_Testimony of M. de Castro._
The witness-chair was then taken by M. de Castro, who testified as
follows:
“At the time in question I was a banker and broker near the Paris
Bourse, and I had had occasion to do some business for Major Esterhazy.
He was in regular correspondence with the house, and I was very
familiar with his writing,--so familiar, indeed, that in the morning,
when I opened my mail, I knew the major’s writing before opening his
letter. Toward the end of last October I was on the boulevard when
a street-fakir passed by me, selling a _fac-simile_ of the famous
_bordereau_ attributed to Dreyfus. I was struck by the writing. It
looked to me like a letter from Major Esterhazy. I returned to my house
much perturbed in mind. The next day I went with my brother-in-law
to find some of Major Esterhazy’s letters. I compared them with the
_fac-simile_, and found a perfect similarity,--in fact, a striking
identity. I spoke to some friends of this strange coincidence, and
they advised me to carry a few letters to M. Scheurer-Kestner, who
was concerning himself with the Dreyfus case. Meantime these friends
probably spoke to M. Mathieu Dreyfus, who came one day to ask me to
show him these letters. I offered him some of them, but he refused
them, saying: ‘I advise you to go yourself to M. Scheurer-Kestner, and
show them to him.’ So I went one morning, and said to him: ‘I come to
lay before you some very curious types. You will see for yourself the
similarity between the handwriting of these letters and the famous
_bordereau_.’ M. Scheurer-Kestner took the letters, and looked at them
for some time; then he went to a bureau, and came back, saying: ‘Here
are some letters probably written by the same hand.’ and, indeed, I
recognized Major Esterhazy’s writing.”
M. Labori.--“At that time had Major Esterhazy’s name been spoken as
that of the possible author of the _bordereau_? Did M. de Castro
suspect that M. Esterhazy was already under suspicion?”