M. Labori.—“Will Colonel Picquart explain what he meant by saying that his mission was to end at Gabès?”
Colonel Picquart.—“I said this,—that at the beginning of the Dreyfus matter I received an order to go to the frontier of Tripoli. General Leclerc told me that he would not allow me to go farther than Gabès.”
M. Labori.—“Is the place to which Colonel Picquart was sent a dangerous place?”
Colonel Picquart.—“It is not one of the safest.”
M. Labori.—“Is not the police agent with whom Colonel Picquart was in relations concerning the Esterhazy dispatch the one through whom the bordereau, reached the minister of war?”
Colonel Picquart.—“Yes.”
M. Labori.—“Consequently, when occasion arose for discussion of the origin of the bordereau, did not this origin seem more than suspicious from the very fact that it came through this police agent?”
Colonel Picquart.—“Certainly.”
M. Labori.—“How happens it, then, that the serious character of this origin is now disputed?”
Colonel Picquart.—“The serious character of the origin is not disputed; the origin itself is denied.”