M. Labori.--“No, you did not. Did the witness base his expert testimony
on the original, or on photographs, or on tracings, or on all three?”
M. Bertillon.--“Now we are going straight into the Dreyfus case. It is
evident that I am burning to speak of these questions, concerning which
so many errors have been attributed to me.”
M. Labori.--“I beg the court to ask M. Bertillon if the writing of the
_bordereau_ is natural or disguised.”
The Judge.--“Can you answer that?”
M. Bertillon.--“Absolutely no, not without entering into my deposition
of 1894.”
M. Labori.--“_Monsieur le Président_, in the Dreyfus case three
experts say that it is in a running hand; three say that it is
disguised; three that it was written by Dreyfus, and three that it was
written by Esterhazy. If I show this, I do not say that we shall have
made progress toward the manifestation of the truth, but we shall have
thrown some light on the value of expert testimony, and that is what I
am trying to get at. Consequently I ask the witness, in a general way:
Is the Esterhazy _bordereau_ in a natural handwriting or in a disguised
handwriting?”
The witness made no answer.
M. Clemenceau.--“Has not the witness demonstrated his system to
friends?”
M. Bertillon.--“I have been the object of a thousand attempts, of a
thousand plots, but” ...