After a long illness, Colonel Sandherr is dying.Dreyfus is transferred to Devil's Island, where he will be placed in solitary confinement.Dreyfus begins his journey to the penitentiary in French Guyana.New Cabinet, with Prime Minister Alexandre Ribot.President of the Republic Félix Faure succeeds President Jean Casimir-Périer who has resigned over a minor political dispute.Many newspapers echo Dreyfus' alleged confession to Captain Lebrun-Renaud.During the ordeal, sincere patriots along with an anti-Semitic mob unleash shouts of anger at "the traitor," who continues to maintain that they are punishing the wrong man. A warrant-officer strips him of his badges and buttons, then draws Dreyfus' sword from its scabbard and snaps it across his knee. The degradation takes place in public in the courtyard of the Ecole Militaire.Dreyfus' petition for appeal is rejected.Professing his innocence, he is nevertheless condemned to perpetual deportation and military degradation. The Military Court is now persuaded by the evidence and thus unanimously pronounces Dreyfus guilty of high treason.Obeying orders from General Mercier, Major Henry gives the judges an incriminating file which contains a letter dated May 1894 from the Italian Military Attaché mentioning "this scoundrel of D." However, in the name of national security, Dreyfus' defense lawyer Edgar Demange, a civilian, is not made aware of this "dossier secret". During the Dreyfus Court-martial, held in closed session, the judges still hesitate over the evidence, including a ludicrous demonstration from the handwriting expert Bertillon.Major d'Ormescheville starts the judicial investigation of the case.The evening issue of Le Soir publicly identifies him, followed the next day by La Libre Parole, which starts a virulent campaign against the Jewish officer. Through a leak from the Headquarters, Edouard Drumont, the publisher of the anti-Semitic paper La Libre Parole, learns of Captain Dreyfus's indictment.He is sent immediately to the Cherche-Midi military prison. In order to obtain an irrefutable handwriting sample, Commandant du Paty de Clam, placed in charge of the investigation, calls Dreyfus and feigns to dictate him a letter based on the wording of the " bordereau." Since the two documents appear to match, Dreyfus is accused of spying and arrested, despite his protestations of innocence. After consulting reputable handwriting experts, but still lacking incriminating evidence, General Mercier along with the heads of the General Staff, General de Boisdeffre and his deputy in charge of Intelligence, General Gonse, are now convinced that Dreyfus has been privy to the information leaked to the Germans.They communicate their unsupported suspicions to General Mercier, the Minister of War in the Charles Dupuy Cabinet. He is also Jewish, a fact noted by Sandherr and his deputy Colonel Fabre, both openly antisemitic. As a probationary officer since January 1893, he has rotated through most of the bureaus of the Ministry of War. He is from Alsace, a French province under German rule since the Franco-Prussian war (1870-1871), and some members of his wealthy family still reside there. After a brief inquiry, only half a dozen officers seem to match the description, including Captain Alfred Dreyfus, an artillery officer on the General Staff.In addition, the traitor may have been in contact with different bureaus as an intern.From the nature of the leaks in this memorandum - the " bordereau,"- they conclude that the spy must be an artillery officer and a member of the General Staff. The French Intelligence Services intercept a message (from Esterhazy, but not signed), received Sby Schwartzkoppen. ![]() Esterhazy receives payment by Schwartzkoppen for delivering classified mobilization documents.Infantry Major Ferdinand Walsin-Esterhazy who, through occasional contacts with the General Staff, was exposed to classified French information, offers his services to the German Military Attaché, Lieutenant-Colonel von Schwartzkoppen, promising to pass on military secrets.Jean Casimir-Périer becomes the new President of the Republic.French President Sadi Carnot is assassinated in Lyon by an Italian anarchist, Caserio.
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