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About The Conservative (Nebraska City, Neb.) 1898-1902 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 31, 1899)
ft * f FTMJI&- ; Conservative * you , to reach the heights ou which you stand , I slmll be able to hold out to the end. It is not physical suffering that I fear that hns never beeii strong enough to break me down ; its blows glance off but the torture of soul ; the ( knowledge that my name is dragged in | the mire , the name of a man who is in nocent , the name of a man of honor ; cry it aloud , my darling , cry to every one that I am innocent the victim of a terrible fatality. " And again he wrote : "Oh , my darling , had not I you , how gladly would I die ! Your love holds me back ; it is your love only that makes me strong enough to bear the hatred of a nation. And the people are right to hate me ; they have been told that I am a traitor. Ah , traitor , the horrible word ! It breaks my heart. " About this time Dreyfus thought of suicide , but was persuaded from such a step by a letter from his wife : "Your heroism has conquered me. Strong in your love , strong in my con science and in the immovable support I find in our two families , I feel my cour age born again. I shall struggle , there fore , to my last breath. I shall strug gle to my last drop of blood. * * * I have always loved you deeply ; you know it. Today I do more I marvel at and venerate you. You are a holy , a noble woman. I am proud of you , and I will try to be worthy of you. Yes , it would be cowardice to desert life. It would be to taint my name the name of my dear children to sully that name forever. I realize that today ; but how could it be other wise ? The blow was cruel ; it broke down iny courage ; it is you who have lifted me up. " The day before his degradation Mme. Dreyfus' application to see her hus band was granted. Of their meeting after three months of separation Drey fus wrote : "Our conversation , even through the bars of the prison , has done me good. My limbs trembled under liie when I Went down to meet you , but I gathered all my strength , so that I should not fall from my emotion. Even now my hands are still trembling ; our interview has violently shaken me. If I did not insist that you should stay still longer , it was because I was at the end of my strength to hide myself , so that I might weep a little ; do not believe that be cause I weep my soul is less brave or less strong ; but my body is somewhat weakened by three months of the prison , without a breath of the outer air. I must have had a robust constitution to have been able to resist these tortures. * * * As for me , you must have felt that I am decided to face everything. I want my honor , and I shall have it. No obstacle shall stop me. " On the 5th of January the unfortun ate victim was humiliated j &Q court. yard of the Ecole Militaire , in Paris , before the troops which were drawn up in military array. A reporter of "L'Autorito" thus describes the scone : "Dreyfus listens in silence while a clerk reads the sentence. General Dar- ras then says : 'Dreyfus , you are un worthy to bear arms. In the name of the French people wo degrade you. ' "Then Dreyfus is seen to raise both arms , and , head erect , ho cries out in a strong voice , in which no tremor is no ticed : " 'I am innocent ; I swear I am inno cent. Vive la France 1' "And the vast crowd outside answers with a cry of 'Death to him ! ' "The adjutant then begins his work , first cutting from the condemned man's uniform his galleons , cuffs , buttons , all insignia of rank , ending by breaking his sword. During the ceremony Dreyfus several times raises his voice : ' ' 'On the heads of my wife and chil dren I swear1 that I am innocent. I swear it. Yiva la France ! ' "It is over at last , but the seconds have beeen as centuries. We had never before felt pangs of anguish so keen. And afresh , clear , and without any touch of emotion , is heard the voice of the condemned man in a loud voice , crying : " 'You degrade an innocent man 1' 1 'The prisoner is then allowed to pass before the line of soldiers. As he approaches preaches the railing the civilian crowd gets a better view of him and yells , 'Death to him ! ' "When he arrives before a group of reporters he pauses and says , 'Tell the people of France that I am innocent. ' "They mock him , however , crying , Dastard 1 Traitor 1 Judas I Vile Jew ! ' "He passes on and comes to a group of officers of the general staff , his late colleagues. Here again he pauses , and says , 'Gentlemen , you know I am inno cent. ' "But they yell at him as did the re porters. He surveys them closely , through his 'pince-noK1 and says calmly , 'Yon are a set of cowards. ' There is utter contempt in his voice. At length the direful march is ended. Dreyfus enters a van and is driven to the Prison dela Sante , " That evening he wrote to his wife : "This day's emotion have broken my heart ; my cell offers me no consolation. Picture a little room all bare four yards and a half long , perhaps closed by a grated garret window , a pallet standing against the wall no , I will not tear your heart , my darling. I will tell you later , when we are happy again , what I have suffered today , in all my wanderings , surrounded by men who are truly guilty , how my heart has bled. I have asked myself why I was there , what I was doing there. I seem the of a hallucination ; but , alas ! my garments , torn , sullied , brought me back roughly to the truth. The looks of scorn they cast on mo told me too well why I was there. Oh , why could not my heart have been opened by a sur geon's knife , so that they might road the truth ! " On the 17th of January , 1895 , ho was : rausforred to the prison of Saint-Martin do Re , from which two days later he wrote : "Thursday evening , toward ten o'clock , they came to wake me to bring mo here , where I arrived only last night. [ do not want to speak of my journey ; it would break your heart. Know only ; lmt I have heard the legitimate cries of a bravo and gonorons people against nim whom they believe to bo a traitor. * * * If there is a divine jus tice , wo must hope that I shnll bo re compensed for this long and fearful tor ture , for thi = ? suffering of every minutn and every instant. * * * I would rather , a hundred thousand times rather , bo dead. But this right to die belongs to none ; the more I suffer the more must it impel your courage and your resolution to find the truth. * * * AH to mi/ regime here , I am forbidden to speak to you of it. " At Saint-Martin do Be he was per mitted to write to his wife but twice a wook. On January 28th ho said : "This is one of the happy days of my sad existence , because I can como to pass half an hour with you , talking to you and telling you of my life. I have received your two letters of Friday and Saturday. Each time that they bring mo a letter from you a ray of joy pierces my wounded heart. * * * I know that you all suffer as I do , that you par take of my anguish and my tortures , but you have your activity to distract you , a little , from this awful sorrow ; while I am hero , impatient , shut up alone night and day with my thoughts. I ask myself even now how my brain has been strong enough to resist so many and so oft-repeated blows ; how is it that I have not gone mad ? * * * And then think of the terrible way I have still to traverse before I shall ar rive at the end of my journey crossing the seas for sixty or eighty days under conditions so appalling. I do not speak you know it of the material condi tions of the passage ; you know that my body has never worried me much ; but the moral conditions ? To bo during all that time before sailors , the officers of the navy that is , before honest and loyal soldiers who will see in mo a traitor , the most abject of criminals ! At the bare thought of it my heart shrinks. On the ninth day of February the chamber passed a law declaring his place of confinement to bo French Guiana , in South America , and early in March he wrote from the lies du Salut : "I shall not speak to you of my voy age ; I was transported in the manner in
