The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1899-06-14

| | finished when he rises, falls on me, and
in a laundering voice says: I'm the
name of the law I arrest you. You are
accused of high treason" My blood
rushes to my head. AT the same time
two men in civilian dress fall on me and
search me. become mad and haggard.
'An officer is not arrested like that"
eXclaim; give me at least an inkling of
the infamy which you allege me to have
| committed. / am innocent; l am the
victim of an internal plot" THE pres
ident of the republic and the cabinet are
Informed of your arrest" My reason
gave way. I was questioned and know
not what I answered.
| | was then conveyed to prison by Ma
jor Henry and detective / raved, and
remember nothing except that I was ac-
cused of treason. In prison | was kept
in solitary confinement, treated like a
prisoner, left to myself. During the
seventeen days which followed | under
went several interrogations in my cell by
the judicial officer. He came towards
evening with his clerk, hatred in his
eyes. insult on his lips, when my tor
tured brain was at the last extremity.
What / heard in those sad and gloomy
days. My heart still thrills. I did not
know half the time what l answered. [
was always told-"It is all up with you.
Providence alone can extricate you"
But in my feverish brain I invented sto-
ry after story to explain riddle which,
simpleton that I was, I could not guess.
l constantly asked for proofs of the ac-
oI1.1 ton, hat H. raf11 I'd
not criminal first shown the weapon
of his crime, and asked whether he iden-
titles it? The weapon of my alleged
crime was a letter. Why was 1t not
shown &c me? The judicial Officer and
his clerk raade me say ell they cnose.
had no cc't s.iousness, nor did :,eltere 1t
necessary to defend myself against such
an tr.uaa"' n. fne evening, or asking
to be at last told, the clerk replied.
suppose your watch was found in a
pocket where it had no business to be-"
The judicial officer nodded assent.
then understood that documents of mine
had been stolen. My imagination went
to work. l remember long correspon-
deuce which had had while at the Sec
ond bureau with Captain Hadamard re-
specting the preparation at the war
school "Other documents" I said to
myself, Twill also have been stolen from
ct locked with only one key, and with no
the second bureau" T remember clos
secret paddock. On these data I con-
structed a fresh story. / became mad
with Indignation and grief. One day,
when I said to the judicial officer, How
con YOU believe that 7, an Alsatian, to
oil
can be a traitor?" he replied, 1T was the
better to conceal your game" On an
other evening the judicial officer said,
"They are on the track of your accom-
plices. Arrests are imminent, and you
will be sent accordingly before the civil
or the military jurisdiction l became
literally mad, and saw myself entangled
in an inextricable plot. Another even
ing the judicial officer said to me. Your
arrest is secret. yet it is known in all
German conclaves, and they tremble and
are throwing you over" The night
which followed was the most fearful of
ALL I was near Killing myself. 1 had
hours of frenzy, In the middle of the
night, in feverish moment, / prepared
to hang myself to the window-bars, but
my conscience was awake and said. IF
thou diest everybody will believe thee to
be guilty Thou must live, whatever
happens. to explain to the world that
thou art innocent"
My brain sometimes refuses to COM
prehend so arbitrary an arrest. What?
A man can thus be arrested, his honor
ruined, his name and family dishonored,
and he can be driven mad simply be-
cause an expert declares his writing to
resemble that of an Infamous letter,
though this man has an iPreproachable |
past and cannot have been tempted |
through poverty Nobody has seen him
or caught him in the act yet he Is ar
rested and to make him entirely lose his
reason there is flung in his face: Over
whelming charges rest on YOU" Dur
ing the whole investigation of the judi
cial officer he is told ut is all up with |
you nothing can save you"
Finally after that officer has besn kept |
in solitary confinement for months, after
everything has been searched, the over
whelming charges disappear, and yester-
day, when the government commissary |
Informed me that I should be sent before |
a court-martial, he said to me: "The |
are sufficiently established |
to justify your being tried" Thus the
overwhelming charges Of the first day
and the TT is all up of the following
days became after two months only pre-
Well. l here declare it en-
phatically a monstrous infany- indie
scribabe baseness has been committed
against me. I have had to deal, not
with Investigations, but with execution
ers.