could not wear clothes in any degree tight, or lie in bed "tucked
in." As a rule he slept for seven hours, and on awaking he constantly
complained of pains in one and another part of the body, this being a
symptom common among those who are liable to nervous affections.
[6] Not in the work previously quoted, but in a paper he wrote after
Zola's death ("Le Temps," October, 1902).
[7] "Westminster Review," January, 1891, "Patriotism and Chastity," p.
2.
[8] "Enquête sur l'Évolution Littéraire," by Jules Huret, Paris, 1891.
[9] "Lourdes," Paris, Charpentier, 1894, 18mo, 598 pages. Seventy
thousand copies sold on publication; one hundred and fifty-fourth
thousand in 1903.
[10] "La Vraie Bernadette de Lourdes," Paris, 1894.
[11] "Rome," Paris, Charpentier and Fasquelle, 1896, 18mo, 751 pages.
One hundredth thousand on sale in 1898; one hundred and sixth thousand
in 1903. In the case of this book and subsequent ones, the sales from
1897 onward were largely affected by the unpopularity which Zola reaped
from his participation in the Dreyfus case.
[12] "Nouvelle Campagne," Paris, E. Fasquelle, 1897, 18mo, 296 pages.
XIII
THE DREYFUS CASE
1894-1900
The growth of anti-Semitism in France--The Jews in Paris--The Union
Générale--Drumont, "La France Juive," and "La Libre Parole"--Clerical
plotting--Accusations against the Jews--Anti-Semitism in the
army--Zola begins his novel "Paris"--His idea of a novel on ballet
girls--"Messidor"--Facts and documents concerning Dreyfus submitted
to Zola--He resolves to intervene--His articles in "Le Figaro"--His
"Letter to Young Men"--He is hissed at Daudet's funeral--His
"Letter to France"--The Esterhazy court-martial--Character of
Esterhazy--Zola writes his letter "J'Accuse"--Some extracts from
it--Its reception--Riots in the provinces and Algeria--Incidents of
the turmoil in Paris--Zola prosecuted--Foreign sympathy--His counsel,
Maître Labori--Clericals and Nationalists at work--The trial at the
Paris Assize Court--A few of the facts it elicited--Zola mobbed--His
body-guard--Madame Zola at the trial--Zola's declaration to the jury--A
glance at Labori's great speech--Reception of the verdict--Publication
of "Paris"--Zola's conviction quashed--New proceedings--First trial
at Versailles--Incidents of the campaign--The handwriting experts
secure judgment against Zola--Zola's letter to M. Brisson--Second
trial at Versailles--Zola leaves for London--His sojourn in
England--His English homes--Some of his notes to Vizetelly--Death
of his pet dog--His visitors--Incidents in France--Zola's return to
Paris--His manifesto "Justice"--Return of Dreyfus to France--The
Rennes court-martial--Zola's manifesto "The Fifth Act"--His letter
to Madame Dreyfus--Dreyfus pardoned--"Fécondité" published--Zola's
trial repeatedly postponed--Zola's protests against the Amnesty--His
sacrifices for the cause--The medal struck in his honour.
The emancipation of the French Jews dates from the great Revolution.
At the assembling of the States-General in 1789 they entered on a
brief and victorious struggle, in which their chief ally, curiously
enough, was a Catholic priest, the famous Abbé Grégoire. From that
period until the Third Republic, established in 1870, there was never,
it would seem, any really considerable Jewish question in France. A
little trouble occurred in the time of the first Napoleon. Some Jews
were certainly mixed up in the financial scandals of Louis Philippe's
reign, and Toussenel's work, "Les Juifs, Rois de l'Époque," was the
result. Rascality was occasionally manifested also by some of the Jews
who became prominent in finance during the Second Empire; but the
presence of the Jews generally, in the midst of the community, excited
no alarm. After the war of 1870, however, the number of Jews in France
increased considerably, the new arrivals being chiefly of German,
Austrian, Swiss, or Alsatian nationality. Most of them settled in
Paris, where they engaged in a variety of professions and avocations,
showing themselves, as a rule, shrewd, hard-working, and orderly
members of society. About the same time some thousands of French
Jews--participating in a movement which characterised the earlier
years of the Third Republic, the so-called conquest of northern by
southern France--also flocked to the capital. _"Le Midi monte"_ was in
those days a favourite saying, echoed by Alphonse Daudet in his "Numa
Roumestan" with reference to all the Gascons and Provençals who then
invaded Paris and came to the front there in politics, art, literature,
and social life. The descendants of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews,
who in the sixteenth century had settled in southern France, at
Bordeaux, Avignon, and other cities, joined in the great migration to
the capital, and thus ten years after the Franco-German war there were
three or four times as many Jews in Paris as there had been previously.
