alleged
confession and to the authorship of the _bordereau_, the document which
had been instrumental in procuring a conviction. Upon these grounds it
was claimed that the judgment pronounced in December, 1894, should be
annulled.

The court was compelled to yield, and an order was issued for a second
trial--a trial which resulted in revelations so damaging to the heads
of the French army that a revolution seemed imminent.

The accused man, wrecked by the five years on the Isle du Diable, again
appeared before his accusers in the military court at Rennes. His
leading counsel, Labori, was shot while conducting his case, but, as it
proved, not fatally. The conduct of the trial was such that the dark
secrets of this sinister affair were never brought from their murky
depths. And with neither the guilt nor the innocence of the victim
proven, the amazing verdict was rendered, "Guilty, with extenuating
circumstances."

Such was the verdict of the French military court. That of public
opinion was different. It was the unanimous belief among other nations
that the case against this unfortunate man had completely collapsed.
But in order to protect the French army from the disgrace which was
inseparable from a vindication of Dreyfus, he must be sacrificed.

The sentence pronounced at the conclusion of the second trial was
imprisonment in a French fortress for ten years.

This sentence was remitted by President Loubet; and, with the brand of
two convictions and the memory of his "degradation" and of Devil's
Island burned deep into his soul, a broken man was sent forth free.

Not the least dramatic incident in this affair was the impassioned
championship of M. Zola, the great novelist, who hurled defamatory
charges at the court, in the hope of being placed under arrest for
libel, and thus be given opportunity to establish facts repressed by
the military court. By the French law, the accused must justify his
defamatory words, and this was the opportunity sought.

The heroic effort was not in vain. Zola was found guilty and sentenced
to a year's imprisonment, which he avoided by going into exile. But
light had been thrown upon the "_Affaire._" And he was content.

Upon the sudden death of M. Faure in 1899, Emile Loubet, a lawyer of
national reputation, was chosen to succeed him, and his administration
commenced while this storm was reaching its final culmination.

With the release of Captain Dreyfus the agitation s