Many military officers testified and gave Captain Herail a splendid character. Colonel Meneville, who had recommended that the captain should not receive the Legion of Honor on account of his disobeying the order to send wives away, said that in every other respect Herail was an excellent officer, brave and competent.
Henri Robert, the most noted member of the Paris Bar, defended Captain Herail eloquently.
"A judge far more inexorable than any of you," said M. Robert, pointing to the bench, "his mother-in-law, has forgiven him. She writes me lauding him as an ideal man and officer and worthy of his country. His dead wife's sisters and brothers also forgive him freely."
The members of the court martial only took fifteen minutes to reach a decision. They returned and rendered unanimously a simple verdict of "Not guilty!"
The verdict was received with frantic applause mingled with tears by the audience. (Told in the New York American.)
HOW THEY KILLED "THE MAN WHO COULD NOT DIE"
Told by a Soldier Under General Cantore
I—STORY OF THE ITALIAN ALPINI