
 ments retraced on the bordereau?" 
 
 Their answer to the question is "Guilty." 
 The form of punishment prescribed under the
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 93 
 
 regulations of the army provides that, having 
 been found guilty, the accused may be executed 
 or simply be degraded by having his sword 
 broken and epaulets torn off and then be de- 
 ported to some convict station or suffer im- 
 prisonment at home. Dreyfus has already been 
 degraded. He will not be executed. So that 
 his punishment is reduced to either deportation 
 again or confinement in prison in France. The 
 history of his case in brief follows: 
 
 On October 15, 1894, Alfred Dreyfus, a cap- 
 tain in the French army, attached to the gen- 
 eral staff, was accused of having sold secret 
 knowledge of the operations of the army to the 
 German government. The information which 
 he was charged with having given to Colonel 
 Schwartzkoppen, military attache of the Ger- 
 man embassy at Paris, consisted of: 
 
 1. Details of the methods of operating a 
 hydraulic brake on a certain new French can- 
 non referred to as No. 120, or cannon 120. 
 
 2. Certain details as to the location of out- 
 post troops on the French border. 
 
 3. Data as to modifications made in the man- 
 ner of artillery formation. 
 
 4. Details as to certain French plans in re- 
 gard to Madagascar. 
 
 5. Details of the scheme in the manual of
 
 94 Dreyfus and tlie Shame of France. 
 
 field firing determined upon by the French 
 government on March 14, 1894. 
 
 A French spy discovered the paper upon 
 which this information was written in the waste 
 basket of Colonel Schwartzkoppen and con- 
 veyed it to Colonel Sandherr, then chief of the 
 secret service of the French army. The Marquis 
 de Mores and Colonel Du Paty de Clam, mem- 
 bers of the general staff and friends of Major 
 Esterhazy, also of the staff, on having the manu- 
 script, or bordereau, shown to them by Colonel 
 Sandherr, suggested that the handwriting re- 
 sembled that of Dreyfus. Later their opinion 
 was sustained by Esterhazy, who, being at that 
 time' in the pay of the German government or 
 its representatives in Paris, found it necessary 
 to divert suspicion from himself. Captain Drey- 
 fus was a Jew, ambitious, wealthy, disliked by 
 the Esterhazy combination. A powerful anti- 
 Semitic sentiment existed in France, and any 
 accusation against a Jew was likely to meet 
 with public favor. 
 
 The first court-martial of Dreyfus com- 
 menced on December 19, 1894. On January 5, 
 1895, by sentence of the court-martial he was 
 publicly degraded before the army. His epau- 
 lets and insignia of rank were torn from him 
 and his sword was broken. On February 9,
 
 Dreyfus and the Sharne of France. 95 
 
 1895, he was banished from France and or- 
 dered confined on Devil's Island for the re- 
 mainder of his life. In June of this year the 
 Court of Cassation granted him a new trial and 
 ordered his return to France for that purpose. 
 The second court-martial followed at Rennes. 
 
 During the progress of the case there have 
 been developed the following terms and phrases 
 with which the average American reader is not 
 familiar : 
 
 BORDEREAU A memorandum a list of 
 things to be remembered a written statement 
 the document found in Colonel Schwartz- 
 koppen's basket. 
 
 DOSSIER A packet of legal documents. 
 The so-called secret dossier consists of the bor- 
 dereau, the forged letters of Colonel Henry, a 
 number of other letters said to have been writ- 
 ten by Dreyfus, and small memoranda supposed 
 to have been falsely prepared against the cap- 
 tain by his enemies. 
 
 PETIT BLEU A small blue letter card, 
 sent through pneumatic tubes in Paris. The 
 particular petit bleu in this case is one written 
 to Esterhazy which led Picquart to identify him 
 as the author of the bordereau, and for which 
 he was arrested, the charge being that of 
 forgery.
 
 96 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 "CANAILLE DE D "This is a phrase 
 
 occurring in one of the documents of the dos- 
 sier, and by Paty de Clam and Esterhazy was 
 said to stand for "Canaille de Dreyfus." The 
 present trial has brought out the information 
 that it should read "Canaille de Debois." The 
 wife of Debois was flirting with the German 
 and Italian military attaches at the time Drey- 
 fus was arrested. The expression "canaille" 
 literally means "low fellow." 
 
 In the developments of the Dreyfus case it 
 has transpired that prior to 1894 the German 
 government, through a liberal use of money, 
 had gained access to many of the secrets of the 
 French war department, and that Major Ester- 
 hazy was the principal traitor. It has further 
 developed that the French government was 
 aware of this system of espionage and had es- 
 tablished one of its own in the German war de- 
 partment and the German embassy at Paris ; 
 that the letter in which the phrase "Canaille de 
 D " appears was taken from the German au- 
 thorities by a French spy ten months before 
 Dreyfus was accused and had no connection 
 with his case; that the general staff of the 
 French army, of which Generals Billot and Mer- 
 cier were the chief representatives, were aware 
 that Esterhazy had betrayed the government,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 97 
 
 but did not dare to expose him owing to his 
 knowledge of acts of wrong-doing on their 
 part; that therefore when it became necessary 
 to find a victim Dreyfus was eagerly pounced 
 upon, since he was a Jew and unpopular with 
 his associates; that Esterhazy wrote the bor- 
 dereau which was said to have been found in 
 Colonel Schwartzkoppen's waste basket, and 
 had it transmitted back to Colonel Sandherr 
 for the purpose of laying the foundation of a 
 case against Dreyfus; that Colonel Henry, 
 through "pressure," was induced to forge cer- 
 tain papers to be used against Dreyfus, and 
 that from 1894 to the present time the sole ob- 
 ject of the combination against Dreyfus has 
 been to save the reputation of the general staff 
 of the French army. This would only be pos- 
 sible in a country where the army is revered as 
 it is in France. 
 
 Following the revelation that Esterhazy 
 wrote the bordereau, and his arrest, the declara- 
 tion was made by Major Panizzardi of the 
 Italian embassy that Esterhazy and not Drey- 
 fus was in the pay of Colonel Schwartzkoppen, 
 that it was Esterhazy who revealed the secrets 
 of the French army, and that Dreyfus was not 
 guilty. 
 
 Some of the results of the accusations against
 
 98 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Dreyfus and the machinations of the general 
 staff have been that Casimir-Perier resigned the 
 presidency of France; the Marquis de Mores 
 was murdered; Esterhazy driven into exile; 
 suicide of Colonel Henry; resignation of 
 Cavaignac from the war ministry ; exile of Zola ; 
 imprisonment of Picquart, and many riots in 
 Paris. 
 
 Dreyfus' second trial was upon this legal 
 question : 
 
 "Is Dreyfus guilty of having, in 1894, prac- 
 ticed machinations or of having had com- 
 munications with a foreign power or its agents 
 with a view of inciting acts of hostility in the 
 case of war with France, or of having furnished 
 the means therefor by furnishing notes or docu- 
 ments retraced on the bordereau?" 
 
 LEADERS IN ARMY PLOT TO RUIN 
 DREYFUS. 
 
 The enemies of Dreyfus most conspicuous in 
 the effort to ruin him were : 
 
 COUNT WALSIN ESTERHAZY, a Hun- 
 garian by birth, and the real author of the bor- 
 dereau. 
 
 COLONEL DU PATY DE CLAM, friend 
 of Esterhazy, and first to charge Dreyfus with 
 treason.
 
 THE ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF MAITRE 
 LABORI 
 
 Madame Labori attending to her husband immediately after he 
 had been shot while on his way to the court-martial at Rennes. A 
 sketch by Georges Re'don.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 101 
 
 EDOUARD DRUMONT, editor of La 
 Libre Parole, and the most rabid Jew-baiter in 
 Paris. 
 
 GENERAL MERCIER, minister of war at 
 the time of the arrest of Dreyfus. 
 
 GENERAL BILLOT, who succeeded Mer- 
 cier as minister of war and who refused to re- 
 open the case. 
 
 GENERAL GONSE, under chief of the gen- 
 eral staff. 
 
 GENERAL DE BOISDEFFRE, chief of 
 the general staff, who resigned when Colonel 
 Henry confessed. 
 
 COLONEL HENRY, who forged docu- 
 ments to prove Dreyfus guilty and then killed 
 himself. 
 
 COLONEL SANDHERR, head of the in- 
 telligence department when Dreyfus was first 
 accused. 
 
 M. BERTILLON, commissary of police in 
 Paris, who swore Dreyfus wrote the bor- 
 dereau. 
 
 HENRI ROCHEFORT, editor of L'ln- 
 transigeant, a violent anti-Semitic paper of 
 Paris. 
 
 GENERAL ZURLINDEN, military gov- 
 ernor of Paris, who ordered the arrest of 
 Colonel Picquart.
 
 IO2 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 MARQUIS DE MORES, who accused 
 Dreyfus early in the case and was afterward 
 murdered in Africa. 
 
 HIS CHILDREN. 
 
 There are only two Pierre, nearly eight 
 years old, and Jeanne, nearly five at the time of 
 the Rennes trial. 
 
 Pierre resembles his uncle, Mathieu Dreyfus, 
 and shows that he has a similar force of char- 
 acter and strength of will. Jeanne is the image 
 of her father. She has all his nervous energy, 
 mingled with a little girl's gayety, coquetry and 
 general prettiness. 
 
 They grew up without seeing the black cloud 
 lowering over their heads. 
 
 PICTURE OF PATHOS. 
 
 This is the pathetic picture which the Figaro 
 shows. Motherly tenderness has made their 
 home so sweet a prison that they do not think 
 of going to school where other children work, 
 and when they play happily together their 
 mother replaces playmates for them. 
 
 It is with her that they go out for walks every 
 day; it is she who tells them amusing stories 
 to make them laugh while her own heart is heavy 
 with grief, and it is she who teaches Jeanne the
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 103 
 
 alphabet in a big colored picture book, who 
 helps Pierre with his lessons and who corrects 
 the exercises written in his sadly blotted and be- 
 smeared copybook. 
 
 A MOTHER'S STORY. 
 
 One day long ago their father did not come 
 home at night, and on seeing the vacant place 
 at the table Pierre began to cry ; then his mother, 
 whose eyes were very sad, kissed him with 
 extraordinary passion and told him some story. 
 To appease his curiosity she said the minister of 
 war had ordered him away on a mission to a 
 very far off country. This pious deception has 
 been practiced on them ever since. 
 
 At last the great news arrived at the house 
 that Dreyfus had come back to France. Then 
 the pious deception had to be complicated in 
 all kinds of ways to allow of the mother going 
 to Rennes to see her husband. 
 
 The children did not bear very patiently this 
 separation from their mother. Mme. Dreyfus re- 
 ceived a letter at Rennes the other day saying 
 that Pierre was quite angry, and that he and 
 Jeanne were not convinced that it was necessary 
 for their mother to stay away so long. 
 
 "Why," wrote Pierre, "does not father after 
 having been away so long ask for forty-eight
 
 104 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 hours' leave of absence to come to Paris ?" He 
 said he could not believe the minister of war 
 would refuse his father such a small favor as 
 that, and now what story will the poor mother 
 tell them? 
 
 MENTAL SUFFERINGS OF DREYFUS AS 
 
 DEPICTED IN A LETTER TO 
 
 HIS WIFE. 
 
 At this moment of the second conviction of 
 Dreyfus attention is again called to the letter 
 which he wrote his wife December 5, 1894, from 
 the prison of Cherche Midi. In this he said: 
 
 "I am waiting with impatience for a letter 
 from you. You are my hope, you are my con- 
 solation ; were it not for you life would be a bur- 
 den. At the bare thought that they could ac- 
 cuse me of a crime so frightful, so monstrous, 
 my whole being trembles; my body revolts 
 against it. To have worked all my life for one 
 thing alone, to avenge my country, to struggle 
 for her against the infamous ravisher who has 
 snatched from us our dear Alsace, and then to 
 be accused of treason against that country no, 
 my loved one, my mind refuses to comprehend it. 
 
 "Do you remember my telling you how, when 
 I was in Muhlhausen ten years ago, in Septem-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 105 
 
 her, I heard a German band under our windows 
 celebrating the anniversary of Sedan ? My grief 
 was such that I wept; I bit the sheets of my 
 bed with rage, and I swore an oath to consecrate 
 all my strength, all my intelligence, to the serv- 
 ice of my country against those who thus of- 
 fered insult to the grief of Alsace. 
 
 "No, no. I will not speak of it, for I shall go 
 mad, and I must preserve all my reason. More- 
 over, my life has henceforth but one aim ; to find 
 the wretch who has betrayed his country ; to find 
 the traitor for whom no punishment could be 
 too severe. 
 
 "Oh, dear France, thou that I love with all 
 my soul, with all my heart! thou to whom I 
 have consecrated all my strength, all my intelli- 
 gence, how could one accuse me of a crime so 
 horrible ! 
 
 "I will not write upon this subject, my darling, 
 for spasms take me by the throat. No man has 
 ever borne the martyrdom that I endure. No 
 physical suffering can be compared to the men- 
 tal agony that I feel when my thoughts turn to 
 this accusation. If I had not my honor to de- 
 fend, I assure you that I should prefer death ; 
 at least death would be forgetfulness. Write to 
 me soon. My love to all. ALFRED."
 
 io6 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 TWO SIGNIFICANT STATEMENTS. 
 
 HENRY'S DYING WORDS AND THE 
 
 AWAKENING OF DREYFUS. 
 
 The Dreyfus case can hardly be dismissed 
 from the mind without recalling two now famous 
 sentences, mental outgrowths of the most in- 
 famous conspiracy of modern or ancient times. 
 The first is that of Colonel Henry, wrung from 
 his lips when he was confronted with his for- 
 geries : 
 
 "I did it for the honor of the army." 
 
