"We will speak of it later on.... The next step is to confront you with certain witnesses: Lieutenant Servin, see if the witnesses are there!"
Fandor himself had demanded this confrontation. He did not deny having assumed the personality of Corporal Vinson, dating from the day when the corporal entered officially on his duties as a unit of the 257th of the line, in garrison at Verdun. But the enquiry wished to establish that, anterior to this, Fandor had already taken the place of the real Vinson: the military authorities seemed to attach immense importance to this point. Fandor had then decided that the simplest way was to be brought face to face with soldiers who had known Vinson at Châlons: they would state that the Vinson presented to them in the person of Fandor was not the Vinson they had known.
Thereupon Dumoulin had sent for two men who, as orderlies at Châlons, had lived side by side with Vinson.
There was a momentous silence while Lieutenant Servin went to the end of the corridor and signed to the two waiting witnesses to come forward. The two men entered the commandant's office, facing Dumoulin in true military style.
Dumoulin, reading out the names of the two witnesses from a paper, started his interrogation with a haughty air.
"Hiloire?"
"Present, Commandant."
"What is your name?"
The soldier opened his eyes wide, and thinking he had to give his Christian name, stammered:
"Justinien!"