The Attorney-General.—“And there, too, you did not agree with them?”
M. Célerier.—“I did not.”
M. Labori.—“In view of the questions of the attorney-general, I would like to ask if a fortnight ago a case was not heard before the court of Paris, in which the court refused to recognize the testimony of M. Varinard and M. Couard.”
Testimony to the same effect as that given by the preceding witnesses was then given by M. Bourmon, a paleographer, who in turn was succeeded by M. Louis Franck, a Belgian lawyer.
Testimony of M. Franck.
A blackboard was furnished to the witness, upon which he illustrated with much detail the similarities between Major Esterhazy’s handwriting and the bordereau. Among other things he showed that Major Esterhazy’s writing and the bordereau were alike in the fact that each line was begun a little to the right of the beginning of the preceding line, whereas the writing of Dreyfus showed the precisely opposite characteristic, each line beginning a little to the left of its predecessor; that the t’s in the bordereau, like Major Esterhazy’s t’s, were crossed horizontally, while in the writing of Dreyfus the crosses are made in an upward direction from left to right; that in the bordereau 68 per cent. of the t’s are crossed and 32 per cent. uncrossed,—a proportion almost exactly paralleled in Major Esterhazy’s letters, where 65 per cent. are crossed and 36 per cent. are uncrossed. After pointing out these and many other similarities, the witness said; “The bordereau can have been written only by Major Esterhazy. M. Bertillon has told us that, though a hundred French officers should have the same handwriting, he would not infer that the bordereau was written by Major Esterhazy. Well, M. Bertillon could not show us among all the officers of the French army a single one whose writing approaches the writing of the bordereau and contains all the elements of similarity with an arithmetical rhythm so decisive.”
The Judge.—“Who asked you to make this examination?”
M. Clemenceau.—“Monsieur le Président, I beg your pardon for repeating always the same thing, but it seems to me impossible to allow witnesses for the defence to be continually interrupted when they are testifying.”
M. Franck.—“Two months ago I was called to Paris in connection with the case of Mlle. Chauvin. The Dreyfus case had just begun to attract attention. When I read in ‘Le Figaro’ Mme. de Boulancy’s letters and the bordereau, I had an intuition that the writer of the bordereau was identical with the writer of the letters. Expressing this opinion in the presence of a journalist, he tried to prove to me that I was wrong. His explanation being unsatisfactory, I began to look into the matter more thoroughly, and, after my return to Belgium, made a complete study of it. When this trial came on, I wrote to a friend of M. Zola that this study was at M. Zola’s service, if it was of any use to him. Hence my presence here.”
The Judge.—“How did the witness come into possession of original letters from Esterhazy?”