"Firstly: the letter published in the Matin of January 22nd.
"Secondly: a letter declaring that I had, on December 31st, 1908, taken a letter written by Mme. Steinheil, to M. Leydet, examining magistrate.
"I was made to write those two last letters about one and a half or two hours after my first letter. It was in any case after M. Sauerwein had returned with the so-called fragments of my first letter.
"When I had written the two other letters, I was told that as M. Bunau-Varilla had left the offices of the Matin, they would be able to restore them to me only in the morning, and that, meanwhile, M. Sauerwein would keep them in his pocket-book.
"The next morning, during the 'scene' I went to make at the Matin office, I claimed from M. Sauerwein the two letters, but he refused to restore them to me. M. Sauerwein said: 'They won't be published, but I want to keep them.' I declared to M. Sauerwein that I was going to demand their restitution through a bailiff. He retorted: 'That will have no other result than having the two letters authenticated.'
"I assert in the most absolute manner that Mme. Steinheil never entrusted me with any letter or mission, no more for M. Leydet than for any one else.
"Besides, at the time of my release—December 28th, 1908—I had not met Mme. Steinheil, in the corridor, for several days, and when on December 28th, after my acquittal, I had to go back to Saint-Lazare for the various formalities in connection with my departure from prison, I was not taken to my cell, but waited downstairs, in the office, where my belongings were brought to me. It would therefore have been impossible for Mme. Steinheil to have given me any letter or to have asked me to do anything for her.
"The letter published by the Matin on January 22nd alludes to a M. Boune, who takes his meals in the same restaurant as myself. Talking to me there, he advised me, as a matter of elementary prudence, not to mix myself up in any way with the Steinheil Affair.... These days, several journalists and barristers have given me at the restaurant the same advice as M. Boune. It is probably to this that the Matin of to-day alludes when it mentions 'pressure.' It is most likely that there are now reporters of the Matin constantly at that restaurant, and that they watch everything I do.
"(Signed) Ghirelli.
Redmond, Clerk.
André, Judge."
(Dossier Cote 3029)