 The other is from Dreyfus, out of his lips in 
 the prison of Rennes: 
 
 "I was at the start a scapegoat. Now I am a 
 pretext. My personality exists no longer for 
 those who are pursuing me. I have been in a 
 dark night. I am beginning to see."
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 107 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE SECOND TRIAL OF CAPTAIN 
 DREYFUS. 
 
 After four days of secret session, during which 
 the two mysterious dossiers of the war office and 
 foreign office were examined with closed doors, 
 the public trial of Captain Dreyfus began at 
 Rennes Saturday, August 12. Curiosity as to 
 what passed during the secret session was not 
 gratified, but it would seem that the effect of 
 the examination of the masses of secret papers 
 was not startling. Indeed, it is said that the 
 court and Dreyfus and the counsel were consid- 
 erably bored by having to go over what was a 
 mass of rubbishing "evidence" which would not 
 hang a dog, and which contains scandalous 
 documents. Dreyfus himself, says one of the 
 Rennes correspondents, must have been as- 
 tounded by the scandalous nature of these pa- 
 pers, and it is just that scandalous character 
 which is the real cause of the secrecy demanded 
 for their perusal, The diabolical ingenuity with
 
 loS Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 which they were concocted and utilized by the 
 well-known forgers in the pay of not less no- 
 torious villains bent on ruining Dreyfus, would 
 surpass belief if it were not already prepared 
 for incredible things. 
 
 M. CASIMIR-PERIER'S EXPLANATION. 
 
 The first day of the resumption of the public 
 trial was devoted to the testimony of M. 
 Delaroche Vernet, M. Casimir-Perier, ex-presi- 
 dent of the republic, and General Mercier. 
 Strange to say, though this was supposed to be 
 the critical moment of the trial, the proceedings 
 were, as a rule, very dull. M. Casimir-Perier 
 stated that it was General Mercier who informed 
 him of the "leakages" at the headquarters. In 
 January of 1894 the German ambassador was 
 instructed by Prince Hohenlohe in the name of 
 the emperor to call on him and to ask why the 
 German embassy was implicated by the news- 
 papers in the Dreyfus affair, and if it proved to 
 be not really so implicated, a formal denial was 
 demanded. "After handing him back the dis- 
 patch," continued M. Casimir-Perier, "I pointed 
 out to the German ambassador that the step he 
 had taken was somewhat unusual; that I, as 
 chief of the state, was irresponsible, and that the
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 109 
 
 normal course would be to discuss the matter 
 with the responsible minister, or, in his absence, 
 with the premier; but that he had appealed to 
 my good faith as a private individual, and that, 
 in these circumstances, the ambassador should 
 know all. I then told him that the document had 
 been found at the German embassy. The am- 
 bassador replied that that seemed to him impos- 
 sible, that many documents were undoubtedly 
 received there, but that no important documents 
 could possibly be abstracted. I replied to him 
 that, happily, we no more than he thought the 
 document could be important ; and this declara- 
 tion having been made, neither the government 
 nor I myself implicated the German embassy in 
 the affair, that there was no proof of the embassy 
 having asked for this communication, and that 
 we no more held it responsible for what it re- 
 ceived than we ourselves could be made respon- 
 sible for papers which were brought to us ; but 
 that the fact that, at the embassy of a foreign 
 power, a document had been found which was 
 believed to have emanated from a French officer, 
 was sufficient to establish the guilt of that offi- 
 cer. The ambassador insisted on having handed 
 to him a most categorical note clearing the em- 
 bassy from all responsibility in the matter."
 
 no Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 GENERAL MERCIER'S "EVIDENCE." 
 General Mercier's "evidence" proved to be a 
 mere rehash of the odds and ends of anti-Drey- 
 fus gossip which had caused him to be "morally 
 convinced" that Dreyfus had written the bor- 
 dereau. He posed also as the man who saved 
 France from a war with Germany. "To under- 
 stand what happened in 1894," he said, "you 
 must know what was the political situation at 
 that moment," and then he went on to tell how 
 M. Casimir-Perier, M. Dupuy, the premier, and 
 he (Mercier) remained at the Elysee one night 
 waiting for the communication of the telegrams 
 which were passing between the Emperor Will- 
 iam and the German ambassador, and were ask- 
 ing themselves whether the result of that ex- 
 change of communications would be peace or 
 war. On his part, he had given orders to Gen- 
 eral de Boisdeffre to be ready, in case of need, 
 to take all the necessary steps for our mobiliza- 
 tion. 
 
 "WITHIN TWO FINGER-BREADTHS OF 
 WAR." 
 
 "You see, gentlemen, we were within two fin- 
 ger-breadths of war, and that is why I said just 
 now that you must not always take as ready 
 money the statements of diplomacy. At that mo-
 
 
 
 THE COURT MARTIAL ON CAPTAIN DREYFUS AT 
 
 RENNES 
 
 General Mercier confronted with M. Casimir-Perier at the second 
 public sitting of the Court.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 113 
 
 ment was I, as a statesman, to desire war for my 
 country? No, gentlemen, and for several rea- 
 sons military reasons. Germany had begun 
 the transformation of her rapid-fire guns, while 
 I had hardly obtained from parliament the first 
 credits for a few batteries. There were also 
 diplomatic reasons. We did not know if the con- 
 ventions which had been negotiated by the pre- 
 ceding minister of foreign affairs would be rati- 
 fied, and we remained uncertain as to the atti- 
 tude of Russia. There were also moral reasons. 
 The motive of such a war would not have given 
 us an advantageous position. Thus, on the one 
 side we were confronted by the impossibility of 
 telling all, and, on the other hand, we were under 
 an obligation to place the court-martial in pos- 
 session of all the facts. This was the secret dos- 
 sier." With such and such-like hysterical stuff 
 did the general take up the time of the court. 
 M. Casimir-Perier simply contradicted it all. 
 Just before General Mercier concluded his 
 "evidence" he turned towards Dreyfus and said, 
 "If the slightest doubt had entered my mind I 
 should be the first to say that I had blundered 
 
 in good faith " Dreyfus here sprang up and 
 
 cried out: "That is what you ought to say!" 
 "And," continued the general, "I would do all 
 that is humanly possible to repair my blunder."
 
 ii4 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 NO DOUBT EXISTS IN THE GENERAL'S 
 MIND. 
 
 "It is your duty," said Dreyfus, and he seemed 
 about to rush upon his tormentor. "Well," said 
 Mercier, "no. My conviction ever since 1894 
 has not undergone the slightest change. It has 
 been strengthened by my study of the dossier, 
 in spite of the immensity of the efforts which 
 have been accumulated, in spite of the millions 
 which have been insanely expended." As he left 
 the court Mercier was hooted by some of the 
 audience, but outside he was received with 
 shouts of "Vive 1'armee." 
 
 On Monday was committed the atrocious deed 
 which caused so great an emotion the at- 
 tempted assassination of Maitre Labori, one of 
 the counsel for Dreyfus, whose ability and fear- 
 lessness have always been the bugbear of the 
 anti-Dreyfus party. Maitre Labori was on his 
 way to the court, accompanied by Colonel Pic- 
 quart and that officer's brother-in-law, M. Cast, 
 when he was set upon by a man, who fired a 
 revolver at him, the shot hitting him in the back. 
 The ruffian, though pursued by Colonel Picquart 
 and M. Cast, made good his escape. Madame 
 Labori, who was on her way to join her hus- 
 band, was soon at his side, and he was removed 
 by his friends to his hotel. Not the least sus-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 115 
 
 picious fact in connection with the outrage is 
 the circumstance that the victim had his pockets 
 rifled while lying helpless on the ground, though, 
 as he never lost consciousness, he managed to 
 retain his brief. The trial went on in his ab- 
 sence, but the evidence of Generals Billot, Zur- 
 linden, Chanoine, and of MM. Cavaignac and 
 Hanotaux, did not produce any effect. 
 
 PUBLIC TRIAL. 
 
 The trial was resumed publicly early on Mon- 
 day morning in the hall of the Lycee, of Rennes, 
 before an audience of some 600 people, of whom 
 more than half were members of the press, 
 French and foreign. At a few minutes after 
 seven the court appeared. The witnesses, among 
 whom were M. Casimir-Perier, ex-president of 
 the republic; Colonel Picquart, M. Cavaignac, 
 ex-war minister ; the experts in handwriting, and 
 the officers of the headquarter staff of 1894, were 
 already in their places to answer to their names. 
 Dreyfus then entered the court, an entrance, says 
 one of the eye-witnesses, which caused a thrill 
 as of an apparition of one risen from the dead. 
 Erect and calm, he saluted, took his seat, and 
 then, after the formal documents had been read, 
 in reply to the president, who, turning to him, 
 but not looking him straight in the face, said :
 
 n6 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 "Accused, stand up." Dreyfus faced his judges 
 for the second time. 
 
 The President : "You are accused of the crime 
 of treason in having delivered to the agent of a 
 foreign power documents enumerated in a docu- 
 ment called the bordereau. The law gives you 
 the right to say all that is useful for your de- 
 fense, and I warn your defenders that they must 
 express themselves with decency and modera- 
 tion." Colonel Jouaust then read out the bor- 
 dereau, and went on: "This document has al- 
 ready been brought before you. Do you ac- 
 knowledge it?" 
 
 Dreyfus : "It was brought before me in 1894. 
 As for acknowledging it, I affirm that I do not. 
 I affirm again that I am innocent, as I have al- 
 ready affirmed in 1894. I have borne all for five 
 years, colonel; I bore all for the honor of my 
 name and my children. I am innocent, colonel." 
 
 The President : "Then you deny the charge ?" 
 
 Dreyfus: "Yes, colonel." 
 
 The president then questioned Dreyfus on 
 each of the documents mentioned in the bor- 
 dereau. To all the questions put to him during 
 the brusque interrogatory of Colonel Jouaust, 
 Dreyfus replied without hesitation, denying, ex- 
 plaining and refusing the questions one by one. 
 Questioned as to the alleged confession made
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 117 
 
 to Captain Lebrun-Renault at his degradation, 
 Dreyfus said : "That conversation was a solilo- 
 quy. I said, 'I am innocent.' I felt that there 
 was a crowd there to whom they were about to 
 show a man whom they thought had committed 
 the most abominable crime that a soldier can 
 commit. I wished to cry out to them, 'It is not 
 I whom are guilty.' I said: 'I will cry out my 
 innocence in face of the people,' and, I added, 
 'the minister well knows it.' " 
 
 At the end of the interrogatory the president 
 asked Major Carriere, the government commis- 
 sary, whether he had anything to say as to the 
 communication to the court of the secret dossier. 
 Major Carriere replied that the communication 
 of secret dossiers ought to be made with closed 
 doors "dans un huis clos absolu" and he pro- 
 posed to the court-martial to vote on the ques- 
 tion that on the lollowing day the secret dossier 
 of the ministry of war and the diplomatic dossier 
 of the ministry of foreign affairs should be com- 
 municated with closed doors, and that the public 
 sittings should be suspended for four days. The 
 court retired to consider the point, and. on re- 
 turning, the result was announced as in favor of 
 closed doors by five votes to two.
 
 n8 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 EXAMINATION OF WITNESSES. 
 
 There was a sentence in the report from 
 Rennes of one of the many special correspond- 
 ents there, which seems to sum up in a nutshell 
 the manner in which the trial of Dreyfus was 
 conducted. "Colonel Jouaust seems to assist 
 those who depose against Dreyfus; but this is 
 due to the fear of being accused by the assassin 
 press of favoring him." Fear ! that is the word 
 for France. Fear of war, fear of the truth, fear 
 of the press; always fear moral and physical 
 cowardice and in the midst of it all one unfor- 
 tunate man, with a. few who are honest and brave 
 on his side, being tried again after years of suf- 
 fering already inflicted on him by panic-stricken 
 generals who were afraid first of Germany and 
 then of admitting that they have made a mis- 
 take. 
 
 Maitre Labori's return to the court, after a 
 quick recovery from the attempt on his life, has 
 been the feature of the Dreyfus week so far. In
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 119 
 
 his absence the generals and officials who are 
 really conducting the cowardly prosecution of 
 Dreyfus have had their way, for Maitre De- 
 mange, Labori's colleague for the defense, has 
 for some reason best known to himself abstained 
 from interrupting them or cross-examining them 
 to any great extent. With the arrival on the 
 scene of Roget, says one of the eye-witnesses, 
 we beheld the most eloquent and influential ad- 
 versary of Dreyfus. With a singular ease and 
 a not less effective style of categorical affirma- 
 tion, and with an adroitness and rhetorical in- 
 genuity smacking of the methods of dialectic uni- 
 formly described as Jesuitical, he spoke for two 
 hours in his insinuating way, not merely hold- 
 ing the attention of the judges on account of 
 his rare conversational powers, but interesting 
 and surprising them by the insidious suggestive- 
 ness of his methods. He laid down the law. His 
 air was that of a general who seemed to think 
 that judgment by order belonged to the normal 
 course of things. And, unlike any of his pred- 
 ecessors, he had steeled himself to meet the 
 steady gaze of Dreyfus' eye. His manner in this 
 regard was startling and dramatic. He stopped 
 a dozen times in his indictment, quite leisurely 
 poured himself out a glass of water, and, before 
 and after quaffing it and while wiping the per-
 
 120 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 spiration from his forehead, fixed Dreyfus with 
 a steady, disdainful gaze. Dreyfus met this in- 
 solent look unflinchingly. The general was evi- 
 dently trying to provoke the prisoner. He 
 wanted a scene in court. He sought to execute 
 Dreyfus with a look. 
 
 WIDOW OF COLONEL HENRY. 
 
 Madame Henry, the widow of the forger and 
 suicide, M. Lebon, the minister of the colonies ; 
 General Zurlinden, General de Boisdeffre, and 
 others whose names are famous in the affaire, 
 have all been on the stand, but it cannot be said 
 that their evidence has really borne upon the 
 question of the prisoner's guilt or innocence. 
 
