There is one point to which I must refer at more length. In his
declaration 'Justice,' published on the expiration of his exile, M. Zola
stated that he had long suspected Colonel Henry, though he had possessed
no actual proof of that officer's guilt. This is so true, that I well
recollect listening to a conversation between him and M. Desmoulin during
the first days of their sojourn in England, when they compared notes with
respect to their impressions of Henry, whom they had particularly noticed
at Versailles on the occasion of M. Zola's sentence by default.
They had then observed how nervous and crestfallen the colonel
looked--the very picture, indeed, of a man who dreads the discovery of
his guilt. This was the more remarkable, as Henry's confident arrogance
at the earlier trial in Paris had been so conspicuous. The man had a
skeleton in his cupboard--to Zola and Desmoulin that was certain.
M. Zola is a good physiognomist, and his friend (as a portraitist) is
scarcely less gifted in that respect, and they felt equally certain of
Henry's culpability.
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