The captain continued the history of his curiously troubled married
life up to the time of the outbreak of the present war. When he came to
the recital of the tragedy at Compiegne he lost all control of himself.
He said that the only thing with which he could reproach himself was
having concealed from his military superiors the truth concerning his
difficulties with his wife.
Colonel Jacquillart, the president of the court martial, asked Captain
Herail sharply:
"Why did you not use some other method than shooting your wife to end
the distressing situation?"
"I tried every other means first," replied the captain, "and I must
have been mad with fear of disgrace to kill the wife I loved so much."
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_.)