On January 23rd, Alba Ghirelli was again summoned before M. André.
"I maintain my previous statements, made on January 19th," she said at once, after having taken the oath.
Question. "There is a contradiction between those statements and the contents of the facsimile of a letter, which appears to be in your handwriting, is dated January 19th, and which was published by the Matin on the 20th—we hand you the facsimile."
Answer. "The letter of which this is a facsimile was written by me, but was extorted from me. When, on January 19th, I left this room, I was literally besieged by journalists, then taken in a motor-car to a café where numerous newspaper men were gathered who wanted to hear from me the statements I had made to you. I answered vaguely, declaring that I considered myself as morally unable to supply them with the requested information.
"I was then invited to dinner at Maire's by M. Charles Sauerwein, whose card I hand to you. M. Sauerwein insisted that I should confirm a fictitious mission—to Mme. Prévost—with which I was supposed to have been entrusted by Mme. Steinheil, and which I was supposed to have carried out; he also asked me to confirm the letter from Mme. Steinheil which I was supposed to have handed to Mme. Prévost. I told him that there was nothing true in all that.
"In the café and during the dinner at Maire's Mme. Sellier—who lives with me—was with me.
"After the dinner, M. Sauerwein persuaded that lady to leave me, and he asked me to come with him to the Matin offices. There, M. Vallier and M. Bourse joined M. Sauerwein, and I was literally laid siege to. I wanted to withdraw, but they opposed that.
"These gentlemen then explained to me that since my mission to Mme. Prévost was going to be contradicted by the whole Press the next morning, they would find themselves in a false position with their Director, M. Bunau-Varilla, that they wanted at all costs to put themselves right with the Director, and that I could easily get them out of their trouble by handing to them a letter for him. They added that this would not compromise me in any way, that they would merely show my letter to their Director—who was in the next room—and that immediately afterwards they would hand the letter back to me.
"I did not think I could refuse, and, under the dictation of M. Sauerwein and M. Bourse, I wrote the letter.
"When it was written, M. Sauerwein took it, and walked away, saying that he was going to show it to M. Bunau-Varilla.