 Madame Henry said that if her husband com- 
 mitted a forgery on account of Colonel Pic- 
 quart's acts it was to "save the army." Lebon 
 said he considered the judgment of 1894 "legal 
 and intact," and that if he had to deal again 
 with a man thus convicted he would act again 
 the same way namely, inflict tortures upon him. 
 The reading of the report of those tortures made 
 a profound impression upon the court, and 
 Dreyfus broke down under the recollection of 
 what he had suffered. At the end of Lebon's 
 deposition he said, "I have not come here to 
 speak of the tortures and the atrocious suffer-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 121 
 
 ings inflicted for five years on a Frenchman and 
 an innocent man. I am here solely to defend my 
 honor, and shall therefore say nothing of what 
 passed for five years on the He du Diable." 
 
 The deposition of M. Bertulus, the juge d'in- 
 struction, was the first during the trial which 
 was wholly in Dreyfus' favor. He spoke of the 
 collusion between the officers of the general staff 
 and Esterhazy; of the strong probability that 
 Esterhazy and Henry were accomplices, and of 
 the network of hypothesis in which it had been 
 sought to enmesh Dreyfus. "But," he contin- 
 ued, "I now say to you on my soul and con- 
 science, because I have followed the case now 
 for many months, that I do not believe him 
 guilty." 
 
 AN HEROIC AND HONORABLE 
 FRENCHMAN. 
 
 Colonel Picquart, in discussing the authorship 
 of the bordereau, said that, in his opinion, the 
 department in which a search should have been 
 made when the existence of the bordereau was 
 discovered at the ministry of war was the depart- 
 ment of Du Paty de Clam, because that depart- 
 ment was at work upon the plan of the covering 
 troops and the Madagascar expedition. Tt was, 
 he repeated, in that officer's department that a
 
 122 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 search should have been made, or, rather, in 
 his private room, where he worked quite alone. 
 Colonel Du Paty de Clam had been guilty of 
 the grave imprudence of having, contrary to 
 regulations, had confidential documents copied 
 by mere secretaries, non-commissioned officers, 
 or even common soldiers, whereas the custom 
 was that such work should be done solely by offi- 
 cers. As to the secret dossier which Picquart 
 saw when he was at the war office he said he was 
 "perfectly astounded at its contents. I thought 
 I should find in it some crushing proofs, and I 
 found nothing." After Picquart came another 
 relay of war office witnesses Cuignet, De Bois- 
 deffre, Gonse, Fabre, d'Aboville and others, of 
 whose testimony it can only be said, as the cor- 
 respondent of the Times remarked, that it is a 
 farrago of old wives' tales which would shame 
 the gossip of an afternoon tea party of village 
 spinsters.
 
 WOMEN AND CHILDREN MOST AFFECTED BY THE 
 VERDICT
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 125 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 A CRANK AND HIS SYSTEM. 
 
 The typical Dreyfus crank appeared in the 
 person of M. Bertillon, the "expert," who had 
 woven a spider-like web of squares and triangles 
 and strange geometric and necromantic figures, 
 wherein to enmesh Dreyfus; a "system" with 
 "gabaritic master words," and "imbrications of 
 a millimetre and a quarter" a weird sort of 
 abracadabra, which, in the old days, would have 
 tended to the hanging, not of Dreyfus, but of 
 Bertillon himself. The scene in court during 
 Bertillon's deposition was, as one of the eye-wit- 
 nesses said, like one of the old witch trials of the 
 seventeenth century. "In a low but firm and 
 rapid voice he began to expound. Presently, 
 warming to his work, he leaped upon his port- 
 folio, tore it open, and dashed at the president 
 with a framed photograph. He darted from 
 judge to judge ; the government commissary and 
 the registrar and the counsel gathered round.
 
 126 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Then, suddenly, with a wild whoop, he burst out 
 of the throng, waving the frame round and 
 round his head, like a tomahawk. "Five milli- 
 metres reticulation," he yelled in triumph ; 
 "12.5 centimetres gabarit and a millimetre and a 
 quarter imbrication ! Always you find it al- 
 ways always !" 
 
 Among the other experts but a man very 
 different from Bertillon was M. Gobert, the ex- 
 pert to the Bank of France, who expressed his 
 conviction that the writing of the bordereau was 
 natural writing, and who came into conflict with 
 General Gonse on the question of the bordereau 
 and the relations of the Bank of France with the 
 officers of the First Bureau. Dreyfus, whose de- 
 meanor was very much changed from the early 
 days of the trial, being bolder and firmer and 
 more assertive of his rights, denied ever having 
 been to the bank at all. On the whole, there- 
 fore, Gonse did not come out well, and the 
 tactics of the generals received another check. 
 The return of Maitre Labori to the court after 
 his recovery had led to an incident which was 
 the subject of some comment at the time the 
 friendly greeting between him and Mercier ; but 
 it soon became apparent that the generals would 
 have to do their best or worst under the keen 
 counter-attack of the famous advocate.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 127 
 
 DOWN THE GAUNTLET. 
 The culminating point of interest in the pro- 
 ceedings was reached when Captain Freystaetter 
 was called. He was one of the judges at the 
 original court-martial in 1894, and he was now 
 confronted with Colonel Maurel, who was the 
 president at that trial. Freystaetter now deposed 
 that his belief in the prisoner's guilt was due to 
 the evidence of the experts and of Major Henry 
 and Major Du Paty de Clam. It was strength- 
 ened by the reading of the secret documents 
 which were communicated to them in the judges' 
 room. The secret dossier contained (i) a 
 biographical dossier imputing to Dreyfus acts of 
 treason committed at the gunnery school at 
 Bourges, at the Military College, and while he 
 was at the headquarters staff; (2) the document 
 
 known by the name of "Ce canaille de D ;" 
 
 (3) a letter which by showing the resemblance 
 in handwriting proved the genuineness of the 
 
 document "Ce canaille de D ,' and which 
 
 was known as the Davignon letter; (4) a tele- 
 gram from a foreign military attache which posi- 
 tively asserted the prisoner's guilt. "This tele- 
 gram, if I remember rightly," continued Cap- 
 tain Freystaetter, "was in the following terms : 
 'Dreyfus arrested; emissary warned.'"
 
 128 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 A SCENE IN COURT. 
 
 Forthwith Maurel and Mercier rose and de- 
 manded to be heard. Maurel spoke first. "I 
 have only one word to say," he exclaimed. "The 
 other day Maitre Labori drew me from the 
 grounds of argument to that of the secret de- 
 liberations. I replied : 'I only read one docu- 
 ment.' I did not say that only one document 
 was read. I did not go further than that, as I 
 did not wish to violate the secret of the judges' 
 deliberations. In answer to questions of coun- 
 sel for the defense, which might have led me to 
 say more than I wished, I said, 'I only read one 
 document.' After reading that document I 
 handed the dossier to the clerk, remarking, 'I 
 am tired.' " 
 
 Maitre Labori requested the president to ask 
 Colonel Maurel whether he confirmed the 
 explanation given by Captain Freystaetter, and 
 whether he confirmed what the latter had said 
 in regard to him. Colonel Maurel said, "I reply 
 in all frankness and in all truth. I only listened 
 to the reading of the documents in a very ab- 
 sent-minded way. It was not interesting. That 
 is all, Monsieur le President ; I remember noth- 
 ing else." Freystaetter then stated that he had 
 only seen these documents, but that Colonel 
 Maurel had them in his hands. And, further,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 129 
 
 that Maurel made a comment on each document. 
 Colonel Maurel protested against the word 
 "comment," and pale with anger went on to say : 
 "I could not act in the matter as Captain Frey- 
 staetter asserts. I was too conscious of my duty 
 to allow myself to influence in any way what- 
 soever the judges, whose president I was, and 
 if what Captain Freystaetter has just said of me 
 had been done in my presence, if the president 
 had attempted to exercise pressure on me, a 
 judge, if he had attempted to influence me, not- 
 withstanding his age, notwithstanding his rank, 
 notwithstanding his office, I should have re- 
 minded him of his duty. I should not have 
 waited five years before coming forward to pro- 
 voke a scene in open court. I have finished. I 
 will say no more in reply to Captain Freystaet- 
 ter." 
 
 "CAUGHT IN THE ACT OF LYING." 
 
 Maitre Labori then invited General Mercier to 
 furnish some explanation, and the general asked 
 Freystaetter what was referred to in the note 
 to which he had alluded. "It referred to a shell," 
 said Freystaetter. "Very well," said Mercier, 
 "Captain Freystaetter is caught in the very act 
 of lying, for the Robin shell was only adopted 
 by Germany in 1895 and we were not informed
 
 130 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 of the treachery until 1896." Freystaetter ad- 
 hered to his statement that a shell was men- 
 tioned in the comments which were submitted to 
 the judges in 1894. Mercier, then, referring to 
 the telegram of November 2, maintained that it 
 was not communicated to the court in 1894, 
 whereupon Freystaetter said that he was sure 
 he saw it. Maitre Labori, rising, said that in 
 view of the scene which had just occurred he 
 insisted that the condition of the health of 
 Colonel Du Paty de Clam should be examined 
 by well-known doctors, General Mercier having 
 already stated that the packet containing the 
 secret documents was prepared by Du Paty de 
 Clam. To this Mercier replied that he had said 
 that he had learned from General Boisdeffre that 
 the packet had been delivered by Du Paty de 
 Clam, and that he had said that it was Colonel 
 Sandherr who had prepared it. "Always the 
 dead !" exclaimed Labori. "Colonel Sandherr is 
 dead, Colonel Henry is dead, and it is their testi- 
 mony that is constantly cited." And so ended 
 one of the most exciting scenes of the Dreyfus 
 drama. Mercier, who had the day before said 
 that he assumed the moral responsibility of com- 
 municating the secret dossier to the court-mar- 
 tial of 1894, now quibbling and giving the lie 
 direct; Maurel, trembling beneath the fierce or-
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 131 
 
 deal of confrontation with one of his fellow- 
 judges of 1894; and Freystaetter, calm under in- 
 sult, holding to convictions which all who have 
 followed the course of the trial believed to be 
 true and sincere these have done much to turn 
 public opinion in the favor of Captain Dreyfus. 
 
 M. DE FREYCINET KNOWS NOTHING 
 ABOUT THE DREYFUS DE- 
 FENSE FUND. 
 
 M. de Freycinet, ex-minister of war, then gave 
 his testimony, such as it was, to the court. He 
 said he had had a conversation with General 
 Jamont as to the funds supplied abroad for the 
 defense of Dreyfus, but that of himself he knew 
 nothing definite on the subject beyond what the 
 French agents abroad had reported. What had 
 struck him most in the conversation was the 
 identity of their anxiety as to the army. M. de 
 Freycinet concluded his evidence by an appeal 
 to all to "cease throwing in one another's faces 
 those accusations which discredit us in the eyes 
 of our rivals. Gentlemen, let us prepare, and I 
 would that my feeble voice were heard by all 
 let us prepare to accept your judgment with re- 
 spect and in silence. May the judgment of this 
 French court, towards which the whole world
 
 132 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 has its eyes turned, open the era of reconcilia- 
 tion which is so necessary." 
 
 It was an impressive appeal, no doubt. But it 
 made no mention of the man who had suffered 
 most under the accusation which had brought 
 discredit upon the army and upon France. 
 Those who expected much from the "White 
 Mouse" were disappointed, but others who knew 
 M. de Freycinet knew that the wily old politician 
 would never say a direct "Yes" or "No" to any 
 question if he could wriggle out of it. And he 
 did wriggle out of it in his best style.
 
 Dreyfus and the Sliaiue of France. 133 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 END OF THE FAMOUS TRIAL. 
 
 While groups of soldiers threw dice in the 
 courtyard of the Lycee in the afternoon of Sep- 
 tember 9, five French officers did a deed which 
 history will place side by side with the judgment 
 of Pilate. The Roman governor crucified an in- 
 nocent man to please a mob. This tribunal con- 
 demned an innocent man to satisfy the vanity 
 of a few generals. 
 
 The parallel runs farther. The martyr of nine- 
 teen hundred years ago incarnated the virtue and 
 regeneration of his race. The victim of this 
 judgment typifies the truth and righteousness 
 of modern civilization. Calvary involved more 
 than the fate of the Jewish people, and the Drey- 
 fus case signifies more than the political future 
 of France, which it directly concerns. 
 
 The consequences will be so far reaching and 
 so important to the vital interests of humanity 
 at large that the fate of the individual directly 
 affected can hardly enter into the account in es- 
 timating what the future portends.
 
 134 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 VISIBLE CURSE UPON FRANCE. 
 
 It is not even worth while to denounce the 
 five men whose voices brought France face to 
 face with the most terrible crisis in all her bloody 
 history. They stand for that new element in 
 civilization which makes Europe an armed camp 
 in time of peace. 
 
 They represent that new thing in ethics, "mili- 
 tary justice." They typify that visible curse 
 which descends upon France about once in a 
 generation arrogance, intolerance and blind 
 discontent with the existing order of things. 
 
 In the dispatches it was said that a verdict of 
 condemnation after the refusal of the judges to 
 hear Colonel Schwartzkoppen and Panizzardi, 
 the only witnesses whose evidence would clearly 
 demonstrate the prisoner's guilt or innocence, 
 would mean the existence of a military revolu- 
 tionary plot. 
 
 Danger of this kind never appears at the mo- 
 ment it is expected in France. It is when pre- 
 cautions are relaxed that the blow falls, and so 
 it may prove ere long. 
 
 CLOSING DAYS OF THE TRIAL. 
 
 The judges returned to the court room to ren- 
 der their verdict at a quarter to five. The au-
 
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 Dreyfus and the Shame of France, 
 
 dience was standing, and all ears were strained 
 to catch the vital word. 
 
