3-082-047 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Degradation of Captain Dreyfus in Paris: on his way to the prison van, 1895. '...painful scene...at the Ecole Militaire, on Jan. 5. Nearly three thousand troops...witnessed the spectacle, which commenced...with the arrival of General Darrasin in the courtyard...four gunners escorted Captain Dreyfus, to whom the Registrar of the Court-martial read the sentence of military degradation. The General next exclaimed, "Dreyfus, you are unworthy to bear arms, and we degrade you!" The epaulettes, plume, and red stripes were snatched off by a tall adjutant, who subsequently broke the prisoner's sword in half. With the same sense of the dramatic which has characterised all the later doings of Dreyfus, he cried aloud, "Vive la France! Je jure que je suis innocent!" He was marched in front of all the troops, repeating his assertion of innocence to the journalists, who represented the French Press only. He was...handed over...to the gendarmes, who conveyed him in a prison van to the presence of Dr. Bertillon, who took the measurements usual in the case of prisoners. The Prison de la Santé was his next destination, prior to his exile in the Ile de Ré. The spirit of the French nation considers this too good for one who might have suffered death'. From "Illustrated London News", 1895.