But they were peaceable citizens and for the most part stanch
Republicans. They remembered that the Revolution had given them
emancipation, and they did not desire the restoration of any monarchy
which might take it from them, or of any empire with an adventurous
policy which might plunge the country into war and interfere with their
avocations. Many of them, no doubt, had a comparatively low ideal in
view, that of quietly prospering in their business; but an element of
that kind is desirable in a community like that of Paris, which numbers
many firebrands in its midst. Besides, it is not too much to say
that, on more than one occasion, the Jews of Paris helped to save the
Republic by throwing all their influence into the balance on the side
of law and order, as, for instance, during the Boulangist turmoil.
However, for some years previous to that agitation, an anti-Jewish
feeling had been growing up in Paris. The ultra-Catholics, the
Royalists, and other malcontents resented the spread of Jewish
influence; and two financiers, named Bontoux and Féder, availed
themselves of that disposition to found a great Christian Bank, the
Union Générale, which, it was hoped, would deprive the Jewish--and also
the Protestant--financiers of a large proportion of their customers.
Pope Leo XIII blessed that bank, and invested in it some millions of
francs--the fruits of Peter's pence--which the pious Bontoux promised
to restore to him fourfold. But the director of the Union Générale
unluckily fell out with a great financier, M. Lebaudy, the millionaire
sugar refiner, who though he was nominally a Catholic cared nothing for
the advancement of the Church or of the French aristocracy, which had
invested large sums of money in the Bontoux bank. At last, after some
prodigious Bourse gambling,--such as Zola described in "L'Argent,"--the
Union Générale was smashed by M. Lebaudy, who raked in by far the
greater part of the spoils.
Undoubtedly there were some Jewish and also Protestant financiers with
him, but it was he who engineered the work of destruction which ruined
several members of the French aristocracy, and swallowed up the savings
of many good Catholics in modest circumstances who had foolishly taken
financial advice from their priests. Nine out of ten attributed the
disaster to the Jews exclusively, and it was virtually from that hour
that people began to talk of the so-called Jewish question. It was
discussed at first in the Royalist and Clerical newspapers, which
pictured the Israelites as the great enemies of those who wished to
restore France to her ancient kings and her ancient faith. In another
way the cry was taken up by some of the Radicals and Socialists opposed
to Gambetta, in whose _entourage_ several Jews figured prominently.
These men, it was said, had nobbled the ex-dictator and were preying
upon France. Thus the "question" gradually spread, assisted largely by
the many unpopular tergiversations of the Opportunist party, first in
Gambetta's time, and then over a term of years, some folk detecting the
hand of the Jews, precisely as others detected that of the Jesuits, in
everything that happened.
Moreover books were written on the question. Under the title of "Les
Rois de la République," Toussenel's forgotten work was hashed up for
popular consumption; and about the time when General Boulanger was
coming to the front (1886), there appeared a book called "La France
Juive," written by a certain Édouard Drumont, a scholarly man, who
had long dabbled in antiquarian research. It so happened that nature
had given Drumont a characteristically Jewish face, while his slovenly
habits had imparted to him much of the appearance of one of those
"old clo'" men, who, forty or fifty years ago, still perambulated the
streets of London and Paris. He has repeatedly disclaimed, however, all
connection with Jewry; and his personal appearance may therefore be
merely some spiteful freak on the part of nature, which has cast him in
the very mould of some of those whom he loathes and denounces.
"La France Juive," which as an attack on the so-called chosen race has
never been surpassed in virulence and mendacity, created an uproar in
some political and financial circles; but it did not at first make much
impression on the general public. The Panama scandals began, however;
millions of money were lost, the victims often being needy people;
and helped by the circumstance that three or four of the principal
culprits in those affairs were unquestionably Jews, and by the reissue
of large portions of "La France Juive" in "Le Petit Journal," Drumont
and his writings achieved great notoriety. A newspaper established by
him, "La Libre Parole," became the recognised organ of anti-Semitism
in Paris; and as this journal was financed by a certain M. Odelin, the
administrator of the famous Jesuit school in the Rue des Postes, one
may conclude that at an early stage at least some part of the French
clergy gave support to the agitation; for the position of M. Odelin as
a mere intermediary, or man of straw, was notorious.[1]
As time elapsed the attitude of the Clericals became yet more
pronounced. Pope Leo XIII made advances to the French Republic. From
his standpoint they may have been sincere; but in any case they tended
to the supremacy of the Roman Catholic Church in France. On their
side, the French Reactionaries, clergy and religious orders as well as
laymen, could not give any frank and loyal support to the papal policy
such as it was publicly stated to be, for it was foreign to their