 The president's voice was low and rapid. Gen- 
 eral Jouaust read in a monotone till he came 
 to the word "guilty." 
 
 A strange sound arose all over the court a 
 general gasp, a curse, a stamp of a foot, then 
 breathless silence. Confusion was caused by a 
 man fainting. He was held up by friends, who 
 kept their eyes fixed on the judges. The end of 
 the judgment was awaited with anxiety. 
 
 All the gendarmes turned and faced the au- 
 dience, expecting an outbreak. But there was 
 no further manifestations. The audience filed 
 out in good order. 
 
 IMPRISONMENT FOR TEN YEARS. 
 
 The sentence was ten years' imprisonment in 
 a French fortress. The five years he had al- 
 ready served did not count; he must serve ten 
 years from the day of degradation, which must 
 take place within fifteen days, if there be no ap- 
 peal to the Court of Revision within eight days. 
 
 The judges took one ballot on the question, is 
 Dreyfus guilty or not? Two judges voted no. 
 
 The judges then discussed the penalty. The 
 two judges in favor of Dreyfus pressed for a low 
 penalty on account of his sufferings and induced
 
 138 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 the others to fix it at ten years, which is the low- 
 est possible penalty for the crime of which he 
 was found guilty. In fact, the judges lowered 
 the penalty to two degrees less than has ever 
 before been known in the French army for a con- 
 viction of this kind. 
 
 EFFECT ON PRISONER AND LAWYERS. 
 
 Dreyfus was waiting, with feelings that can 
 only be imagined, in a room back of the stage. 
 Labori sat in a chair as if paralyzed. A moment 
 before, as the judges came in, he had been pull- 
 ing the end of his beard in quiet satisfaction, con- 
 fident that after Demange's speech the verdict 
 would be four to three. The result stupefied him. 
 Demange sat collapsed, saddened to the last de- 
 gree. It was evident in the heat, fervor and feel- 
 ing of the close of his speech that his whole 
 heart was set in securing the freedom of his 
 client. His voice was deeply hoarse, worn down 
 by his long speech; his face was as solemn as 
 tragedy. When the verdict came he sat like a 
 man who has just heard news of death. 
 
 M. Hild stepped along the corridor to the 
 room where Dreyfus was, went in, and closed the 
 door. Dreyfus looked at him and saw from his 
 face he had bad news. Dreyfus said : "Tell me," 
 
 /Ten years in a French fortress,"
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 139 
 
 Dreyfus turned white, sank into a chair, and 
 covered his face with his hands. He sat a long 
 time, neither Hild nor the gendarme saying any- 
 thing. Then an usher came to call Dreyfus. 
 
 He said : "One moment." 
 
 He rose like a drunken man, his eyes un- 
 steady, and passed his hand over his brow. The 
 color was all gone out of his face. The usher 
 gave him a moment to pull himself together, 
 then the prisoner went into court to hear the de- 
 cision read. Dreyfus listened stupidly, facing 
 Coupois, who read it. He said nothing, went 
 out, and was taken over to prison like a man 
 under the influence of morphine. 
 
 SCENES ABOUT THE COURT. 
 
 Words cannot describe the painful, tremen- 
 dous shock of the verdict. When the judges 
 came in their faces were eagerly scanned. They 
 gave everybody hope. Jouaust looked gentle 
 and genial; even Brogniart looked quietly 
 pleased. All the court looked like men who had 
 done a kindly act and felt better. The curse 
 which went up from the audience was so bitter, 
 so strange, when the verdict was given that 
 those who heard it will never forget it. Then 
 men turned their heads away and took no further 
 notice of the penalty. Dreyfus was guilty. Hope
 
 140 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 was gone. The Dreyfusards were depressed, 
 busy with their own thoughts. The anti-Drey- 
 fus men were maliciously satisfied. Their lips 
 curled in contemptuous triumph. The police and 
 gendarmes hurried everybody away from the 
 Lycee and absolutely barred return. 
 
 Outside the court, in the squares and cafes, 
 a sort of spell seemed to be over men over the 
 whole city. There was no outbreak, no threat, 
 no anger, no passion. Everybody seemed to be 
 in a state of shock. 
 
 This shows how general was the conviction 
 that the verdict would be at least four to three. 
 It was fully an hour before bitterness began to 
 manifest itself, beginning with fiery, caustic dis- 
 patches which Socialists and Dreyfusards began 
 to place on the wires. 
 
 MME. DREYFUS PREPARED FOR 
 VERDICT. 
 
 Meanwhile the sickening news was being con- 
 veyed to Mme. Dreyfus by .Georges Hadamard, 
 her brother. Hadamard is a gentle fellow, 
 slender, about 35, with a small blonde mustache. 
 He used to ride up the Rue with confidence and 
 joy. He fully expected acquittal, as did Mme. 
 Dreyfus up to the last moment. He walked 
 slowly up the Avenue de la Gare to the house,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 141 
 
 about three blocks away. His father, impatient, 
 came out of the gate to meet him. When he 
 heard the news he stopped a moment to realize 
 it. Then both went in together. Mme. Had- 
 amard, the mother of Mme. Dreyfus, was on the 
 steps of the house, crying. She did not need to 
 be told. Then all went in together. Georges 
 told the news to the old people, who tried to 
 comfort their daughter. 
 
 Mme. Dreyfus took it calmly, as if prepared 
 for it. The only agony she seemed to experience 
 was dread of the second degradation, from which 
 she recoiled in horror. 
 
 HOW THE JUDGES VOTED. 
 
 The scene when the judges balloted will be 
 memorable. General Jouaust said : 
 
 "The first question before the council is 
 whether or not the accused is guilty of having 
 communicated the documents mentioned in the 
 bordereau to a foreign power. The members of 
 the council will answer 'yes' or 'no' as their 
 names are called." He then called the roll, with 
 the following responses : 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel Brongniart Yes. 
 
 Lieutenant Colonel de Breon No. 
 
 Commandant Merle Yes. 
 
 Captain Parfait Yes.
 
 142 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Captain Beauvais No. 
 
 Captain Profillet Yes. 
 
 There was a moment of suspense, which was 
 ended sharply by Jouaust saying: "The presi- 
 dent of the council votes yes." 
 
 The long struggle of years for revision and 
 rehabilitation of honor was at an end.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 143 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RECAPITULATION OF THE COURT OF 
 CASSATION. 
 
 What the Supreme Tribunal of France Decided 
 in the Dreyfus Case, and How the Court- 
 Martial Defied its Judgments and 
 Nullified Its Intent to the Un- 
 doing of Law and the 
 Defeat of Justice. 
 
 The verdict of the Rennes court-martial in the 
 Dreyfus case was in flagrant contempt and de- 
 fiance of the opinion of the very highest court 
 in France. 
 
 The Court of Cassation is the supreme trib- 
 unal of the republic. It was composed of forty- 
 seven eminent jurists the most eminent in 
 France when it examined the evidence in the 
 Dreyfus case and decided not only that the ac- 
 cused was innocent but to quote its own em- 
 phatic words that 
 
 "The sentence of 1894 has no longer any 
 foundation to rest upon."
 
 144 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Upon the evidence of the bordereau itself and 
 of the experts who had examined it the Court 
 of Cassation decided positively, and without so 
 much as a doubt in the minds of the eminent 
 judges : 
 
 That Dreyfus did not write that paper, and 
 that Esterhazy did ; 
 
 That Dreyfus did not sell or give information 
 to the possible enemies of France, and that Es- 
 terhazy did; 
 
 That Dreyfus was innocent and Esterhazy 
 guilty. 
 
 The highest court in France decided further: 
 
 That the conviction of Dreyfus had been se- 
 cured by the Henry forgery and other crimes ; 
 
 That a false date had been given to the un- 
 dated bordereau in order to convict Dreyfus, and 
 that the same conspirators who had assigned this 
 date to it afterward gave it a widely different 
 date in order to acquit Esterhazy ; 
 
 That the change of date left no room what- 
 ever for the condemnation of Dreyfus, but in 
 fact established his innocence. 
 
 Still further this highest court in France de- 
 cided : 
 
 That false, fraudulent and inadmissible testi- 
 mony had been submitted against Dreyfus ; 
 
 That the reports of official inquiries which
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 145 
 
 tended to his acquittal had been improperly 
 withheld from the court that condemned him ; 
 
 And further that an official report concern- 
 ing attendance at the maneuvers, the very 
 terms of which showed that Dreyfus could not 
 have been the author of the bordereau, had been 
 withheld at his trial, although it mightily tended 
 to establish his innocence of the charge against 
 him. 
 
 The court found still other evidence of the 
 utmost importance that had been suppressed at 
 the trial, and in at least one case (that of the 
 Panizzardi telegram) it found that the genuine 
 telegram had been withheld and a forgery substi- 
 tuted for it that the genuine established Drey- 
 fus' innocence, while the forgery was testimony 
 of his guilt. 
 
 It found that the alleged confession of Drey- 
 fus was in fact a passionate protestation of in- 
 nocence instead, and that the parts of it which 
 were interpreted by the court-martial as an ad- 
 mission of guilt were so variously and conflict- 
 ingly reported as to be unworthy of belief or 
 even of consideration. 
 
 It declared upon documentary evidence, to 
 quote its own language, that "Dreyfus never 
 confessed nor could have confessed to being 
 guilty."
 
 146 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 It found that official documents had been sup- 
 pressed which, in the court's own language, "es- 
 tablish that Dreyfus had no relations, direct or 
 indirect, with any foreign power." 
 
 In brief, the highest court in France, with 
 forty-seven eminent judges sitting, fully exam- 
 ined all the testimony in this case, and after an 
 exhaustive consideration decided not only that 
 Dreyfus was convicted without sufficient proof 
 of his guilt, but that the testimony itself proved 
 his innocence. 
 
 Under the technicalities of procedure the court 
 could not directly order the man's release and 
 restoration to his former status in the army. It 
 could only order a new trial, which it manifestly 
 intended to be nothing more than a form, an 
 orderly method of undoing the mistake or the 
 crime of Dreyfus' conviction and making such 
 reparation as was still possible to the grievously 
 wronged man. As the National Review said at 
 the time : "It will be seen from reading the text 
 of the decision that it leaves nothing to the court- 
 martial except to make a formal acknowledg- 
 ment that Dreyfus was not the author of the 
 bordereau, and therefore not the betrayer of the 
 documents mentioned therein." 
 
 The court-martial at Rennes utterly and even 
 insolently disregarded the intent of the Court
 
 MAJOR ESTERHAZY 
 
 He has repeatedly confessed that he wrote the Dreyfus bor- 
 dereau, and the Supreme Court of France decided that he did write 
 it. The Rennes court-martial, nevertheless, condemns Dreyfus 
 for the crime which Esterhazy confesses. Believed to have been the 
 go-between of the traitors on the French general staff.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 149 
 
 of Cassation. It held a totally new trial. It fol- 
 lowed the example of its predecessor in exclud- 
 ing the most vital evidence, official and other, 
 and in admitting the testimony of men who had 
 nothing but hearsay to report, opinions to ex- 
 ploit and malignity to vent. Even with such 
 unfairness governing the court's procedure no 
 proof of the accused man's guilt was presented, 
 while the proofs of his innocence were so con- 
 clusive as to convince every honest mind. 
 
 Nevertheless this shoulder-strapped tribunal 
 contemptuously overruled the Court of Cassa- 
 tion, set all the laws of evidence at defiance and 
 declared Dreyfus guilty upon testimony that 
 clearly proves his innocence. 
 
 MEN WHO JUDGED DREYFUS. 
 
 The members of the second court before 
 which Dreyfus appeared are: 
 
 COLONEL JOUAUST, director in the en- 
 gineer corps, president. 
 
 LIEUTENANT COLONEL BRONGNI- 
 ART, director of the School of Artillery. 
 
 MAJOR DE BREON of the Seventh Regi- 
 ment of Artillery. 
 
 MAJOR PROFILLET of the Tenth Regi- 
 ment of Artillery.
 
 150 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 MAJOR MERLE of the Seventh Regiment 
 of Artillery. 
 
 CAPTAIN PARFAIT of the Seventh Regi- 
 ment of Artillery. 
 
 CAPTAIN BEAUVAIS of the Seventh Regi- 
 ment of Artillery. 
 
 OPINION OF A NOTED JEWISH 
 WRITER. 
 
 Of the second condemnation Israel Zangwill 
 wrote : 
 
 The most important part of the Dreyfus trial 
 was doubtless that which was within closed 
 doors. It seems to me a tug of war between the 
 army and the government, and the army has for 
 the moment gained the upper hand. 
 
 I have always maintained that it was not 
 Dreyfus who was on trial, but France, and there- 
 fore it is France against whom the verdict of 
 guilty has been returned. 
 
 IN PERIL AS A NATION. 
 
 By this burlesque of justice, this glossing over 
 of all suspicious facts against the generals and 
 this obstinate ignoring of all the series of mur- 
 der, suicides and attempted assassinations; this 
 ridiculous assumption that behind all this smoke 
 there was not one spark of fire, France if she
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 151 
 
 allows herself to be represented by this military 
 crew has abdicated as a center of light among 
 nations, if even she has not ceased to exist alto- 
 gether as a nation, for procuring mutual justice 
 is the first reason why men band themselves in 
 groups and nations. 
 
 It is horrible to think of what the prophets 
 and poets of France have dreamed for her and 
 then to witness this national shipwreck. You 
 will find Victor Hugo and Zola speaking of 
 Paris much as the old Hebrew prophets spoke of 
 Jerusalem as the place from which the law 
 should go forth to the nations. Now I suppose 
 Zola will again be in danger of his life and lib- 
 erty, much as Jeremiah was in old Jerusalem 
 just before its destruction. 
 
 VICTIM OF CONSPIRACY. 
 
