| CONTENTS | ||
|---|---|---|
| CHAPTER | PAGE | |
| [I] | Childhood | [1] |
| [II] | Youth—My Father's Death—My Marriage | [15] |
| [III] | Arrival in Paris. A Separation. Marthe. Parisian Life | [29] |
| [IV] | My Salon | [38] |
| [V] | My Salon (continued) | [54] |
| [VI] | Félix Faure | [68] |
| [VII] | The Dreyfus Affair—Fashoda | [84] |
| [VIII] | The Mysterious Pearl Necklace—The Death of Félix Faure | [106] |
| [IX] | After President Faure's Death: the Documents—The Necklace | [116] |
| [X] | 1899-1908 | [127] |
| [XI] | Events that Preceded the Crime | [135] |
| [XII] | May 1908 | [149] |
| [XIII] | The Fatal Night | [160] |
| [XIV] | After the Murder | [173] |
| [XV] | The Black Gowns | [195] |
| [XVI] | Investigations | [208] |
| [XVII] | The Throne-Room | [221] |
| [XVIII] | M. Charles Sauerwein and the Rossignol Affair | [236] |
| [XIX] | The Pearl in the Pocket-book | [249] |
| [XX] | The So-Called "Night of the Confession" (November 25-26, 1908) | [269] |
| [XXI] | My Arrest | [286] |
| [XXII] | The Three Cells | [294] |
| [XXIII] | Alba Ghirelli, Marguerite Rosselli and the "Matin" | [310] |
| [XXIV] | Saint-Lazare | [330] |
| [XXV] | The "Instruction" | [342] |
| [XXVI] | The Last "Instruction" | [362] |
| [XXVII] | Three Hundred and Fifty-Three Days in Prison | [374] |
| [XXVIII] | Three Hundred and Fifty-Three Days in Prison (continued) | [398] |
| [XXIX] | The Trial | [416] |
| [XXX] | The Speech for the Prosecution—The Speech for the Defence | [437] |
| [XXXI] | After the Verdict | [456] |
| [XXXII] | Conclusion | [474] |
| [INDEX] | ||
| ILLUSTRATIONS | ||
|---|---|---|
| Madame Steinheil | [Frontispiece] | |
| FACING PAGE | ||
| Writing my Memoirs | [1] | |
| My Father | [16] | |
| My Mother | [16] | |
| Bonnat—by Himself | [44] | |
| My Daughter and Myself in 1901 | [60] | |
| President Félix Faure | [72] | |
| A Letter sent me by Félix Faure | [78] | |
| The Félix Faure Talisman | [82] | |
| The Gold Box in which President Faure sent me the Pearl Necklace | [110] | |
| Invitation to the Félix Faure "In Memoriam Service" | [116] | |
| My Husband, M. Steinheil, in 1898 | [122] | |
| A letter sent me by Massenet in 1907 | [132] | |
| Facsimile of the letter I sent to my Mother at Beaucourt a few days before the Crime | [150] | |
| A view of the verandah of the house in the Impasse Ronsin | [162] | |
| The Bed on which I was bound during the "Fatal Night" | [166] | |
| The Desk in the Boudoir from which the Money and the dummy-parcel of Documents were stolen on May 30-31 | [182] | |
| A view of the House in the Impasse Ronsin | [224] | |
| M. de Balincourt and Remy Couillard | [252] | |
| Alexandre Wolff and his Mother, Mariette Wolff | [262] | |
| M. André, my Examining Magistrate | [348] | |
| My Cell, showing Juliette, my fellow prisoner, seated on her bed | [382] | |
| In the prison yard at Saint-Lazare | [386] | |
| Objects I used in Prison | [410] | |
| My Counsel, Maître A. Aubin; The Judge, M. de Valles; and the Advocate General, M. Trouard Riolle | [450] | |
| Plan of the first floor of the house in the Impasse Ronsin | [479] | |
CHAPTER I
CHILDHOOD
("Monsieur et Madame Edouard Japy have the honour to inform you of the birth of a daughter." Beaucourt, April, 16th, 1869.)
BEAUCOURT is a village in the "Belfort Territory," not far from the Swiss and German frontiers. It was in that village, at the "Château Edouard"—all large mansions in that region are called "châteaux," and the name of the owner is added to the word—that I was born some forty years ago.
Beaucourt and nearly all of the surrounding country belongs to, or is dependent upon, the Japy family, whose vast factories and mills give a living to thousands of workmen.
After a family quarrel, my father, Edouard Japy, had severed his connection with "Japy Bros." some time before my birth. Having resigned his directorship of the Company, he busied himself exclusively with his huge estate, devoting his days to the farm and woods, to his beloved park and the picturesque cascades which he had designed himself, to his flowers and orchards, to his family and to music.
My mother was the daughter of the innkeeper of the Red Lion, the chief inn of Montbéliard in those already distant days. Edouard Japy had married Mlle. Emilie Rau in spite of the opposition of his family, who had declared that such a marriage would be a mésalliance. He had married her—as he often told me when, as a young girl, I became more than his child: his friend and confidante—because "she was very beautiful and very good." My mother had dark eyes, large and very tender, and her raven-black hair, when loosed, streamed down to her feet. She was of a quiet and sunny nature, kind, serene, and smiling. She ignored evil, was exquisitely artless, and never understood a great deal of the realities of life, because she did not see them. She gave away and spent without counting, was indulgent in a manner as touching as it was unconscious, and went through life a simple and happy being, knowing neither great exultation nor deep depression, incapable of sustained effort or serious worry. Edouard adored Emilie, Emilie adored Edouard, and all was for the best in the best of all possible worlds.