ideas, sympathies, and aspirations. If they made some outward show of
acquiescence, this was only with the secret object of obtaining the
mastery by feigning friendship and afterwards destroying the Republican
_régime_. But the Republic of 1848 was not forgotten; the clergy had
then adhered to the new order of things the better to strangle it; and
thus, in spite of all the fair words of Leo XIII and the protestations
of those who professed that they had rallied to the Republic in all
sincerity, the more clear-sighted Republicans, like the advanced
Radicals and the Socialists, remained full of distrust. Some years
elapsed before matters really took shape. At first, indeed, the Pope
merely coquetted with the Republic, reserving a formal pronouncement
of his adhesion until an apparently decisive moment, and the clergy
worked somewhat stealthily, assisted by those university men and
others who abetted or accepted the _retour offensif_ of mysticism
in literature. Then, as time went by, the residue of the Boulangist
party raised its head to propound various theories of Nationalism,
Militarism, and anti-Parliamentarism, to the last of which the Panama
scandals lent some force. For many years, undoubtedly, the trend of the
masses had been towards free thought, but the sentiments of Nationalism
and _Chauvinisme_ appealed to many. The clergy had been striving to
win France back to the fold by such devices as the Sacred Heart of
Jesus, the Lourdes miracles, and the money-boxes of Saint Antony, but
whatever success might be achieved by those means here and there, it
was not great enough to satisfy priestly aspirations. To all appearance
there was not sufficient faith left among the masses for supernatural
considerations to influence them in the required degree. Only earthly
matters seemed to interest them, and it followed, therefore, that these
must be put to use. Thus the clergy aided, abetted, and finally slipped
into the Nationalist movement, which seemed the one most likely to
yield the desired result.
It has been indicated that the great bulk of Jewish influence had
hitherto been cast on the side of the Republic; and thus, although
the Freemasons and the Protestants were also regarded as enemies by
the Clericals, it was felt that they might be dealt with later, and
that the first thing, the principal thing, was to destroy the power
of the Jews. The ground, then, was gradually prepared for a campaign.
Helped by the Panama scandals, "La Libre Parole," following "La France
Juive," neglected no opportunity to traduce the Jews generally.[2]
The Nationalist journals joined in the outcry, pointing out that many
of the Jews domiciled in France bore German names, and arguing that,
although they often asserted they were Alsatians, the assertion was
usually a lie. In some instances, perhaps, they conspired with foreign
Jews; and at all events they formed an _imperium in imperio_, clinging
to their own kith and kin, their particular rites and usages, leading,
as it were, a life apart from the rest of the community. Briefly, they
were not Frenchmen, and were therefore not entitled to a Frenchman's
rights.
As a matter of fact, many thousands of the Jews domiciled in Paris did
not adhere strictly to Jewish practices. In the financial world several
prominent families had not only become Catholic, but had contracted
matrimonial alliances with the French aristocracy; while the whole
tendency of those whom one may call the Boulevardian Jews, the members
of the liberal professions, the authors, journalists, artists, and
actors, was towards free thought and an intermingling with the bulk of
the community.[3] In fact, in the present writer's opinion, before the
more violent explosion of anti-Semitism in France, Paris was the city
where one saw most sign of a blending of the Jews with the rest of the
population--a very slow and gradual blending, no doubt, but none the
less evident to careful observers.
But that was not taken into account by the Clerical and the Nationalist
leaders in the campaign which both parties carried on, not, perhaps, by
virtue of any formal alliance, but because both desired an effective
war-cry which would appeal to popular passions and gain them recruits.
In the end the Nationalists, though they denied it, were generally
directed by the leaders of the Clerical party, who were men of much
greater shrewdness and ability than the Déroulèdes, the Millevoyes,
the Haberts, and the Guérins, and who thus contrived, in an indirect
way, to employ the Nationalist movement for their own advantage.
Both parties had the same immediate object in view--the destruction
of the Republic, such as it existed--and thus they could well work
together; but the Clerical leaders were resolved that, whatever might
be the subsequent form of government, the real mastery should belong
to Holy Church. Moreover some Nationalists were Clericals also. In
1891 Déroulède, the Nationalist chief, expressly accused the Jews of
trying to "dechristianise" France; and in the following year a journal
belonging to Deputy Delahaye, another Nationalist, fabricated a charge
of "ritual murder," perpetrated, it was alleged, at Chatellerault.
A little later the Marquis de Morès, Clerical, Nationalist, and
anti-Semite all in one, insulted and challenged a number of Jewish
army officers. "La Libre Parole" espoused his cause, and a movement to
prevent Jews from serving as officers slowly set in, leading a couple
of years later to the Dreyfus case.