 Those who may be inclined to think that two 
 courts-martial cannot be mistaken must remem- 
 ber that the two trials are not independent of 
 each other, for, if Dreyfus was a victim of con- 
 spiracy in one instance, then the conspirators 
 were ex hypothesi, such desperate scoundrels 
 that they may be trusted to have done anything 
 to save their skins when threatened with discov- 
 ery. 
 
 There can be no extenuating circumstances.
 
 152 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 They probably represent the guilty consciences 
 or the apprehensions of the enemy. In short, 
 this compromise only compromises the prosecu- 
 tion. Dreyfus and his friends will not accept it. 
 
 NEEDS NEW MAGNA CHARTA. 
 
 Yes, no doubt Dreyfus will continue his fight 
 for justice, although everyone must have a per- 
 sonal grudge against France for simply taking 
 up so much of the world's time, for we are all 
 sick to death of the affair. 
 
 People say: "Well, after all, it is only one 
 man's life." But it is not one man's life that is 
 at stake. It is the life of a great nation. In 
 this return to mediaeval barbarism what French- 
 man can say that he is safe? France needs a 
 new magna charta.
 
 Dreyfus and the Sbaine of France. 153 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 TWO REMARKABLE CHARACTERS OF 
 THE TRIAL. 
 
 ESTERHAZY. 
 
 The part played by Esterhazy in the entire 
 drama is almost unparalleled. Though born of 
 French parents, he was brought up in Austria, 
 and was educated at an Austrian military school. 
 He became a cavalry officer in the Austrian 
 service, and took part in the campaign 
 of 1866 in Italy. Quitting the Austrian 
 army, he was admitted as sub-lieutenant into the 
 Legion of Antibes in the Papal Zouaves, and 
 fought in the battle of Mentana. He then came 
 to France, and, through the influence of his un- 
 cle, a general of division, was made an officer of 
 the French Foreign Legion. He was in active 
 service during the war of 1870-71 in the Army 
 of the Loire, and afterwards a lieutenant in an 
 infantry regiment. He has always been erratic
 
 154 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 in his habits. M. Grenier, son of General 
 Grenier, who has given a sketch of Esterhazy's 
 life, excuses his eccentricities on the ground of 
 hereditary disease. At one time he talked con- 
 tinually of letters he had written to a lady four- 
 teen years before; at another time he gives ex- 
 pression to feelings of hatred against the French 
 army. He spent several fortunes and misappro- 
 priated his wife's dowry. In connection with 
 a duel in which he acted as second he gave ad- 
 vice which proved fatal to one of the combat- 
 ants. The war minister, General Billot, though 
 he must have known something about Ester- 
 hazy's shady reputation, appears to have made 
 use of an individual whom he did not hesitate to 
 describe as a "bandit." In order to protect Es- 
 terhazy, a letter was sent by Du Paty de Clam, 
 after consultation with Gonse and Henry, and a 
 rendezvous took place in front of the Pare de 
 Montsouris, at which Du Paty de Clam appeared 
 with a false beard, Gribelin with blue spectacles, 
 and Henry seated in a carriage where he was 
 partly concealed from view. 
 
 It is unnecessary to discuss here the relations 
 of Esterhazy to Mile. Pays, whose connection 
 with the Dreyfus case consists chiefly of certain 
 revelations made as to the authorship of docu- 
 ments in moments of "feminine volubility." Not
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 155 
 
 merely forgery, but the surreptitious removal of 
 official papers can be laid at this man's door. 
 
 THE REAL TRAITOR. 
 
 Mr. Northrop had the following remarkable 
 interview with him for "Black and White": 
 
 A Judas, a confessed traitor, a mercenary, the 
 tool of the general staff of France, the real cul- 
 prit of the Dreyfus affaire, the deep-dyed villain 
 for whom an honorable soldier has suffered 
 years of martyrdom ; these are the unpleasant 
 epithets with which most men sum up their con- 
 ception of one Marie Charles Ferdinand Ester- 
 hazy, erstwhile major in the French army, now, 
 exile and refugee. 
 
 As the searchlight of the Rennes trial pene- 
 trates deeper and deeper the darkness surround- 
 ing this terrible affaire, it brings into clear vision 
 two very evident facts. First, the absolute in- 
 nocence of Captain Dreyfus on the evidence; 
 secondly, the guilt of Esterhazy, judged by the 
 same standards. 
 
 Jesuitical distinction admits of a variety of de- 
 grees of culpability ; and it is not going too far to 
 say that a Jesuitical distinction is at the bottom 
 of the Dreyfus affaire. 
 
 "Morally," said Major Esterhazy to me, in
 
 156 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 discussing the affaire, when I recently called on 
 him at his rooms, 40 Upper Gloucester place, 
 Dorset Square, "morally, Captain Dreyfus was 
 guilty of treason ; but, legally, substantially, no. 
 When the French general staff became con- 
 vinced of the moral guilt of Dreyfus, it was 
 necessary to find proof in substance of this moral 
 guilt. That was the task imposed upon me. By 
 the express orders of Colonel Sandherr I wrote 
 the bordereau. My object in writing the bor- 
 dereau was to furnish the material proof which 
 was required in order to form the basis on which 
 rested the moral evidence. It was with an ob- 
 ject such as this that Colonel Henry also pre- 
 pared his documents." 
 
 "Then, as I understand it," was my next ques- 
 tion to the major, "you did nothing without the 
 express orders of your superiors?" 
 
 "That is my position exactly," was the re- 
 sponse, "and I have ample proof to substantiate 
 this position. Now, during the trial, I shall 
 maintain silence on the true inwardness of these 
 points," continued Major Esterhazy; "but, so 
 soon as the Rennes court-martial shall be over, 
 the French general staff and the world shall hear 
 from_me. To-day, I am cast out, abandoned, 
 made the scapegoat. Last year it was not so. 
 The generals, whom I have faithfully served,
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 157 
 
 have turned against me. My turn shall come 
 when the Rennes trial is finished. 
 
 "They are trying to maintain that it was not I 
 who wrote the bordereau. But look, I will show 
 you." 
 
 From his writing table he selected a piece of 
 paper, and, placing beside it a facsimile of the 
 famous bordereau, began writing in a free, easy, 
 flowing hand the opening sentences. I watched 
 him as he wrote. There seemed little attempt 
 to make an exact copy. There was no tracing. 
 
 Yet the two writings, on comparison, were al- 
 most identical, with the exception of one or two 
 letters, to which differences Esterhazy himself 
 called attention. 
 
 "The 'M' is somewhat different. But I have 
 four ways of writing 'M,' " he said, "and the 
 small 'j' differs a little. But, you must know, 
 my handwriting is extremely irregular." 
 
 He then illustrated his different methods of 
 writing "M." One of the characters was the 
 German capital letter. 
 
 Pasting a facsimile of the bordereau on a 
 sheet of thick white paper, through which it 
 would be most difficult to trace, I requested 
 Major Esterhazy to copy a number of lines of the 
 bordereau on the remaining portion of the sheet. 
 He did so. With half an eye one may see that
 
 158 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 the handwritings are identical. The copy of the 
 bordereau written by Esterhazy is reproduced 
 herewith. It was done for me without apparent 
 motive or vulgar "consideration" merely to 
 satisfy my curiosity. 
 
 This spontaneous demonstration on the part 
 of Esterhazy proves him to be either the author 
 of the bordereau, or the most accomplished 
 forger of the century. Comparing his handwrit- 
 ing prior to 1894 to his present calligraphy, and 
 both with the bordereau, the first hypothesis 
 only is acceptable. This without any Bertillonic 
 attempt to make square ends fit round holes. 
 
 "Acknowledging yourself, then, the author of 
 the bordereau," said I, "would it not have been 
 better policy for you to remain on friendly terms 
 with the generals? Was it not imprudent to 
 confess writing the document?" 
 
 "I confessed because I was angered at certain 
 of the generals ; they have deserted me. But of 
 this I will not now speak. It will all be in the 
 book which I intend publishing before very 
 long. Then will it be shown who is guilty. I 
 will print in the book all the photographs and all 
 my proofs. I shall demonstrate clearly the en- 
 tire Dreyfus case. Perhaps I shall go to America 
 to lecture, and the whole world shall know the 
 inmost truth of the matter. At present everyone
 
 MAITRE DEMANGE 
 
 The eminent advocate who defended Dreyfus at both his trials and 
 whose eloquent plea won general applause.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 161 
 
 seems to be in the dark. Statements of the most 
 absurd character are being circulated." 
 
 "It is said that you are the author of the petit 
 bleu?" 
 
 "I am not," responded Major Esterhazy em- 
 phatically. "The author of the petit bleu was 
 the spy, Lemercier-Picard." 
 
 "Have any attempts been made on your life 
 in o'rder to get you out of the way ?" 
 
 "Yes, twice; but whether instigated by the 
 generals or no I will not say. In Rotterdam, 
 when I was walking by the canal one day, a 
 crowd of four or five hundred people made a 
 demonstration at me, as if to throw me into the 
 water. I drew my knife this one here," he said, 
 showing me a dagger which rested, along with 
 a pistol, in a dish on his table "and, seizing one 
 man from the crowd, told the mad people that 
 if they approached I would kill the man I had 
 seized. My hostage pleaded pitifully for his life. 
 When I had returned to a safer part of the town 
 I released my unwilling prisoner. 
 
 "On another occasion, while dining with a 
 lady friend in the same city, I received a box. 
 I opened it in the lunch room. There was an ex- 
 plosion. Fortunately or unfortunately for my 
 enemies I remained unhurt. 
 
 "But I am not afraid. It is not in my nature
 
 1 62 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 to fear anyone. I do not go armed here in 
 London, because I know the English people are 
 not cowards. I have been in all parts of the 
 city, and, though many times recognized, no one 
 has offered me injury or insult. 
 
 "Yes, perhaps the fact of my being alive is 
 very annoying to many in France," he added 
 naively. "They say that I shall soon put an end 
 to my existence, that my manner of living is ex- 
 travagant, and that when I can no longer follow 
 it I shall suicide. But, you see, I still live." 
 
 The major smiled grimly, and coughed with 
 some violence. He seems in the poorest health. 
 
 "Do you intend returning to France at any 
 time?" 
 
 "No; to return to France would mean im- 
 mediate imprisonment. To be in prison would 
 be the same as to be dead like Henry. Now I 
 am free. I can write and speak freely, and show 
 the world the truth of all these mysterious mat- 
 ters. I can have these proofs 'published." 
 
 He showed me a number of photographic 
 plates on which, he said, were orders from men 
 "in high places" commanding him to "arrange" 
 (i. e., doctor) certain documents and invent 
 others. If his proofs are genuine, it seems that 
 when the time comes though why it should not
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 163 
 
 be now I cannot understand he will have some- 
 thing startling to say. 
 
 One of the orders which he had photographed 
 was from Du Paty de Clam. Esterhazy smiled 
 when he came to this plate 
 
 "Du Paty says that he is ill, and has doctors 
 to prove it. I know that he is very well. I know 
 that he is kept away from the Rennes trial pur- 
 posely. It is true he is in bed ; but" [here he 
 shrugged his shoulders significantly] "any man 
 can go to bed. I am to-day more ill than Du 
 Paty." 
 
 The personality of Major Esterhazy is a strik- 
 ing one. Tall and broad-shouldered, his bearing 
 would be military were it not for the stoop in his 
 shoulders, which gives him somewhat the ap- 
 pearance of a consumptive. His hands are long, 
 the fingers being well shaped and very slender. 
 With the features of Major Esterhazy most are 
 familiar through photographs which have ap- 
 peared of him. The common photograph of Es- 
 terhazy shows him in a military kepi and wear- 
 ing a long, full mustache. At present he wears 
 dark side whiskers as well as a mustache. His 
 face is much fuller than it is usually depicted. 
 The eyes are brown and somewhat protruding. 
 The nose is Jewish. A firm chin imparts a very 
 determined expression to the face.
 
 1 64 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Major Esterhazy lives in the "drawing-rooms" 
 of a typical London "apartment house" of the 
 Bloomsbury pattern. Possibly the most con- 
 spicuous object in the room is the fruit dish, in. 
 which are ostentatiously displayed the knife and 
 pistol already mentioned. They are held in a 
 belt, which the major doubtless wears when an- 
 ticipating a visit from the assassin commissioned 
 by certain French generals to remove him be- 
 fore he can publish his damning revelations. 
 Whether Esterhazy knows all he claims to 
 know; whether he holds in his hands the proof 
 of the French generals' perfidy; whether he 
 acted as a mere automaton to carry out question- 
 able and criminal orders, the fact remains that 
 he is the only man living who can throw any 
 light on some of the blackest episodes of the 
 Dreyfus affaire. 
 
 MAITRE LABORI. 
 
 Notwithstanding the many witnesses of the 
 attempted assassination of Labori, not to men- 
 tion those who saw his wound, the enemies of 
 Dreyfus asserted publicly and through their 
 newspapers that no such thing had taken place, 
 and that he had not been wounded. They 
 claimed that the supposed attack by a supposed
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 165 
 
 assassin was merely a trick to gain sympathy for 
 the accused. 
 
 To counteract this, not only was the testimony 
 of witnesses and attending physicians given, but 
 photographs of the wound were taken. One of 
 these was a radiograph by the X rays of Pro- 
 fessor Roentgen. Against the evidence of this 
 authenticated photograph, the conscienceless 
 enemy was compelled to become silent. 
 
