The Judge.—“The trial is not in progress.”
M. Clemenceau.—“It is essential that the witnesses should not be present at any part of the trial before their deposition” ...
The Judge.—“The day’s debate has not begun.”
Nevertheless the military officers, who formed a group in the middle of the room, were then excluded, and Dr. Socquet, the expert physician who had been sent to examine the health of those witnesses who had pleaded illness, took the stand.
He reported that M. Autant had been seized on the previous Sunday with an attack of renal colic, but had now recovered, and was in the witnesses’ room. As to Mme. de Boulancy, he said that her case offered all the symptoms of angina pectoris, and that, considering her condition, her appearance in court would be attended by serious danger.
M. Clemenceau.—“I gather from the doctor’s testimony that it is materially possible for Mme. de Boulancy to come to this bar, but that the doctor thinks that the excitement would be bad for her. I ask him, then, supposing that this question had been put to him; ‘Do you believe that Mme. de Boulancy could appear before the examining magistrate in the presence of Major Esterhazy?’ would he have thought that that excitement would be bad for her?”
Dr. Socquet.—“I cannot answer. It is evident that the surroundings in the assize court are different from those in the office of an examining magistrate.”
Being questioned as to Mlle. de Comminges, he said that her physician, Dr. Florent, told him that she was the victim of a nervous affection, and had heart trouble so clearly defined that she was liable to fainting-spells on entering a room the temperature of which was a little above the ordinary.
M. Clemenceau.—“The jurors will note that these two ladies, Mlle. de Comminges and Mme. de Boulancy, were at their residences, and that their own physicians were present.”
Dr. Socquet.—“No, their physicians were not present.”