This retraction was complete, absolute, but the harm had been done, alas, and the public believed all these dreadful lies published in the Matin and attributed to Ghirelli. Besides, who heard of the retraction, except the judge... and I, months afterwards, when the Dossier was handed to my counsel and me?
And now, for the sake of the truth, I will quote from the evidences given by "M. Sauerwein, Charles, 32 years old, journalist"... to M. André, the examining magistrate, on February 4, 1909:
... "I wish to specify the conditions on which we obtained those interviews (with Alba Ghirelli). At the end of December 1908... we discovered the address of Ghirelli. She was very annoyed when we called on her, and said that before making any statements she wished to consult a few friends. She promised to call on me the next day at the Matin. I received an express letter from her, and joined her at the Restaurant de la Feria. I was accompanied by another member of the Matin staff. A first interview took place, which appeared in the Matin dated January 14th. This interview was entirely written under her dictation, and she signed it.... It concerned the statements made by Mme. Steinheil and collected by Ghirelli, about the guilt of Alexandra Wolff, the pearl placed first in M. Chabrier's pocket-book, but taken away from it after Mme. Chabrier's violent interventions, and about the 'necessary' suicide.
"The next day we gathered from Ghirelli a few other details about the visit of Pastor Arboux and plans for the future made by Mme. Steinheil. This second interview appeared in the Matin on January 16th.
"Between the first and the second interviews, Ghirelli told us that on the eve of the day when she was to appear before the Court of Appeal, where she thought she would be acquitted, Mme. Steinheil had given her two letters, one for Mme. Prévost, the other for a magistrate, and had asked her to telephone to one of her former friends. We have never mentioned the last two facts in our articles, but the Prévost story interested us. Ghirelli begged us not to attribute to her the revelation of the Prévost affair....
... (On January 19th) "When Ghirelli left your rooms, one of our reporters accompanied her to the café Ducastaing... where she was joined by many journalists... thereupon one of our colleagues brought a note (the source of which I ignore) that Ghirelli had confirmed certain of the details published by us, but had denied two or three of the other points, and particularly the letter taken to Mme. Prévost.
"I was there. I told Ghirelli that in the face of those official denials we were simply going to publish the note brought by the colleague I have mentioned. She begged me to remain with her and to send for a third party, whose name I cannot give on account of 'professional secrecy.' I summoned the third party on the telephone. We were to have dinner at Maire's, the 'Countess' (Ghirelli), one of her lady friends called 'La Générale,' and I. The dinner was not altogether pleasant, for I was in the presence of a person who had just denied what she had stated on the previous day. The third person arrived.
("Personally, I have no doubt that he was M. Camille Dreyfus, Rosselli's counsel, to whose 'indiscretion' the Director of Saint-Lazare alluded in his report of January 21st, 1909 [Dossier Cote 3021]).
"The third person had a long chat with the 'Countess' in the next room. I was sent for, and the third person told me that the 'Countess' had a confession to make to me. She then declared: 'All that I have told you from the very first moment, and that you have published, is false, and is due to my imagination, except the details I confirmed before the examining magistrate.' I told the 'Countess' how much I regretted that she should have so sought her pleasure in lying, and she said that the Matin would publish the next day the note which I have mentioned to you.
"I was about to leave, but the 'Countess' detained me. The third person had just gone, and the 'Countess' said: 'I swear to you on the head of my children that all of what I have told you from the first to the last, is the exact truth. If I have denied it, it is because eight or nine persons whom I didn't know before have influenced me, intimidated me. People have gone so far as to tell me that they would have me arrested!'...