Meanwhile, public opinion was becoming yet more violently excited.
France was divided into two great camps, the line of cleavage often
estranging the closest friends and relatives. On the one side was a vast
majority consisting of the Clericals, the jingoes or Nationalists, the
anti-Semites, and the unreflecting mass of the population. On the other
were ranged the "intellectuals," the Socialists who were now rallying to
the cause of tolerance, the Jews, and the few French Protestants. The
League of the Rights of Man stood opposed to the association of the
_Patrie Francaise_. In the midst of this turmoil were held the elections
of May, 1898, for the renewal of the Chamber of Deputies. The political
coloring of the new body was not sensibly changed, but the open
Dreyfusites were all excluded. The Moderates now generally dubbed
themselves "Progressists." None the less at the first session the now
long-lived Meline Cabinet resigned after a vote requesting it to govern
with fewer concessions to the Right.

The next Cabinet was Radical, headed by Henri Brisson. His mind was not
yet definitely made up on the matter of revision, and he gave
concessions to the Nationalists by appointing as Minister of War
Godefroy Cavaignac. This headstrong personage, proud of an historic
name, undertook to manage the Cabinet and to prove once for all to the
Chamber the guilt of Dreyfus. In his speech he relied mainly on the
letter mentioned at the Zola trial as written by the Italian to the
German _attache_.

Once more the Dreyfus affair seemed permanently settled, and once more
the contrary proved to be the case. In August Cavaignac discovered, to
his dismay, that the document he had sent to the Chamber, with such
emphasis on its importance, was an out-and-out forgery of Henry. The
latter was put under arrest and committed suicide. Discussion followed
between Brisson, now converted to revision, and Cavaignac, still too
stubborn to change his mind with regard to Dreyfus, in spite of his
recent discovery. Cavaignac resigned as Minister of War, was replaced by
General Zurlinden, who withdrew in a few days and was in turn succeeded
by another general, Chanoine, thought to be in sympathy with the
Cabinet. He in turn played his colleagues false and resigned
unexpectedly during a meeting of the Chamber. Weakened by these
successive blows the Brisson Cabinet itself had to resign, but its
leader had now forwarded to the supreme court of the land, the