The very latest news as to Captain Dreyfus's chances of
regaining his liberty is reassuring. On Friday the Paris
correspondent of the Daily Telegraph announced on "the very highest authority " that "Captain Dreyfus is to be set at liberty, and that ere long." The President, be declares, has made up his mind on the subject, and the only questions to be settled are now matters of form. It is possible that the five years of an exceptionally severe regime endured by Dreyfus on the Devil's Island may be held to be equivalent to the ten years' detention to which he was condemned at Rennes. In that case there would be no need for the President's special intervention. If, however, this course is found impracticable, Loubet will fall back on the grant of a free pardon. We most sincerely trust that this informa- tion, supported as it is by the testimony of other corre- spondents, is true. The injury done to the good name of France by the trial and sentence will no doubt remain, but it will be an intense relief to know that the innocent man, whose fortitude and courage has so greatly touched the world's heart, is no longer to endure the tortures of an unjust imprisonment.
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