The times., 1899-06-11
THE STORY TOLD BY pREYFus.
Notes Written by Him While Await
ing TrinI in Paris


Paris. May sO.-The Figaro" OF May q
published notes written by Dreyfus while
awaiting trial. He says:
"on Saturday. October 1s, I received a
letter directing me to be on Monday, the
| 10Th, at 9 a. M, at the War Office for the
general inspection. l reach the Office on
the Monday. / am ushered into the room
of the head OF the general staff There
| see Major Du Patty de Clam and other per
| sons in civil dress whom l did not know.
| am told to seat myself at n table. and
Major .Du Patty de Clam sits beside me.
| looking savagely at me. begin already
to be puzzled The major then invites me
to write letter from his dictation. l an
| more and more puzzled. Suddenly he says
to me: Your hand shakes Not al all,
say; my fingers are cold. | continue
writing, more and more amazed. Scarce
| iy have / finished when he rises. falls en-
! ME, and in 4 laundering voice says; In
the name of the law l arrest you. You are
accused of high treason Ny blood rushes
to my head. At the same time two men in
| civilian dress fail on me and search me. Il
become mad and haggard. An officer is
not arrested like that, / exelaim; give
me at least an inkling of the infamy viii, IN
| you allege me to have committed. l am
| innocent; l am the victim OF an Internal
plot The proofs are overwhelming was
the reply. The President of the Republic
and the Cabinet are informed of your ar
| rest My reason gave way. l was ques-
toned and know not what / answered.
Il was then conveyed to prison by Major
Henry and a detective. l raved. and re-
member nothing except that l was accused
of treason. In prison / was kept in solitary
| confinement treated like a prisoner, left
| to myself. During the seventeen days
| which followed l underwent several inter-
| rogations in my cell by the judicial officer.
| He came toward evening with his clerk,
hatred in his eyes. insult on his lips. when
my tortured brain was at the last ex-
| tremity. What | heard in those sad and
gloomy days, My heart still thrills. | did
not know half the time what l answered.
| was always told, 1t is all up with you.
Providence alone can extricate you. But
in my feverish brain l invented story after
story to explain riddle which, simpleton
| that was. could not guess.
| Il constantly asked for proofs of the ac-
cusation, but these were refused me. Is not
criminal first shown the weapon of his
| crime and asked whether he identifies ii ?
The weapon of my alleged crime was a
letter. Why was 1t not shown to me? The
judicial officer and his clerk made me say
| all they chose. l had no consciousness,
nor did / believe it necessary to defend
myself against such an accusation. One
evening, on asking TO be at last told. the
clerk replied. Suppose your watch were
found in a pocket where 1t had no business
to be- The judicial officer nodded assent.
l then understood that documents Of mine
had been stolen. My imagination went to
work. | remembered long correspond
ence which / had had while at the Second
| Bureau with Captain Hadamard respect
ing the preparation Of the war school.
Other documents / said to myself.
will also have been stolen from the Sec
ond Bureau l remembered a closet
locked with only one key and with no Sc
cret paddock. On these data l constructed
a fresh story. l became mad with indig-
nation and grief.
'One day, wnen | said to the judicial Of
icer. How can you believe that l, an Al
| satan, to whom the Germans refuse all
passports. can be a traitor?' he replied.
| 1t was the better to conceal your game.
On another 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. / became
literally mad. and saw myself entangled
in an inextricable plot. Another evening
the judicial officer said to me. Your ar
/ rest is secret, yet il is known in all Ger
man cOnclaves, and they tremble and are
throwing you over. The night which fol-
lowed was the most fearful of all. / was
near killing myself. l had hours OF fren-
by. In the middle Of the night, in fever
ish moment l 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 compre-
hend 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 because an ex-
pert declares his writing to resemble that
of an infamous letter. though this man has
an irreproachable past and cannot have
been tempted through poverty. Nobody
has seen him or caught him in the act,
yet he is arrested, and to make him en-
tirely lose his reason there is flung in his
face. Overwhelming charges rest on you.
During the whole investigation of the ju-
dicial officer he is told, 1t is all up with
you; nothing can save you.
Finally after that officer has been kept
in solitary confinement for months, after
everything has been searched, the over
whelming charges disappear, and yester-
day. when the Government commissary in
formed me that l should be sent before
a court martial, he said to me: The pre-
sumptions are sufficiently established tC
justify your being tried Thus the over
whelming charges of the first day and the
1t is all up of the following days became
after two months only presumptions Well.
here declare it emphatieally monstrOus
infamy. Indescribable baseness has been
committed against me. have had to deal,
not with Investigations, but with execu-
toners