THIRD  REPUBLIC  AND THE  CHURCH
condemnation,  but  before  the verdict he  crossed  over  to
England, his life no longer being safe in Paris.
^The elections of May 1898 strengthened slightly the re-
visionist Left, and Meline fell in June, having ""betrayed the
Republic"^1 for over two years. The new Ministry, presided
over by the Radical Brisson, was still bent on considering the
matter as a chose jugee^ and the Minister for War, Cavaignac,
brought a " definite proof," the alleged statement of a foreign
military attache, that Dreyfus had held treasonable relations
with him. " It is all luminously clear," exclaimed the quasi-
unanimity of the Chamber (jth July). In vain did Picquart
declare that the document must be a forgery: he was put
under arrest and Cavaignac began to wonder whether this
measure should not be followed by the wholesale imprisonment
for conspiracy and high treason of all those who were still
daring to suggest that the courts martial might have made a
mistake^2; in which he was urged on by the anti-Semite pack.
But he was not a Mercier, and Picquart's allusions to a forgery
stirred his conscience uneasily: he ordered his staff to subject
all the secret dossier to a new scrutiny: a few days after the
General Staff itself confirmed Picquart's criticism. Colonel
Henry, responsible for having brought the document to the
notice of his chiefs some months before, admitted having
forged the document for " patriotic " reasons^3 ; on being im-
prisoned, he cut his throat, and one possible source of light
was closed up for ever.
It might have been thought that the re-trial of Dreyfus
would now be a foregone conclusion ; but that was assuming
a non-existent sanity of public opinion. One of the most extra-
ordinary features was the inability of apparently honest people
to see the obvious implications of evidence that dazzled all
those whose minds were not, unconsciously no doubt, closed
^1	The phrase is Peguy's (Notre Jeunesse).
^2	He proposed arresting Scheurer-Kestner, Picquart, Clemenceau, Jaures,
Reinach, Zola, Bernard Lazare, Dreyfus's brother and the defending counsels.
^3	^u Ces falsifications sont permises et legitimes. L'acte d'Henry 6ta.it utile,
s'il est vrai qu'en certains sujets la foule est une enfant et 1'opinion publique
une veritable mineure " (gazette de France, 6th September 1898, quoted by
Maurras in the preface to Joseph Reinach : Historien).
343