The Judge.—“M. Labori, you know that this article applies only to those who are condemned to death.”
M. Labori.—“Agreed, Monsieur le Président. I have not finished, and I am glad of your interruption, for you will see that I have an answer. It is certain, at any rate, that the law has made such a provision in capital cases, because people condemned to death are the only ones who cannot come back. As for others, their confessions cannot be used against them, unless they have been submitted to them and signed. To these the question can always be put: ‘Do you admit that you have made confessions?’ Put this question to Dreyfus, and you will see what reply he will make. He will be asked this question during the revision that is sure to come, and we shall hear his answer.
“There has been no case, gentlemen, where greater efforts were made to obtain confessions from an accused man,—a new proof that they had no evidence against him, for, when evidence is overwhelming, confessions are not solicited. But, when the evidence against a man is made up of things as ridiculous as the scene of the dictation from the bordereau, they will go to the point of fraud to extract a confession. I say that, if they had had the good fortune to obtain serious confessions, they would not have failed to get the prisoner’s signature thereto. I have in my hands some fragments of the examination to which Dreyfus was submitted at the last hour before the prosecution. Well, gentlemen, listen; and listen also any jurists, any magistrates, who may be here. On October 29, 1894, Major du Paty de Clam appeared in Dreyfus’s cell, and asked him these questions.
“Do you admit that what you have just written strangely resembles the writing of the bordereau?”
Captain Dreyfus.—“Yes, there are similarities in the details; but, as a whole, there is no resemblance. I declare that I never wrote it. I now understand very well how this document could have given rise to the suspicions of which I am the object. But on this subject I should like to be heard by the minister of war.”
“On October 30 Major du Paty de Clam appeared again.
“You asked, during your last examination, to be heard by the minister of war, in order that you might propose to him that you be sent away for a year, no matter where, under the eye of the police, while a thorough investigation should be carried on in the war department.”
Captain Dreyfus.—“Yes.”
Major du Paty de Clam.—“I show you the reports of experts who declare that the incriminated document is in your hand. What have you to answer?”
Captain Dreyfus.—“I again declare that I never wrote it.”