The Worcester spy. [volume] (Worcester, Mass.) 1898-1904, 1899-08-30
CHANGED HIS VIEWS.
At First Trial He Believed Prisoner Guilty
Now Says the Captain is Innocent
MERCER Still Game-Again He
Appears In Court To Face V
the Witnesses.

Rennes, Aug. 29.-Neither side was
pleased with the outcome of today's
proceedings before the court martial
that is trying Capt. Dreyfus. The
Dreyfusards expected that Col. Cordier,
who was deputy chief of the inteli-
gence department until the late Lieut..
Col. Henry, would testify that the Dor
dereau was received directly by the
late Col. Sandherr. Had this expecta-
ton been realized, the testimony would
have been a strong point in favor OF.
the accused, because it would have
been reply to the anti-Dreyfusards,
who have all along commended that
Henry received the bordereau and for
warded it to Sandherr, a thing he would
not have done had the bordereau been,
as the Dreyfusards assert, written by
his accomplish, Esterhazy, for in that
event Henry would have recognized
the handwriting when he received the
bordereau from the German embassy
and would have suppressed it instead
| of forwarding it to Sandherr.
Col. Cordier, however, testified today
that he was absent from the inteli-
gence department when the bordereau
/
ceived by Henry. Naturally this
statement elated the anti-Dreyfusards,
but the Dreyfusards had good reason
| to congratulate themselves upon the
remainder Of Cordier's testimony, as it
was wholly in favor of Dreyfus.
On the other hand, the procession of
generals and officers of the general
staff, who demanded an opportunity to
confront Col Cordier, was a good piece
xyi.a y,
i-Dreyfusards, because all the points
they contested were not of the first
Importance, yet their very appearance
on the stage and their contradictions of
some of Cordier's statements left a
disagreeable impression.
The appearance of Gen. MERCER to
question Col. Cordier came as a sur
prise to many in the audience, who
had supposed that after last Saturdays
scene, when Mercier was confronted
with Capt. Freystaetter, he would re-
main quiet. But MERCER is game to
the death.
His action today is interpreted as in
tended to show that he is not going to
throw up the sponge. The part he
played in 1894 lays him open to arrest,
and this is a constant topic Of discus
sion in the cafes aud at other meeting
places in Rennes. There appears, how
ever, 70 We dill GACGll0tll IGetSOtl WHY IlC
government will not take any such step
until the trial is over Col. Jouaust,
president of the court-martial, could
adjourn the trial indefinitely if Mer
cier, who is an important witness, were
arrested. If the trial were adjourned
for more than AZ hours it would lapse,
and the proceedings would have to be
gone over again from the beginning.
Today's attendance was the largest
since the opening of the trial. Every
body was on the qui vive to hear the
testimony of NJ. Charles Louis de
Saulses de Freycinet, senator, former
premier, former minister of foreign af-
fairs and former minister of war. This
adroit politician, the white mouse" of
French politics, sat upon the fence as
well as he could. His expression of
fear that the Dreyfus agitation would
injure the discipline of the army great
ly annoyed the Dreyfusards, as calcu-
lated to influence the judges against the
accused. But he followed it with a eu-
logy of the pioneer of the Dreyfus cam
paign, M. Scheuerer- Kestner former
vice president of the senate, whose
character he said he held in the high
est esteem.
Labori then secured another conoes-
sion favorable to Dreyfus by getting NJ.
De Freycinet to admit that he could not
recall single fact going to prove that
money had been sent into France from
abroad to promote campaign in favor
of Dreyfus. The general feeling Is,
however. that his appearance on the
witness stand has not materially helped
the counsel of the accused.