M. Zola.--“I ask to be allowed here the liberty that is accorded
thieves and murderers. They can defend themselves, summon witnesses,
and ask them questions; but every day I am insulted in the street; they
break my carriage windows, they roll me in the mud, and an unclean
press treats me as a bandit. I have the right to prove my good faith,
my probity, my honor.”
The Judge.--“Do you know Article 52, of the law of 1881?”
M. Zola.--“I do not know the law, and at the present moment I do not
want to know it. I appeal to the probity of the jurors. I make them
judges of the situation in which I am placed, and I entrust myself to
them.”
The Judge.--“I remind you of the terms of the decree rendered
yesterday by the court, the provisions of Article 52 of the law of
1881, and the terms of your summons. Let us not depart therefrom. Any
question outside of these limits will not be put by me. Let that be
well understood. It is useless to recur to the matter.”
M. Zola.--“I ask to be treated here as well as thieves and murderers.
All accused persons are entitled to prove their probity, their good
faith, and their honor.”
M. Labori.--“Will you permit me to point out the bearing of my
questions? M. Zola has made two assertions. He has asserted that the
council of war of 1894 convicted, in the person of ex-Captain Dreyfus,
an innocent man by illegal methods.”
The Judge.--“He is not prosecuted for that.”
M. Labori.--“Pardon me, he is prosecuted for having said that the
second council of war knowingly acquitted a guilty man by covering, in
obedience to orders, the illegality committed by the first.”