Testimony of Mme. de Boulancy.
At this point M. Clemenceau read the report of the magistrate, M. Bertulus, who had been appointed to put certain questions to Mme. de Boulancy. The answers of Mme. de Boulancy, as stated in this report, were in substance to the following effect: that she was in possession of letters and telegrams from Major Esterhazy, some of which, notably two telegrams, were of recent date; that she had deposited these documents in a safe place, intending to preserve them as a means of self-defence; that the telegrams contained no threat, but urged her in polite, but most pressing, terms to restore to Major Esterhazy the letters which he had written to her between 1881 and 1884; that these letters are perhaps as compromising as the letter in reference to the Uhlans, and that they say certain rather serious things in regard to the army and to France; that she would not consent that these letters should be handed to the judge by those in possession of them, as she wished to be well armed, in case she should be charged with forgery; that Major Esterhazy had come to her door four or five times, but that she had refused to let him in; that, seeing that he was unwilling to leave the stair-landing, or was too persistent in his attitude toward the servant, she came to the half-open door, which was secured by a chain, and asked him to go away, pointing out to him that he was compromising her; that the object of each of these visits was to ask for a return of the letters and the telegrams; that she had always answered that she would not publish them, but must keep them for her defence; that she told him that the letters that had been published were published against her will, and in consequence of her too great confidence in the word of a person whom she had supposed to be a devoted friend; that Major Esterhazy had never said, in answer to her refusal, that he would kill himself; that on Saturday, February 5, 1898, when she had already taken up her residence at Neuilly, Major Esterhazy was seen on the stairs of her previous residence, 22, Boulevard des Batignolles, by the tenant occupying the floor above; and that she did not know what attitude Major Esterhazy assumed when he heard this tenant coming.
M. Clemenceau then offered a motion that a magistrate be appointed to ask Mme. de Boulancy whether Major Esterhazy did not say in these letters; first, that “General Saussier is a clown, and we Germans would put him in a circus;” second, that, “if the Prussians were to come to Lyons, they could throw away their guns and keep only bayonets, and still drive the Frenchmen before them.”
The court postponed its decision, and called another witness, M. Emile Molinier, professor at the Ecole du Louvre, and a brother of the preceding witness. He testified that the similarity between the handwriting of the bordereau and that of Major Esterhazy is absolutely complete. “I will even say,” he added, “that, if a savant were to find in one of the volumes of the National Library by the side of Major Esterhazy’s letters the original of the bordereau, he would be considered disqualified if he did not say that the bordereau and the letters were written by the same person.”
M. Molinier was then succeeded by M. Célerier, professor in the College of Fontenay-le-Comte.
“The bordereau and Major Esterhazy’s letters,” said the witness, “are absolutely in the same handwriting. The letter n is strangely formed. Now it is regular, now it becomes an x. Thus the word tenir often appears as if it were the word texir. Well, I find the same thing five or six times out of ten in Major Esterhazy’s letters. One has only to open his eyes to see that it is absolutely the same handwriting.”
The Judge.—“Who asked you to make this examination?”
M. Célerier.—“M. Bernard Lazare. He asked me if I would make an examination, and I said yes, and afterwards sent him a report of a few lines containing my conclusions.”
The Attorney-General.—“Was the witness confronted in another case with the three Esterhazy experts?”
M. Célerier.—“Yes.”