The trial of Emile Zola: containing M. Zola's letter to President Faure relating to the Dreyfus case, and a full report of the fifteen days' proceedings in the Assize Court of the Seine, including testimony of witnesses and speeches of counsel

by Émile Zola

The judge then reread the telegram from M. Papillaud, and M. Jaurès added:

“I reassert most absolutely the declarations made in my deposition. I add that in controversies between friends—for the most intimate friends have been divided for many weeks past—many have not agreed with me as to the case of M. Esterhazy and the conduct of the trial. And to these I have often made use, especially in discussion with my friends of ‘La Dépêche,’ of the statements made by M. Papillaud.”

M. Labori.—“Gentlemen of the jury, ‘La Libre Parole’ of this morning publishes under the heading, ‘The Defender of Zola,’ the following note, the meaning of which it is impossible for me to misunderstand.

One of our readers asks us if we know a member of the Paris bar, of German origin, naturalized as a Frenchman, who married an English Jewess, and whose father, still a German, is now a railroad inspector on the other side of the Rhine. Is this question aimed at M. Labori, the theatrical defender of Zola? At any rate it is certain that, like all who are engaged immediately or remotely in the anti-French conspiracy, M. Labori has foreign attachments. He married a young woman named Ockey, a Protestant by origin, after her divorce from M. Pachmann, a German, if I am not mistaken, by whom she has children, whom their father visits in their new family. I give this information to show that M. Labori has been under influence not precisely nationalistic, though I take good care not to follow his example in bringing into the matter women who have nothing to do with it.

“Gentlemen of the jury, upon this note I shall make no comment. I answer with facts, and, as I am determined to let nothing stop me in the task that I have undertaken, and as I expect other attacks to be made, I declare that I answer once for all. This is my reply: I am not naturalized. I was born at Reims, of a French father. My wife is not an Israelite. M. Pachmann so seldom makes visits at my house that I have not the honor of his personal acquaintance. He is not a German; he is a Russian. He was born at Odessa; his father was a professor in the Odessa University; his brother is now a Russian senator at St. Petersburg. My father was an Alsatian. For forty-five years he has been in the service of the Eastern Railway Company. In that capacity he was in the campaign of 1870, during which he was entrusted, at the camp of Châlons, with the embarkation of the French troops. In 1871 he was delighted to receive, at the Reims railway station, from the hands of the Prussians, the service of the French railways. It was in that period of his life, perhaps, that he was called upon for the greatest proof of his patriotism. Since 1871 he has been entrusted, in unison with the military commissions, with the organization of the national defence over the line of railway with which he is connected. Seven years ago, in January, 1891, if I am not mistaken, my father was decorated with the order of the legion of honor, at the request and by the mediation of the fourth bureau of the staff of the minister of war, and it was General de Boisdeffre who announced his decoration to him, with the congratulations that he thought it his duty to add. Such, gentlemen of the jury, is my reply. I simply ask you to judge from this incident of the value of certain attacks and certain assertions.”

After these incidents the witness-stand was again taken by M. Bertillon, who declared, in answer to a question, that he had not succeeded in obtaining from the war department the documents of which he had spoken on Saturday.

M. Clemenceau.—“Under what conditions did M. Bertillon ask for them, and under what conditions were they refused?”

M. Bertillon.—“I remain on the ground of my previous deposition.”

The Judge.—“M. Clemenceau asks you how you asked for these documents, and how they were refused.”

M. Bertillon.—“The war department paid eight hundred francs for these documents. I turned that sum into the municipal treasury, considering that these documents had been made with the products of my laboratory. They remain the property of the war department; I have them temporarily in my possession. Really, I ought to have deposited them with the clerk of the war department. I am only a witness; it is not my duty to execute commissions.”