The record-union. [volume] (Sacramento, Calif.) 1891-1903, 1899-08-09
Malire Dsmange, the Principal
Counsel for the Accused,
We'll Satisfied With the Proceedings So
Far as They Have Progressed.
Expected to Take at Least Four
Days to Examine the Secret
Dossier, Which Will be Consid-
cred Behind Closed Doors.

Dossier, Which Will be Consid-
cred Behind Closed Doors.
copyrighted 1899, by Associated Press)
RENNES (France), Aug. S.-Maitre
Demange, the principal counsel for
Captain Dreyfus, expressed himself as
we'll satisfied with yesterdays pro-
ceedings Colonel Jouaust had to play
the part of a severe judge, but while
his voice was rude and his manner
rough toward the prisoner, his eye was
kind, and there were no attempts to
press home the points raised by the
indictment.
Nd. Chanoine, the custodian of the
famous secret dossier. said it would
take four days to examine it, as the
examination would be behind closed
doors, and most of the witnesses have
gone to the seaside-General de BOis-
deffre to Dinard and General Dionne
to Param. General MERCER remains
here, the guest of General Saint Ger
main. who tells his friends to be pre-
pared for sensational news that must
crush Dreyfus and many others with
him.
his way here. He said he expected two
coups de theater. We now hear that
one will be an avowal by General
Billot that he said on his soul and con
science Dreyfus was a traitor because
he was misled. The other will be Mer-
cier driven to bay. The latter will is
sue from this trial ruined if Dreyfus
is acquitted 1 hear he intends to throw
rob ierIf ha oil nf
the Dupuy government, of which he was
a member in 1894. and to show what
diplomatic wires were pulled between
the arrest of Dreyfus and his embarka,
ton. for Cayenne. MERCER refuses to
be interviewed He looks bowed down
from care.
seems to have taken out a new lease
of life. He is also extremely reticent,
as, indeed, are all the witnesses of
note@
NJ Jadres arrived last night. He
cf&fff54 TO know much there is in the
:secfef dossier. An Intercepted CORE
spondence. between two military at
taNhes who We're mixed up in the af.
to human. nature. These two officers
a strain that might not have shocked
the young courtiers of Nero or the
ribald crowd that gathered around
Lots house in the Doomed City. Pos
sibly, nay, probably. the attaches in
question never wrote these scented an
acreonic billets, for such they are. LIE
MERCER Pickard was equal to the task
of forging them, and he possibly did
he, for. 1lr,ia r~yr Orc
ton. Hence perhaps. the mystery in
which his suicide is shrouded.
The counsel for Dreyfus met to-day
at his wife's residence with the heads
of the Dreyfusite party, and consulted
on the present aspect of the affair
They went there after they. had ex-
amined the documents of the secret
dossier in the Judges room. They do
not see any possibility of repeating the
judgment of 1894.
Dreyfus was greatly fatgued after
yesterdays ordeal. He asked anxiously
to-day what the press and public
thought, and was led to think that
opinion is generally favorable. This
is true. The representative of national
list journals here who judge harshly in
print express admiration for the I'M
Leading personages here for the trial
have much to say about the late Cen
eral Annenkoff and Baron Frederick in
connection with Dreyfus. but General
MERCER and NJ. Hanotaux former Min
lister of Foreign Affairs, refuse to speak
on the subject. NJ. Hanotaux looks de-
jected 1t will be curious to see wheth-
err he and MERCER contradict each
other
There seems danger that all evidences
relating to foreign diplomatists will he
given with closed doors. The public
trial will be resumed on Saturday.
Dreyfus, a member of his family tells
me, has not yet got over his Rip Van
Wrinkle feeling. He was lost, as he
put it, He remarked to his wife that
he was astonished to find himself
watched by the whole world or it's
proxies. though he showed no sign of
astonishment. He was thrown in a
heap by the searching, and, as he
thought unfriendly examination by
the President of the court martial He
had expected more formal proceedings.
M. Demange and Labori did not pre-
pare him for a hostile tribunal and
scrutinizing public. He felt as if X
rays were being cast on him all the
time he was under public gaze 1t
was as if the innermost thoughts of his
heart were being peered into. He
imagined the proceedings would be only
formal and that perhaps he might
leave the courthouse to walk to his
wife's temporary home
His counsel was quite right to dis
courage him beforehand, as his
strength is low and he is condemned
to a diet of milk and eggs which does
not enable him rapidly to recover his
lost strength Ague has caused les
ion of the renal organs and fuil olet
Just now could not fail to bring On
Brights disease.
He was at first greatly depressed to
learn that he would be confronted with
a crowd of hostile witnesses, and that
the trial might last a fortnight or
three weeks, or even longer. Then,
steeling himself, he cried: You must
prove yourself a man. Dreyfus. You
must struggle for your honor, and not
give in until you have cleared 1T, once
and forever But what have you done,
Dreyfus, to make people to thus rend
you? Were you born under a malig-
nant star? If SO. fight against fate,
and wrestle until you have thrown the
evil angel"
From long habit he speaks to himself