ublican aims of the agitators and alarmed by the
clerical predominance in the army, had thrown in their lot with the
Dreyfusards; on the other the reactionaries, anxious to secure the
support of the army, took the opposite view, denounced their opponents
as _sans patrie_, and declared that they were conspiring to weaken and
degrade the army in the face of the national enemy. The controversy was,
consequently, no longer for or against Dreyfus, but for or against the
army, and behind it was a life-or-death struggle between the republic
and its enemies. The situation became alarming. Rumours of military
plots filled the air. Powerful leagues for working up public feeling
were formed and organized; attempts to discredit the republic and
intimidate the government were made. The president was insulted; there
were tumults in the streets, and an attempt was made by M. Deroulede to
induce the military to march on the Elysee and upset the republic. In
this critical situation France, to her eternal honour, found men with
sufficient courage to do the right. The Socialists, by rallying to the
Radicals against the reactionaries, secured a majority for the defence
of the republic in parliament. Brisson's cabinet transmitted to the
court of cassation an application for the revision of the case against
Dreyfus; and that tribunal, after an elaborate inquiry, which fully
justified Zola's famous letter, quashed and annulled the proceedings of
the court-martial, and remitted the accused to another court-martial, to
be held at Rennes. Throughout these proceedings the military party
fought tooth and nail to impede the course of justice; and although the
innocence of Dreyfus had been completely established, it concentrated
all its efforts to secure a fresh condemnation of the prisoner at
Rennes. Popular passion was at fever heat, and it manifested itself in
an attack on M. Labori, one of the counsel for the defence, who was shot
and wounded on the eve of his cross-examination of the witnesses for the
prosecution. To the amazement and indignation of the whole world outside
France, the Rennes court-martial again found the prisoner guilty; but
all reliance on the conscientiousness of the verdict was removed by a
rider, which found "extenuating circumstances," and by a reduction of
the punishment to ten years' imprisonment, to which was added a
recommendation to mercy. The verdict was evidently an attempt at a
compromise, and the government resolved