 Fortunately, although the assassin's bullet 
 passed within a hair's breadth of the spinal 
 column, Maitre Labori escaped with his life. He 
 returned to the court on August 22d, and after a 
 most brilliant cross-examination of General Mer- 
 cier, incidentally revealed to the court the first 
 cause of his belief in Dreyfus' innocence. A 
 fortnight after the degradation of Captain Drey- 
 fus, the Maitre was present at a dinner in which 
 Colonel Bertin, his old friend, took part. In the 
 course of the dinner Colonel Bertin became 
 rather excited in talking about Dreyfus, and 
 when Maitre Labori spoke about Maitre De- 
 mange's belief in the innocence of Dreyfus, the 
 colonel cried : "Demange, don't mention him. 
 He is counsel for the German embassy!" also 
 that Demange had defended other spies, and that 
 he was officially appointed to do so. Maitre La- 
 bori then explained to the court that Colonel
 
 1 66 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 Berlin's remarks opened his eyes. He began 
 to wonder what security there was in an oath, or 
 in the judgment of men who could so readily be- 
 lieve things which were so ridiculous. From that 
 day he began to believe in the innocence of Cap- 
 tain Dreyfus. 
 
 And from that day the honest Maitre fought 
 for Dreyfus with a fervor and ability that won 
 the admiration of everybody. No one who has 
 seen even a photograph of his face can fail to be 
 struck by the frankness and straightforwardness 
 of his expression. He is for the truth, at what- 
 ever cost ; and yet he never set up to be a saintly 
 martyr, even when the bullet of the assassin had 
 laid him low. Jolly French good-humor bubbles 
 out of his eyes, and sends perpetual merriment 
 into the souls of his friends. Then as to his skill 
 in cross-examination and ready repartee, ask the 
 general staff! How many unpleasant hours and 
 spoilt dinners must they have to put down to 
 Maitre Labori's telling questions ! No military 
 reserve could hold out against his penetrating 
 insight. Silence becomes in his hands a speak- 
 ing witness, and reserve an expressive sulkiness. 
 No wonder then that the defense in especial wel- 
 comed his return, knowing him to be such a 
 tower of strength.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 167 
 
 LABORI'S RETURN. 
 
 In the crowded court room word passed about 
 that Labori was expected. Even in the full gal- 
 lop of French conversation eyes perpetually 
 shifted toward the door. And suddenly, in a 
 second, everybody knew that he was there. 
 There moved in the great figure in the white 
 edged black gown, and the little black advocate's 
 bonnet clinging dandily to the side of his head, 
 like a soldier's, with the big, eager face and the 
 shock of unruly brown hair. 
 
 He came in alert and eager, conscious, like all 
 orators, of the effect he made, frankly delight- 
 ing in it a spirit half electricity and half sun- 
 shine. Officers and sight-seers and journalists 
 alike leaped up and clapped. He moved toward 
 his place breast-deep in hand shakes. General 
 Mercier got up from his seat, walked over and 
 shook his hand. Awhile the two stood bowing, 
 smiling, talking easily the two champions in 
 the mortal fight for a man's life and the domin- 
 ion of France each accuser and each accused 
 each well knowing that the victory he is striving 
 after is the utter downfall of the other. But for 
 those unaffected minutes Labori and Mercier 
 were nothing but two honest men and gentle- 
 men. France may have lost much that was
 
 1 68 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 great during these years of action, but there still 
 remains French courtesy. 
 
 "Presentez a-r-rmes! The rifles clatter; the 
 court enters, salutes, takes its seat. Then the 
 president he, too, a model of suave and sincere 
 courtesy expresses the sympathy of the 
 judges, congratulates the lawyer on his escape. 
 He rises to reply. 
 
 "Do not tire yourself," says the colonel ; but 
 you might as well try to stop the earth in its 
 orbit as the natural orator when his feelings 
 are aflow. 
 
 He rises his huge figure just a little bent, 
 his color the flush of fever rather than of health, 
 his voice retaining the warmth and music of its 
 old tones, but without the fire and ringing steel 
 and out it pours. The words rush out in a 
 stream, yet, despite the softness of the utterance, 
 their articulation is such that from the back of 
 the hall you hear almost every one. He speaks 
 of the cruelty of the blow that struck him 
 down at the moment of realizing his two years' 
 dream of pleading this case in all its amplitude 
 before a military tribunal of his sorrow then 
 and his joy to-day ; he thanks first the court and 
 then everybody, known and unknown, friend and 
 foe, who have expressed sympathy with him; 
 gives all to know that he has come back to fight
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 169 
 
 and win; and concludes melodiously that the 
 part of error in human affairs is always greater 
 than the part of bad faith. 
 
 In an Englishman it would have disgusted ; in 
 a common Frenchman it would have moved a 
 kindly smile; in Labori it touched and stirred 
 and thrilled. Here, at last, was an orator. 
 Whether he meant it all or not and for my part 
 I make no doubt he did mattered nothing to 
 the oratory; the rest of us, whatever we felt, 
 could not have seemed to feel it as he. A true 
 orator an actor with brains. 
 
 His gestures, instead of following his words 
 as a clumsy speaker's do, moved with them on 
 the same impulse, spontaneous, unconscious, the 
 outward index of the spirit. His voice swayed 
 and swung, paused and hastened, glided over 
 this, hurled itself on that, till it became an auto- 
 matic commentary on his words and played on 
 the hearts of men as a master plays on an or- 
 gan. It was not a man saying words ; it was 
 thought, feeling and purpose coming out into 
 words by themselves, and coming out in per- 
 fect harmony with each other. It was not a 
 speech, but the revelation of a soul. 
 
 The witnesses came in and began to tell their 
 uninteresting stories. But before the second had 
 stood down the air was suddenly quivering with
 
 I jo Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 combat. Labori was now fighting, and in a 
 twinkle the whole aspect of the case was 
 changed. For twelve days the generals had been 
 ponderously attacking; an hour of Labori and 
 they were suddenly on their defense. As the 
 witness enters and begins his tale the advocate 
 is tying rather than sitting in the arm-chair they 
 have given him, one of the lowest heads in court, 
 instead of the highest, as he had been the first 
 day; his whole aspect spells lassitude. 
 
 The witness goes on; he slowly sits up and 
 crouches his head dose over the table, E 
 1km watching his prey. The witness finishes; 
 slowly, slowly the great form upheaves itself, 
 bent nearly double over the table. His turn to 
 question is just coming ; he raises himself erect 
 and towers. 
 
 And then he springs. His voice is gentle, rea- 
 sonable, persuasive, but he swoops on the vital 
 
 r ^~~- 
 
 Did Major RoHin translate the Schneider 
 forgery? No. That question should be gone 
 into with closed doors, says the commissary of 
 the government, and like a flash comes Labori's 
 parry. It was General Merrier, not he, who in- 
 troduced Colonel Schneider's name and letter; 
 then, none contradicting him, he goes on his 
 way. Can Major Rollin teH him whom he is to
 
 I
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 173 
 
 question about the translation? No. Then 
 what is the worth of documents which we cannot 
 see, which we may not discuss, for which it is 
 impossible to know who is responsible? 
 
 A second to feel the blow, but not to recover 
 from it, and then gently, persuasively how 
 did General Mercier come by his copy of this 
 document? General Mercier will not reply. 
 
 "Mr. President, I insist!" says Labori. 
 
 The generals gasp ; here, suddenly, is a man 
 who insists. "I allow myself to insist" the gen- 
 tle voice is rising "that questions put very re- 
 spectfully and with great prudence shall be an- 
 swered. We want complete light. I insist" 
 the voice has swollen to a roar "I insist upon 
 General Mercier answering, for I have a right to 
 an answer." 
 
 Stupefaction; no help from the court; no 
 prompting from friends; General Mercier takes 
 the responsibility. It is a heavy one. Then, 
 swiftly, mercilessly: "I ask by what right Gen- 
 eral Mercier has in his possession all the secret 
 documents?" No answer. 
 
 "I insist!" 
 
 "But General Mercier will not answer," says 
 the president. 
 
 "But the law !" thunders Labori. "There is a 
 law on espionage! When this document came
 
 174 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 into the bureau General Mercier was no longer 
 minister. It is a crime!" 
 
 Five minutes of time a score of sentences 
 sharp as rapiers, crushing as sledge hammers 
 and the Dreyfus case is turned clean round. Five 
 minutes ago Mercier was the accuser. Now he 
 sits silent, the accused accused under that very 
 law on espionage which he was pressing against 
 Dreyfus. The advocate has made no change in 
 the evidence, but he has put the other side in the 
 wrong. 
 
 Henceforth there is only one man in the room, 
 but he fills it the man who insists. The spec- 
 tators watch him and hold their breath when 
 he rises to speak. The court sits and listens to 
 his smashing blows in silence, as if he were an 
 uncontrollable force of nature. The prosecutor 
 sits paralyzed. The generals lay their heads to- 
 gether. The witnesses give evidence with one 
 eye on the court and the other on the cross ex- 
 aminer. The very gendarmes wake and follow 
 the trial. The very soldiers of the guard outside 
 bunch together, creep nearer and peer into the 
 hall at the man who insists. 
 
 The Dreyfus case was Labori. He had all 
 the doggedness of Mercier, the subtlety of 
 Roget, the clearness of Picquart, the passion of 
 Dreyfus himself.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 175 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 IN AND ABOUT RENNES. 
 
 Somewhat out of the direct path of the tourist, 
 but within easy access of Dinard and St. Servan, 
 lies Rennes, that handsome episcopal city of 
 some 70,000 inhabitants where the second Drey- 
 fus court-martial is now being held. The place 
 seems well adapted for such a purpose. The 
 headquarters of the Tenth army corps, yet iso- 
 lated from any great industrial center, and far 
 removed from Paris, Rennes would not easily 
 lend itself to any stupendous outburst of national 
 feeling. Priests and churches are numerous in 
 Rennes, and the lawyers fairly bristle there, but 
 in spite of the many prosperous-looking shops to 
 be seen in every turn, trade so the inhabitants 
 are fond of assuring a stranger is at a low ebb. 
 There is certainly very little outlet for industrial 
 labor. The arsenal gives employment to many, 
 and there are various other industries, but with 
 the exception of a large publishing and book- 
 binding firm these latter are insignificant. 
 
 The line to Rennes runs through one of the
 
 176 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 most luxuriously wooded parts of Brittany. 
 Trees in tens of thousands, bowing under their 
 weight of rich foliage, hedge the glowing fields, 
 throw long, interlacing branches over the 
 streams, overshadow the peaceful roads and 
 lanes, and run riot through many a picturesque 
 homestead and radiant farmhouse garden. Sud- 
 denly there conies a break amidst the trees, and 
 a fair green plain unfolds itself to the view and 
 soon imposing buildings, in somewhat scattered 
 profusion, proclaim arrival at Rennes. The train 
 makes a wide detour before reaching the railway 
 station, and as the roofs, domes, spires and tow- 
 ers of this stately, clean, uncrowded city pass in 
 pleasant review before the eye the colossal gilt 
 angel, situated in close proximity to the cardinal 
 archbishop's palace, spreading wide wings to the 
 sky it is impossible to behold without admir- 
 ing. A Scot will probably see a resemblance to 
 Edinburgh. The cathedral is in the Pantheon 
 style, and has two conspicuous towers. The 
 Palais de Justice is a fairly handsome building, 
 but more remarkable for its collection of paint- 
 ings and carved work than for any architectural 
 beauty. 
 
 The railway station is a large one, and just 
 outside its gates several wide boulevards merge 
 into a place of quite large enough dimensions
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 177 
 
 for the assemblage of a dangerous rabble. To 
 this point the various electric tramways which 
 intersect the city converge. This electric tram- 
 car system was completed two years ago, and 
 for many months was a source of enormous in- 
 terest to the inhabitants. There have been 
 serious accidents with these cars, and it would 
 be astonishing if the reverse were the case con- 
 sidering the extreme rapidity at which they are 
 driven. 
 
 But for some time Rennes has renounced its 
 normal somnolence. The erstwhile peaceful cafes 
 wear an unwonted appearance of animation, and 
 low murmurs of tranquil conversation, and the 
 peaceful whistling of the night wind through 
 overhanging vines, have ceased to be the only 
 interruptions to the mellifluous music of an at- 
 tendant harp or violin. The eyes of Europe are 
 now concentrated on Rennes, and her inhabit- 
 ants feel that their native city has for a time at 
 least assumed that most attractive of all qual- 
 ities a capacity for great possibilities. But it 
 is to be hoped that none will come at least of 
 a sensational nature and that if Rennes is fated 
 to make a mark in the history of her country it 
 will be only as the site of the last, and, we trust, 
 happy, chapter of that strange, sad story which 
 has been slowly unfolded to the world.
 
 178 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 PARDONING THE INNOCENT. 
 
 Soon after the Rennes verdict was known, it 
 was rumored that President Loubet would par- 
 don the prisoner. This was done September 19 ; 
 and, strange coincidence! The same newspa- 
 pers giving this announcement also made 
 known the death of M. Scheuer-Kestner, presi- 
 dent of the Senate, in 1897, who lost reputa- 
 tion and risked life, in the cause of justice for 
 Dreyfus. 
 
 When Dreyfus heard of his friend's death, he 
 said : "The thought gives me infinite sorrow 
 that I will never be able to see the man who has 
 done so much for me, or to thank him for his 
 noble interest in my cause." 
 
 The pardon proved what was already quite 
 surely known, that the whole Rennes trial was 
 a play of clever politics to save the guilty officers 
 of the French army. Paris received the news 
 of the pardon as it did the news of the verdict, 
 with absolute calm. The sensation was one of
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 179 
 
 relief in all circles. Even the Nationalists were 
 glad to have it over. 
 
 STILL DEMANDING JUSTICE. 
 
 George Clemenceau said: 
 
 "While we deeply appreciate President 
 Loubet's pardon, we have not given up the bat- 
 tle. We have always demanded justice for Drey- 
 fus and still demand justice." M. Jaures, the 
 Socialist leader, spoke in the same tone. "We 
 will continue to march in the way of light and 
 truth. Justice must be done." 
 
