Resolution of The Dreyfus Affair

Resolution Of The Dreyfus Affair

On the same day as this arrest the examining magistrate Bertulus, disregarding the threats and entreaties directed at him, on his own initiative (as an official note put it) sent Major Esterhazy and his mistress, Marguerite Pays, to prison on the charge of forgery and of using forgeries. He had become convinced that the "Speranza" telegram was the work of Madame Pays, and that they were not altogether innocent of the sending of the "Blanche" telegram. Then, when Bertulus had decided to send Esterhazy and his mistress before the Assize Court, the Chambre des Mises en Accusation interfered and gave them the benefit of insufficient evidence (August 12), and also declared that the complicity of Du Paty had not been sufficiently proved.

After being acquitted, Esterhazy was set free; but he did not come out of this troublesome adventure unscathed. Already, in his speech of July 7, Godefroy Cavaignac had announced that this officer would "receive the disciplinary punishments he deserved," and transferred his case to a disciplinary board. Before this board, presided over by General de St. Germain, Esterhazy, trying to avenge himself, made revelations which were most compromising for himself as well as for his protectors. He told of his collusion with the General Staff and of his threatening letters to the President of the Republic. Nevertheless, the board declined to find him guilty of having failed either in discipline or in matters of honor; they sustained only (and by a majority of one) the charge of "habitual misconduct." Notwithstanding a letter from General Zurlinden, military governor of Paris, recommending indulgence, Esterhazy's name was struck off the army lists by the minister of war (August 31).