Conspiracy to Convict- The Dreyfus Affair

France, September 1894 

Inside the German Embassy, a housemaid empties the trash. But this is no simple cleaning woman. Known as “Madame Bastain”, she is a spy in the employ of French Military Intelligence. 

Within a waste paper basket, she finds a handwritten note torn into six pieces. When reassembled, the document is found to be a letter promising to deliver information on France’s new 120 millimeter artillery piece. 

For much of the year, the military high command had suspected they had a leaker in their rank. General Auguste Mercier, the Minister of War, had been so determined to root out the traitor he’d become a favorite punching bag of the press. Now, with what seemed genuine proof of his suspicions, he took personal control of the investigation. Using the fact that the information regarded artillery, he decided that the leaker was a member of the general staff and most likely a trainee artillery officer.  

No evidence exists as to the rationalization process that led to this overly simplistic solution beyond a desire for an arrest, and to cap off the poor logic he proceeded to use the supposed signature of the spy- the letter D- as a clue to the spy’s name. A lone officer fit these rather poorly conceived criteria- a captain from the Alsatian region that had changed hands between France and Germany twenty-four years before. His name was Albert Louis Dreyfus. 

As an aside, it should be noted that “D” did not in fact refer to the spy’s last name, but his code name- Dubois. What makes the selection of Captain Dreyfus all the more aggregious is French Intelligence is believed to have already been aware of this nickname, meaning Minister Mercier may very well have deliberately ignored or manipulated existing evidence.