In this connection one may remind the reader that an overwhelming
proportion of the officers of the French army belonged to devout
Catholic families, often aristocratic and royalist ones, which while
thinking that a young man ought not to serve the government of the
Republic in any political or administrative post were willing that he
should accept a diplomatic appointment or join the army as an officer,
for in such cases it was really France that he served, and not the
hateful Republican _régime_. That distinction had been drawn already
in MacMahon's time and was adhered to for many years, indeed until
the clergy saw how advisable it was for their _protégés_ to accept
other public functions in order to fight the influence of the Jews
and the Freemasons in various State departments. Thus many young men,
trained by the Jesuits and others, were helped as far as possible into
official positions without being restricted as previously to the
diplomatic service and the army. Nevertheless, the last remained the
favourite _carrière_ among young aristocrats as well as among many
young men of the upper _bourgeoisie_; and the great majority of these
having been educated by ecclesiastics were, without doubt, prejudiced
against the young Jews whom the regulations admitted among them. The
prejudice was not, however, entirely religious, it was also a racial
and a caste prejudice among those who belonged more or less to the old
_noblesse_, and it was often in a sense patriotic, being inspired by a
kind of distrust of Jewish rectitude. Indeed, even Jewish courage was
questioned by some who forgot, or were not aware, that no little Jewish
blood had flowed in the veins of such great fighters as Masséna, Soult,
and Bernadotte.
The agitation against the French Jews had been growing slowly, then,
for several years. An explosion was bound to come in any case,
particularly as, with the exception of the one ministry which put down
General Boulanger, the various French administrations over a lengthy
period were deplorably weak. In the end the Dreyfus case became the
battlefield of the parties which were contending for mastery. The
outcry against the Jews was prompted, even among the Clericals, less
by genuine religious motives than by political ones. The Jews were
the pretext. Behind the onslaught on them, one on the Republic was
being engineered. One may add that the anti-Semitism which arose in
France was naturally assisted by that which prevailed in Austria and
in Russia. Moreover, the Russian alliance became in certain respects
a factor of importance; and the slumbering hatred of Germany on being
roused in connection with Dreyfus influenced thousands of patriotic
people.
Into the more intricate details of the case the writer does not propose
to enter.[4] When this book was first projected he had some thought
of reviewing a few curious points, but since then the victim of the
great iniquity has applied for the revision of the proceedings at
Rennes, and the matter is now before the judicial authorities. It is
therefore best that one should confine oneself to narrating what Zola
himself did to rescue Dreyfus from the hell in which he suffered for
so many years--just recapitulating, as one proceeds, the facts which
are essential for a proper understanding of Zola's _rôle_. At the same
time one must not neglect his literary work, and the more important
incidents, which, apart from the Dreyfus case, marked his career at
this period.
It has been shown previously that the novelist paid little heed to the
anti-Semites--whom he regarded as more turbulent than dangerous--until
1896, when he campaigned in "Le Figaro" and wrote an article entitled
"For the Jews." He afterwards turned to his novel "Paris," concerning
which he wrote to Vizetelly on December 11, 1896:
"My plan is finished, and I am about to begin the book.
'Paris' will be a _novel_, full of action, on all the
different 'worlds' of Paris--the political, the intellectual,
the society, the working-class worlds, etc. There will be no
digressions or dissertations, but as much life and action as
possible. You know that I never make promises without keeping
them. The story will begin to appear in 'Le Journal' between
October 15 and 31 (1897), and will be published as a volume
at the end of January, 1898. Try to find an English newspaper
to publish it, and you may also sound the Americans, telling
them that you will supply the most lively and interesting
book I have yet written."
About this time Zola also gave some attention to a four-act lyrical
drama entitled "Messidor"[5], the music of which was composed by
his friend M. Alfred Bruneau.[6] This work took the novelist to the
Grand Opera House, where it was to be produced. He attended all the
rehearsals, and evinced particular interest in the young women of
the ballet, about whom--their appearance, manners, conversation, and
lives--he accumulated a quantity of notes, with the object, so he
afterwards told Vizetelly, of writing a novel about them, a novel
which he would probably have called "Le Rat,"--_rats de l'Opéra_
being the name under which the minor dancers of the house have long
been known in Paris. It may be mentioned that a ballet designed for
expressive character-dancing was a prominent feature of "Messidor," and
that success largely depended on its efficient performance. But the
authors found the _corps de ballet_ wedded to the stereotyped forms of
stage-dancing, the customary insipid _jétés, pas de chales, entrechats,
pirouettes_, and so forth. Either from incapacity or in a spirit of
obstinacy, the ladies of the opera would not modify their methods, and
Zola, who had dreamt of revolutionising stage-dancing, of infusing
into it some of the old Grecian fervour, which expressed the various
passions so powerfully, was greatly disappointed. When "Messidor" was
produced on February 19, 1897, it achieved little more than a _succès
d'estime_. The ballet was praised by the critics, who judged it from
the customary standpoint, but it was not what the composer and Zola
had desired. Of course, no other result was possible. Years would be
required to effect a revolution in stage-dancing, at least at the Paris
Opera House.