 Maitre Demange expressed his gratification. 
 The political aspect of the case never entered 
 much into Demange's views. He has always 
 wanted to save Dreyfus himself. "The greatest 
 judicial error in a century has been repaired," 
 said he. "I wish it had been a complete acquit- 
 tal at Rennes. This is good. I am happy 
 over it." 
 
 Emile Zola wrote to Mme. Dreyfus as follows : 
 
 "Dear Madame : Your husband and those who 
 defended him have been exposed to the vilest in- 
 sults and even to bodily injury. For my part 
 there are organs belonging to the 'gutter press' 
 and men so tainted with moral dirt that I have 
 struck them from my life, from my memory. 
 For me they are no more. I have driven them
 
 180 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 completely from my thoughts, as if I never had 
 already swallowed them. 
 
 "It is such forgetfulness of atrocious insults 
 that I recommend to the innocent man who has 
 suffered the wrongs. He is so much apart, so 
 far" above them all, that they should not be able 
 to reach him. 
 
 "May he come to life again under your care, 
 and under the clear sunshine of universal sym- 
 pathy shown for him. 
 
 "Peace be to the martyr who has such need 
 of repose, and around him now, in retreat, may 
 there be nothing but love and caresses. 
 
 "As for us, madame, we shall continue the 
 fight. We shall to-morrow go on with the strug- 
 gle for justice, just as we pursued it yesterday. 
 We shall exact rehabilitation of the innocent 
 man, less for the sake of him, who has already 
 so much glory, than for France, which would 
 assuredly be killed by this excess of infamy. 
 
 "Our task will be the regeneration of France 
 in the eyes of the universe, which will take 
 place when the infamous judgment has been 
 quashed. A great country cannot live without 
 justice, and ours will remain in mourning just 
 as long as the stain of insult is leveled at the 
 highest jurisdiction and the violation of the most 
 primitive rights shall remain.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 181 
 
 REPARATION TO BE MADE. 
 
 "The social fabric crumbles when the guar- 
 antee of law no longer exists, and there is in 
 this violation of right such an element of in- 
 solence, and bravado so impudent, that we can- 
 not ignore it. We cannot bury a body secretly 
 without showing our shame to our neighbors. 
 The whole world has seen and heard, and it is 
 before the whole world that reparation should 
 take place. To desire a France without honor 
 is criminal. 
 
 "Without doubt foreigners will come to our 
 exhibition. They will overflow Paris, just as 
 numbers are attracted to a fair by the sound of 
 music and the fire of lamps, but should that 
 satisfy our pride? Should we not value esteem 
 as highly as the money of the outside world ? 
 
 "We shall exhibit our science, our art and our 
 industry. Should we dare to exhibit our justice 
 one can imagine Devil's Island reconstructed 
 and exhibited. For me the shame of it is intol- 
 erable. I do not understand how the exhibition 
 can be opened unless France takes her rank 
 among the nations. When honor has been re- 
 stored formally to the condemned man, honor 
 will be restored to France not before. 
 
 "Allow me to 'say in conclusion, madame, that 
 you may depend on those who have restored to
 
 1 82 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 your husband his freedom to restore to him his 
 honor. Not one of us will give up the fight. 
 We know well that we fight for justice and for 
 our country. The splendid brother of the con- 
 demned man will again set the example of cour- 
 age, wisdom and justice. 
 
 "We have not been able all at once to restore 
 your husband to you, freed from lying accusa- 
 tions. We ask yet a little patience, trusting that 
 your children will not be much older before their 
 name shall be legally purged of all blemish. 
 
 PITY FOR THE CHILDREN. 
 
 "Poor children ! I see them again in the arms 
 of their father. I know with what jealous care, 
 by what miracle of delicacy, you have kept them 
 in complete ignorance. They believed their 
 father away on a journey, and when they became 
 inquisitive at long absence, what could you tell 
 them when his innocence was as yet only be- 
 lieved in by one or two your heart must have 
 broken ! 
 
 "But in these last few weeks, when his inno- 
 cence was palpable to all, I could have wished 
 that you had taken your two children by the 
 hand and conducted them to the prison in 
 Rennes, that they might have had forever in 
 their minds the picture of their father's heroism.
 
 
 
 M. BERTILLON, THE WRITING EXPERT, EXPLAIN- 
 ING HIS SYSTEM 
 
 M. Bertillou caused much amusement in Court by bringing with 
 him a mass of papers and other things to assist him in his explana- 
 tion of his system.
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 185 
 
 You could have told them all that he had un- 
 justly suffered, what moral grandeur was his, 
 with what tenderness they should love him in 
 order to make him forget iniquitous men with 
 their little souls. 
 
 "They would have benefited by this demon- 
 stration of manly virtue. 
 
 "It is not now too late. Some evening, under 
 the lamp, and in the peace of family, their father 
 can take them upon his knees and tell them the 
 tragic history. It is necessary that they should 
 know, in order that they may respect and adore 
 him as he deserves. When he has spoken they 
 will know that there is not in the world a greater 
 hero-martyr, whose suffering has so profoundly 
 touched men's hearts. They will be proud of 
 him, and will bear his name with glory as the 
 name of a very brave man, who has borne him- 
 self sublimely under the most frightful sufferings 
 which fraud and cowardice could inflict. 
 
 "The day will come when the son and daugh- 
 ter, not of the condemned man, but of his per- 
 secutors, will have cause to blush. Accept, 
 madame, my profoundest respect. 
 
 "EMILE ZOLA." 
 
 The following public announcement was made 
 concerning the pardon :
 
 1 86 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 "The government of the republic has given 
 me my liberty. But liberty is nothing to me 
 without honor. From to-day I shall continue 
 to seek reparation for the frightful judicial error 
 of which I remain the victim. 
 
 "I wish France to know by definitive judg- 
 ment that I am innocent. My heart will only be 
 at rest when there remains not a single French- 
 man who imputes to me the abominable crime 
 perpetrated by another. 
 
 "ALFRED DREYFUS."
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 187 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 DETAILS OF THE LIBERATION. 
 
 The manner in which Dreyfus was given his 
 liberty was cleverly done. Mme. Dreyfus, warned 
 in advance, took a friend of the family into her 
 confidence. This friend went to a livery stable 
 and asked that a carriage be placed at his dispo- 
 sition at 10 o'clock. Later, he returned to the 
 stable and said he did not want the carriage until 
 3 o'clock in the morning, and he indicated the 
 place where the carriage was to meet him. At 
 the fixed hour the landau, which was the same 
 which took Dreyfus to prison on the night of his 
 arrival, stopped near the Place Mairie. The 
 coachman was ordered to drive along the quays 
 of the Canal Vilaine, and in passing, to stop at 
 the Place Laennec, where Labori staid before he 
 was shot, just at the angle of Rue St. Helier and 
 the Boulevard Laennec. At this spot a valet 
 made a sign to the coachman, who drew the car- 
 riage up to the sidewalk. It had hardly stopped 
 before two people appeared, one of whom was 
 Dreyfus, well wrapped up, and his hat over his
 
 1 88 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 face. The other was a member of his family, 
 Dreyfus having just slipped out of his military 
 prison. 
 
 LEAVES RENNES BEHIND HIM. 
 
 Both mounted the landau, the carriage made 
 a sharp turn, and the horses galloped away from 
 Rennes at full speed. As on the night of his 
 arrival, the elements were troubled, and a driving 
 rain splashed on the cobblestones of Rennes. 
 Dreyfus shivered as he rode through the sharp 
 night air. 
 
 Leaving Rennes the! carriage took the route for 
 the village of Vern, the first station on the line 
 from Rennes to Chauteaubriand, on the way to 
 Villamarie, the home of his sister. One reason 
 why Dreyfus went to Villamarie is his great affec- 
 tion for his sister, who is twelve years older than 
 he. She always was proud of his accomplish- 
 ments, and instilled the precepts of integrity and 
 honor in his mind early in life. The second rea- 
 son was the unusual sympathy expressed by the 
 people of this region. "Vive l'Armee" rarely is 
 heard about Carpentras. 
 
 TYPICAL OF SOUTHERN FRANCE. 
 
 Villamarie is a town typical of Southern France. 
 It is hundreds of years old, picturesque, and
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 189 
 
 sleepy, and outside the rush of the world. It lies 
 west of the main railroad line from Paris to Mar- 
 seilles. The nearest city is Avignon, twenty miles 
 distant, while Marseilles and the Mediterranean 
 are within a few hours' travel. 
 
 All about are other villages, with white houses 
 and flat roofs. Occasionally the ruins of ancient 
 walls and fortified gateways of some old castles 
 are seen. The fields are filled with vines and 
 olive, fig and lemon trees. It is the garden of 
 France. 
 
 Villamarie is a small estate of perhaps twenty- 
 five acres, covered with trees and gardens of flow- 
 ers. It is the country place of Dreyfus' sister, 
 Mine. Valabregue, where she usually spends the 
 summer. Since the condemnation of Dreyfus, 
 she has remained there continuously in the 
 strictest privacy, receiving nobody, going no- 
 where. The estate was not even kept in good 
 order. The gardens and lawns showed signs of 
 neglect. All were in mourning for Dreyfus. 
 
 Here Dreyfus met his children, whom he had 
 not seen for five years. 
 
 The little ones came from Paris in charge of 
 a relative. Their arrival made complete the happy 
 family reunion. 
 
 It was a charming picture that was presented 
 to the privileged callers. They saw Dreyfus seat-
 
 190 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 ed on a large wicker chair in a glass inclosed shel- 
 ter in front of the house, his children at his knees, 
 and Mme. Dreyfus by his side, while gathered 
 around him were Mathieu Dreyfus and various 
 other members of the Valabregue and Hadamar 
 families. The autumn weather was mellowed 
 by the soft breezes of Southern France. The 
 sun poured down brightest rays, that made the 
 whole country radiant with natural beauty. It 
 seemed to instill new life into the martyr, and 
 added to the emotional joys of the day. It caused 
 him to exclaim. "Is it true? It seems as though 
 I were in a dream." 
 
 In this ideal retreat the remarkable romance 
 comes to an end. Stranger, it is, indeed, than 
 fiction, because the whole story is lamentably 
 true. After a short rest, he authorized the fol- 
 lowing interview through one of the Paris cor- 
 respondents : 
 
 KEPT IN IGNORANCE. 
 
 " 'And you never knew anything of what was 
 being done in France for you ?' I asked. 
 
 " 'Never a word. Not a single word. From 
 time to time the rigors were redoubled. I know 
 now that that coincided with the declarations of 
 the ministers of war. Every time one of them 
 ascended the rostrum and declared that I had
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 191 
 
 been justly and legally condemned, I felt the 
 effects through the medium of my jailers. They 
 cut off my food, or my reading, or my work, or 
 my walk, or the sight of the sea, and, finally, 
 moving about with the aid of the double 
 "boucle." ' 
 
 "M. Mathieu Dreyfus regarded his brother 
 with emotion. 
 
 " 'Is it not awful,' he said. 'Happily, we knew 
 nothing about it here, for our efforts would have 
 been hampered thereby. If we had known that 
 every step toward the truth brought him suffer- 
 ing, perhaps our ardor would have been dimin- 
 ished. But what pretext did your jailers give 
 you?' 
 
 " 'None, and I did not ask for any. I do not 
 wish to be beholden to those people in any way. 
 Besides, I did not wish to discuss my sentence or 
 its execution in any way, for to discuss would 
 have implied to recognize it.' 
 
 "These words are said with extraordinary firm- 
 ness, almost harshness. 
 
 PUT HIM IN IRONS. 
 
 " 'Yet, one day,' he went on, 'the day when 
 they put irons on my feet, I asked the reason of 
 the barbarous treatment. They replied : "Pre- 
 cautionary measure." It was the day following
 
 192 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 that when a denial had been given of the bogus 
 attempt to escape. 
 
 " 'Ah, I well remember that night. It was not 
 9 o'clock. I was in bed when I heard musketry 
 fire and a great commotion around me. I sat up 
 in bed and cried, "What is it? Who is there?" 
 No one replied ; my guard is silent. I do not stir, 
 thanks to I know not what instinct. It was a 
 good thing I did not, for I should have been in- 
 stantly shot.' 
 
 " 'And so you imagined that General Bois- 
 deffre was looking after your interests ?' 
 
 " 'Yes, I see now that I was mistaken.' 
 
 DONE WITH THE ARMY. 
 
 " 'Would you re-enter the army if legally you 
 had the right ?' 
 
 " 'No ; I will resign the very evening of my re- 
 habilitation.' 
 
 " 'In short, do you think it has been an error 
 or conspiracy?' 
 
 " 'I think that at the beginning, up to the 
 time of the court-martial of 1894 that is to say, 
 toward the end of this investigation they be- 
 lieved at least the majority of the persons con- 
 nected with it that I was guilty, but at the court- 
 martial it was different. 
 
 " 'I am certain that from that moment, as they
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 193 
 
 felt they had made a mistake, they were afraid of 
 being accused of carelessness, and they accumu- 
 lated against me all kinds of machinations. The 
 proof of this has been given by Captain Frey- 
 staetter. 
 
 RECALLS HIS HORROR. 
 
 ' 'They have provided behind my back docu- 
 ments that they knew were false, in order to 
 secure my condemnation. When Captain Frey- 
 staetter at Rennes uttered the words, "Paniz- 
 zardi dispatch" in his calm tones, I shuddered.' 
 
 "In telling me this Captain Dreyfus' eyes 
 opened wide with a frightened kind of stare, and 
 he moved toward me as if the better to impress on 
 me the horror that he felt. I questioned him 
 again. 
 
 " 'You speak in certain letters of your fear of 
 madness. How, indeed, inactive as you were, 
 ill in body and mind, without books, and not 
 knowing what your fate would be, how did you 
 succeed in warding off insanity?' 
 
