Page:The Annual Register 1899.djvu/260

 252] FOKEIGN HISTOKY. [1899.

M. de Freycinet's immediate successor was M. Krantz a deputy and already Minister of Public Works, but his career as War Minister was brief. A certain Commandant Cuignet had tendered to the Court of Cassation a document, purporting to have come from the Foreign Office and relating to the Dreyfus case. The inaccuracy of this document was at once recognised by M. Paleologue of the Foreign Affairs, and the matter reported to M. Delcasse, the Minister, who protested warmly against the manoeuvre. The matter was brought before the Chamber (May 12) and M. Krantz in order to defend his department threw over Commandant Cuignet and placed him on half-pay. By this means he was able to obtain a vote of confidence by 378 to 54 votes, and for the moment the situation was saved.

Public attention, however, at this time was absorbed by what was going on outside Parliament, and the petty intrigues of a Ministry clinging to office were neglected for the trial of M. D6roulfede and the gradual unveiling of the Dreyfus case. The Government had shown the most remarkable tenderness in dealing with the leader of the Nationalists. The more serious charges of having aimed at the safety of the State, which would have brought him before the High Court of Justice, were abandoned, and he was only charged before a jury with having attempted to decoy soldiers from their duty, and to having pro- voked street gatherings. After two days' hearing, under such circumstances, it was not surprising that the jury acquitted him (May 31), and the hero of the day was carried back in triumph to the meeting place of the Ligue des Patriotes, and later in the evening, at a noisy meeting packed with Nationalists, it was proposed to march at once to the Elys6e.

On the following day (June 1) the arrival in Paris of Com- mandant Marchand, the hero of Fashoda, seemed to offer the Nationalists a better opportunity. Their idea was to put forward this bold soldier as the victim of the Government, in the hope that by some imprudent word or step he might be induced to become the " strong man " whom the discontented were seeking as a leader. This plot was rendered abortive by the prudence of the person chiefly interested, who thoroughly grasped the situa- tion, and satisfied with the practical results of his campaign, quietly withdrew himself from the compromising ovations of his admirers. Two days later (June 3) the united chambers of the Court of Cassation gave their decision in the Dreyfus case, which was identical with that of the Criminal Chamber. The judgment of the Paris court martial was set aside, and Dreyfus was to be tried afresh before a court martial assembled at Kennes.

This decision drove the Nationalists and their allies to a state of wild exasperation. On the following day (June 4) M. Loubet, whilst attending the Auteuil steeplechases, was assaulted by " a sportsman/' who struck him on the head with a loaded cane, and the members of the royalist Society of the