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 senator, M. Scheurer-Kestner, had convincing proofs of the innocence of Dreyfus. To discount such evidence beforehand, Esterhazy published the next day an article in L'Eclair under the name of Dixi, in which he stated that the plan of the "Dreyfus Syndicate" was to throw the blame of the bordereau on another officer whose handwriting resembled that of this document, the truth being that Dreyfus had obtained quantities of this officer's handwriting and had traced it and incorporated it into the bordereau. Esterhazy thus himself admitted the likeness between his own handwriting and that of the bordereau.

When Picquart returned shortly afterwards, Esterhazy was court-martialled. But the trial was with closed doors, and the bias of the Staff was so greatly in his favour and its determination that the Dreyfus case should not be reopened was so strong, that he was acquitted, while Colonel Picquart himself was imprisoned on a charge of espionage.

It was plain that none of the facts that had so far leaked out had moved the authorities at all. On the contrary they had shielded the real traitor, and had refused to listen to the plea for revision made by Matthieu Dreyfus and others. It seemed that nothing less than a direct appeal to the public would avail, and Emile Zola, the novelist, stepped bravely into the breach. On the 13th of January, 1898, he published in L'Aurore the famous