 " 'In 1896 and 1897, as I had resolved to live, 
 I removed from my table the photographs of 
 my wife and children, the sight of whom made 
 me suffer and weakened me. I no longer wished 
 to see them, and I ended by only regarding them 
 as symbols without the human figure, the thought 
 
 3
 
 194 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 of which unnerved me too much. I did not want 
 to weaken. 
 
 KEPT ALIVE BY DUTY. 
 
 " 'When one has a duty it must be accom- 
 plished to the end, and I wanted to live for my 
 wife and children. It was the same during the 
 trial at Rennes. When I was in so much need of 
 strength well, I would not re-read my diary of 
 Devil's Island so as not to unnerve myself and 
 so preserve my energy, for (and he repeated 
 this several times) when one has resolved to do 
 one's duty, one must go on to the end.' His fist 
 strikes the seat, giving emphasis to his words. 
 
 ; ' 'Do you know,' he continued, 'what is most 
 fatiguing in struggles like mine ? It is a passive 
 resistance. To have struggled like my brother 
 for five years is indeed exhausting, but at least 
 the effort leads to result. You move, go here and 
 there, cry, but you act, while a passive resistance 
 which mine had to be is more exhausting, and 
 still more depressing because it exacts the effort 
 of every minute in your life without resting a 
 single minute. It is that, together with the lack 
 of fresh air, which has exhausted me most.' 
 
 TELLS OF HIS PLANS. 
 'But you must have had terrible night- 
 
 mares ?'
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 195 
 
 " 'Oh, yes. I wrote them down in my diary 
 afterward, but I could not recall them at present. 
 When the guard heard me talking aloud in the 
 night he would come to the foot of my bed and 
 listen to my words in order to report them next 
 day in his report to the governor/ 
 
 ' 'What are you going to do now, captain ?' I 
 asked. 
 
 ' 'To live alone with my wife and children 
 henceforth. My children are my greatest joy on 
 earth. The elder, it seems, remembers me. The 
 girl was only a few months old in 1894, so I do 
 not know her. I did not wish to see them at 
 Rennes in order to leave the sad impression of the 
 prison on their young minds. One should not 
 darken a child's imagination, but I am going to 
 see them with great joy in two days' time. I 
 want to bring them up myself, and in common 
 with their mother to supervise their instruction 
 and education, because I am opposed to boarding 
 schools. 
 
 " 'When my children were small it was a holi- 
 day for me to talk to them, to form them from 
 their earliest age. Unfortunately, events did not 
 permit, but I hope to catch up.' 
 
 "After a while he asks me point blank: 'Do 
 you wish to know my opinion of the "affaire"?'
 
 196 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 and as we all laugh over this outburst he says 
 to me, half serious, half gay : 
 
 " 'Well, the fact is, I do not yet understand 
 how they could accuse me of such a crime. 
 
 ONE OF THE CAUSES. 
 
 " 'In my dealings with my chiefs I always re- 
 tained my outspokenness and independence. If 
 a plan or any piece of work seemed to me to be 
 badly conceived I did not hesitate to say so aloud, 
 instead of considering myself obliged to approve 
 everything in advance, as I saw done all around 
 me, when it was a chief who spoke or acted. 
 
 NOT HUMBLE ENOUGH. 
 
 " 'I know that people do, not like that. Colonel 
 Bertin Merout said something with deep mean- 
 ing at Rennes, speaking of that admirable man, 
 that hero, Colonel Picquart. It was felt that this 
 officer did not walk behind the chiefs. That is 
 their psychology and all their morality. 
 
 " 'Walk behind the chiefs, as if it were in war 
 or at the maneuvers? Yes, certainly, but when 
 it is a question of honor and duty is there any 
 need to walk behind anyone ? Has one not one's 
 own conscience?' 
 
 "The hour for luncheon was approaching. We 
 reach La Roche-Sur-Yon. They brought us
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 197 
 
 some well-stocked baskets, containing hard- 
 boiled eggs, cold meat, two biscuits, some choco- 
 late, some white wine, mineral water and two 
 little flasks of quinine and rum. 
 
 "Mathieu wanted to prevent Alfred eating the 
 meats. 'You know quite well that Delbet forbade 
 you/ 
 
 " 'What does it matter for once ? To-morrow 
 I will be good, but to-day is a holiday. Be easy ; 
 I feel so well. It is like a new life' and Mathieu 
 Dreyfus agrees to everything like a good-natured 
 parent to a loved child, whom he wishes to restore 
 to health. 
 
 DENOUNCES ESTERHAZY. 
 
 "The conversation now prattled, on everything 
 at haphazard. 
 
 " 'And Esterhazy what do you think of him ?' 
 
 "In quiet, measured accents, slightly doubtful, 
 ever like a savant propounding a hypothesis, 
 Dreyfus replied : 
 
 " 'I think he is a swindler, a chevalier d'indus- 
 trie, who has swindled his country it is not even 
 his country just as he swindled his cousin and 
 tradesmen, but without in the least realizing that 
 he did so. He wanted money. That was the 
 motive, for,' he continued with animation, 'for 
 every crime there must be a motive.
 
 198 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 " 'What could it have been in my case ? No 
 one ever saw me touch a card, so I was not a 
 gambler. 
 
 " 'It was said that I had led a fast life. How can 
 you explain, then, that I took the ninth place on 
 leaving the college? Don't people know what 
 arduous work these examinations mean? How 
 can work be allied with debauch? 
 
 " 'General Mercier said that the search for the 
 motive for a crime belonged to the domain of 
 psychology, and that we were on the judicial 
 ''domain." What does that mean ? 
 
 ' 'I was never in the law, but it seems to me 
 that the first thing to be done when one suspects 
 a criminal is to discover the motive for his crime. 
 That is what I call sound sense.' 
 
 "He shrugged his shoulders, and his grave 
 voice rose high in the silence of the stopped train. 
 Then, lowering his voice, he repeated several 
 times, accentuating each word : 'Sound sense. 
 Simple, sober sense. 
 
 PAIN OF THE VERDICT. 
 
 " 'As to the theory of the court-martial upon 
 the extenuating circumstances, it is just like this. 
 Treason against his country is the greatest crime 
 a human being can commit. A murderer, a
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 199 
 
 thief, may find some excuse for themselves ; their 
 crime is one against an individual. Treason is a 
 crime against collectivity. There are no extenu- 
 ating circumstances. It is a monstrosity.' 
 ' 'What effect did the verdict have upon you ?' 
 
 "The voice was at once lowered and sadly he 
 said: 'It was first of all intense anguish, then 
 stupefaction, then very comforting* when I learned 
 that two officers had had the courage to declare 
 me entirely innocent. I swear that those two 
 brave officers were right.' 
 
 "I had a few words with him as to the present 
 state of his mind. He says to me : 
 
 " 'I have been the victim of ideas. I feel no 
 bitterness. I nourish no hatred for those who 
 have wronged me so deeply. I feel only pity for 
 them. What we must know is that never again 
 can such misfortune befall any man.' 
 
 "I ask him : 'Are you aware of the intensity 
 of feelings that your misfortune has aroused? 
 You know that people hate you, but you know 
 that there are many others whose hearts have bled 
 for your sufferings.' 
 
 " 'I cannot take it myself. I represent in the 
 eyes of sensitive people part of the human suffer- 
 ing, but part only, and I understand perfectly that 
 it is the kindness of my fellow beings which 
 moved them at this symbol I personify.'
 
 2OO Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 WILL NOT GO ABROAD. 
 
 " 'Do you intend to live here ?' 
 
 " 'Yes, until my health is restored, and I have 
 completely rested. I would not go abroad as I 
 had intended to do, as the reception I might have 
 received would have had the air of reprisals 
 against the country, and I could not make up my 
 mind for that. 
 
 " 'I did not ask for a pardon,' he said, 'but I 
 accept it as an alleviation of my sufferings and 
 that of my wife, for we both need a little respite. 
 But this pardon in no way affects my resolution 
 to seek my rehabilitation. I will not know either 
 insult or menace ; I will know no weakness I 
 mean mental weakness. Must not the soul domi- 
 nate over the body ?' " 
 
 DREYFUS' GRATITUDE TO AMERICA. 
 
 Captain Dreyfus, referring to the messages of 
 sympathy cabled to him from the United States, 
 said: 
 
 "Already my brother Mathieu has thanked, in 
 my name, the governors, senators, congressmen, 
 men of letters, and humanitarians, whose consol- 
 ing words were sent to me by cable. The fact 
 that they are all personally unknown to me
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 201 
 
 sharpens my appreciation of their valued words of 
 hope and encouragement. 
 
 "I have learned that in America there are no 
 anti-Dreyfusards, as my opponents are called. 
 The day is not far distant when there will be none 
 in France. What a change from the time when 
 so many believed me guilty of an abominable 
 crime ! 
 
 "I have also been informed that the Americans 
 without exception advocated the justice of my 
 cause. There is a keen and highly developed 
 sense of justice in America. It seems to be in the 
 American people as naturally as the sun shines. 
 They love to exercise it themselves, and they 
 bring pressure upon others to practice it. 
 
 "It is this strong sense of justice which gives 
 liberty its plentitude of meaning in the United 
 States. Liberty cannot flourish where justice 
 does not obtain high ideals. A proper apprecia- 
 tion of honor and a strict sense of justice enable 
 nations to rise to great things and individuals to 
 endure many things. 
 
 TELLS OF DEVIL'S ISLAND. 
 
 "You ask me about my life on the Isle du Dia- 
 ble. It baffles description. I shall be forty years 
 old next month. Imagine having been forced to
 
 2O2 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 pass an eighth of one's life upon a rock in the 
 ocean. 
 
 "It was worse than being buried alive. My 
 physical pain was intense. My mental tortures 
 were still worse. 
 
 "I could not sleep. I arose at 6 o'clock. It 
 was refreshing to life my aching body from the 
 rough bed. The day wore on, wearily and pain- 
 fully. I was guarded by eight men, who looked 
 upon me as a beast. 
 
 "Hostile eyes were ever upon me. Not for a 
 moment did that undisguised hostility diminish. 
 1 here were no eyes of affection near enough to 
 vary the monotony. 
 
 "Nature made that island inhospitable enough. 
 Art rendered it an abomination. Hot air made 
 breathing unpleasant. 
 
 "^orne of my faculties must have starved there. 
 The exquisite delight which trees, flowers, wood, 
 and water give me now probably arises from the 
 fact that the faculties which enable a man to- ap- 
 preciate landscape lay dormant in me so- long 
 that they must have reverted to those of a child. 
 They would doubtless soon be dead. 
 
 "The starvation did not stop with the esthetic 
 faculties. Books were difficult to get. Mme. 
 Dreyfus was allowed to send some occasionally. 
 These formed a sort of communication between
 
 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 203 
 
 us. I felt I was reading the page upon which her 
 sorrowful eyes looked. The thought made my 
 cup less bitter. 
 
 "Let us not talk of the iron cage of the Pali- 
 sade, of the double buckle. Better forget them 
 and let their memory haunt some one else. 
 
 "Did I have hope? I don't think I ever lost it, 
 even in the blackest hour. The duty I had before 
 me buoyed me up, and I think certain independ- 
 ence of character which I inherited helped me 
 through it all. I was fully alive to the obliga- 
 tion I owed to my wife, my children, my family, 
 my name, and, indeed, to France. 
 
 "Though lepers were my predecessors in the 
 Isle du Diable I don't think you will find a sin- 
 gle note of despair in all the many letters I wrote 
 my wife from that sterile rock. 
 
 "From the day that I wrote 'help me against 
 the abominable attack upon my honor,' I never 
 lost hope. 
 
 NO THOUGHT OF RESCUE. 
 
 "My hope was never based upon any wild no- 
 tions of rescue. I never thought of this. I would 
 not have accepted such a way to freedom if 
 offered. 
 
 "To me this place is dear. I am not a stranger 
 here. It has early and happy associations for
 
 204 Dreyfus and the Shame of France. 
 
 me. My sister, Mme. Valabregue, has lived here 
 for thirty years. I was inscribed as a voter in this 
 electoral division. It was here also that my voca- 
 tion for the army was confirmed, for when my 
 sister found I had no taste for commerce she said 
 there should be at least one officer in our family. 
 
 "And the future? How can I discuss it? I 
 must grow stronger here. I mean to stay as long 
 as I can amid these pleasant surroundings and 
 where recollections of that part of my past which 
 was happy come back to me. 
 
 "Severity of weather may force me to a softer 
 climate. The physicians will decide what I need 
 most. Already I hear hints of the Mediterra- 
 nean. 
 
 WORK FOR REHABILITATION. 
 
 "That, however, is a small matter. The chief 
 thing in the future, as it has been in the past, is 
 to complete my rehabilitation. This has been the 
 aim of my life since the first condemnation. Peo- 
 ple may say I do not need this, that in the eyes 
 of the whole world no stain rests upon my name. 
 Moral rehabilitation is good. Legal rehabilita- 
 tion will give the former a sanction which cannot 
 be gainsaid. 
 
 "The exact mode of procedure rests with my 
 lawyers. It will doubtless come under the law
 
 Dreyfus aud the Shame of France. 205 
 
 for the reparation of judicial errors. New facts 
 will be found and the request made to have the 
 case brought before the Court of Cassation. 
 
 "Anti-Semitic agitation ! Such agitation should 
 never exist. There is nothing more narrow-mind- 
 ed and unreasonable than the persecution of a 
 people because of the race to which they belong. 
 People must belong to some race. Those who 
 deny their own are unworthy. 
 
 "My trial has made people think, and will 
 doubtless stop many from blindly persecuting 
 our race. This I do know, that had I not been 
 born a Jew I should not have had to endure the 
 tortures of the Isle du Diable," 
 
 THE END
 
 JUL26 1985 
 
 University of California 
 from which it was borrowed.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACIUTY 
 
 A 000650165 4
 
 3 1970 01662 8841