France was half stunned on Monday by telegrams announ- cing
that M. Labori, the chief counsel for Dreyfus, had been murdered at Rennes. The truth was not quite so bad as that, but it was bad enough. M. Labori on Monday at 6 a.m. was walking to the Court with Colonel Picquart and M. Gast when on the Quai Richemont a man, whose description is im- perfectly given, fired with a revolver at his back. The bullet, missing the 'spine, lodged in his neck, and he fell. His companions pursued the assassin, who, however, had a long start ; he frightened some workmen with his revolver, and escaped into a neighbouring wood, whence he has disappeared, the Breton peasantry, there is little, doubt, sheltering him from sympathy. They loathe Dreyfus, and are as silent as Irish peasants when an "agent" is killed. In the interval between M. Labori's fall and the return of his companions he was turned over on the ground by men who suddenly appeared, and the papers in his pocket were taken away, apparently in the hope of finding some letters on which General Mercier was to be cross-examined. These, however, were in his bag, and are safe. The doctors have ascer- tained the recise position of the bullet, and have hopes that when it is extracted their patient will recover. His wound, however, is, as was intended, a great blow to the defence, the officers on the Court-Martial having " unanimously " refused an application for adjournment. The Generals who give evidence are thus relieved of their fear of a merciless MN- examination.
