The age-herald., 1899-08-31
ROGET WILL TURN LOOSE Wants to Desert the Ring of
 7 "ch Generals.
 N
 TODAY'ysS vpORTANT PROCEEDINGS Cour z .Endeavor to Discover Wheth- yfus Was in Position to Di- lge Information Regarding ( 1 Artillery Happy
TODAY'sSS y'oRTANT PROCEEDINGS

Rennes, August 30.-The air of Rennes this evening is filled with rumors of con- spiracies and predictions of coups d thea ter, but nothing precise can be ascer- tained.
 General Mercier's attitude during the last few days has mystified his followers in the case. He is extremely clever and the general feeling is that he Is preparing something, the existence of which will be revealed in a few days.
 Di sision of Op nion
 It is now accepted as beyond question that there is a serious division of opinion on the political grounds While the case was running smoothly against Captain Dreyfus, they all pulled together, but since the tide of evidence began to turn in his favor, as was notably the case during the testimony of Captain Freystaeter and Colonel Cordier, which proved much more damaging to the general staff than the lat- ter anticipated, certain dividing lines have become manifest between the various ciques General Roget Major Lauth, Cap- tain Cuignet and M. Gribein, the principal keeper of the archives of the war office, from one coterie, General Mercier and General Gong from another, and General Elliot and General Deboisdeffre a third.
 According to the report the first two coteries intend to throw over General Deboisdeffre, whom they feel to be falter- ing and declare that he is responsible for all the errors and ilegalities of the court martial of 1884, thus making him the scape- goat.
 Roget Will Turn Loose
 Acoordinu fo another renort General Eo- get, who was not implicated in 1894, and who even fought against Dreyfus because he inherited from his predecessors the re- sponsibility for so doing and placed over confidence in the accounts of the matter furnished him by the general staff. will cut himself loose from Generals Mercier, Cons and Deboisdeffre.
 This is a plausible hypothesis, since Ro- get has assumed throughout the role Of defender of the army, thus making him. self popular with the army and with a large section of the nation, and he proba- bly would not lose by separating himself from the throng and declare that his opin- ion had been changed by the evidence dur ing the present trial.
 Yet another story is that the generals are going to give way on the authorship of the bordereau in view of the strong ex- pert evidence, and will admit that Ester hazy wrote 1t, alleging, however, that Dreyfus furnished the information-not di- rect to Esterhazy, but to a third person, who acted as intermediary without Drey- fus knowing Esterhazy.
 Rastiani " ill be Summoned
 In this connection 1t is asserted today that Madam Rastiani. who was house. keeper for Colonel Schwarzkoppen, the German military attache in 1884, and who is understood to have acted as a French spy, has been seen in Rennes and will be summoned as witness concerning Schwarzkoppen's espionage system.
 All these rumors may be without foun- dation, but in any event they are symp- tomatic to the feeling in Rennes that something Is going on under the surface and that the complexion of the trial may be altered by some coup at any moment. In the matter of evidence today it was quite Dreyfus day, only the deposition of the last witness, General Deloye, being unfavorable. The testimony of M. Picot, a member of the institute Is little likely. however, to serve the cause of the ac- cused materially if at all, because his inc troduction of Colonel Schneider the Aus trian military attache, as a champion of Dreyfus, was rather calculated to arouse resentment and adversely to influence the judges, especially as it Was followed by General Roget's tactful protest against Colonel Schneider's uncomplimentary al- lusions to French officers.
 roday's In portant Proceedings
 Tomorrow's proceedings, behind closed doors will deal with the question whether Dreyfus was in position to divulge the information regarding the artillery, which was promised in the bordereau. The sas- sion will be very complete and is bound 70 have a tremendous influence upon the judges one way or the other, because they are all artillery officers and will be able to appreciate such evidence better than the crytographc intricacies that have been laid before the handwriting experts
 The Dreyfusards express confidence that their artillery witnesses, Major Hartman and Major Ducros, will effectively satisfy the judges that Dreyfus was ignorant of the matters mentioned in the bordereau, or any artillery officer would have been guilty, knowing they had no valuable information to divulge.
 The local papers publish the doubtful statement that Charles De Freycinet, on leaving the court room yesterday, after his deposition, remarked to a friend: 'I am