An Officer and a Spy

I roll up the map. Boisdeffre takes out his silver snuff box. He places a pinch on the back of his hand and takes two quick sniffs, one in either nostril. He watches as I open my briefcase and extract the documents I need for my presentation: the petit bleu, a photograph of the bordereau, Esterhazy’s letters requesting a transfer to the General Staff, the surveillance photographs of Esterhazy outside the German Embassy, the secret dossier on Dreyfus and my four-page report on the investigation to date. His expression grows increasingly astonished. ‘Good heavens, my dear Picquart,’ he says, half amused, ‘what have you been doing?’

‘We have quite a serious problem to confront, General. I feel it’s my duty to bring it to your attention right away.’

Boisdeffre winces and casts a wistful look at the rolled map: plainly, he would prefer not to be dealing with this. ‘Very well, then,’ he sighs. ‘As you wish. Proceed.’

I take him through it step by step: the interception of the petit bleu, my initial enquiries into Esterhazy, Operation Benefactor. I show him the pictures taken from the apartment in the rue de Lille. ‘Here you can see he takes an envelope into the embassy, and here he leaves without it.’

Boisdeffre peers short-sightedly at the photographs. ‘My God, the things you fellows can do nowadays!’

‘The saving grace is that Esterhazy has no access to important classified material: what he offers them is so trivial even the Germans want to sever their connection with him. However,’ I say, sliding over the two letters, ‘Esterhazy is now trying to turn himself into a much more valuable agent, by applying for a position in the ministry — where of course he would have ready access to secrets.’

‘How did you get hold of these?’

‘General Billot instructed his staff to give them to me.’

‘When was this?’

‘Last Thursday.’ I pause to clear my throat. Here goes, I think. ‘I noticed almost immediately a striking similarity between Esterhazy’s two letters and the writing of the bordereau. You can see it for yourself. Naturally, I am no handwriting expert, so I took them the next day to Monsieur Bertillon. You remember. .’

‘Yes, yes.’ Boisdeffre’s voice is suddenly faint, dazed. ‘Yes, of course I remember.’

‘He confirmed that the writing is identical. It then seemed to me, in the light of this, that I should review the rest of the evidence against Dreyfus. Accordingly, I consulted the secret file that was shown to the judges at the court martial-’

‘Just a moment, Colonel.’ Boisdeffre holds up his hand. ‘Wait. When you say you consulted the file, do you mean to tell me it still exists?’

‘Absolutely. This is it.’ I show him the envelope with ‘D’ written on it. I empty out the contents.

Boisdeffre looks at me as if I have just vomited over his table. ‘My God, what have you got there?’

‘It’s the secret file from the court martial.’

‘Yes, yes — I can see what it is. But what is it doing here?’

‘I’m sorry, General? I don’t understand. .’

‘It was supposed to have been dispersed.’

‘I didn’t know that.’

‘Yes, of course! The whole episode was highly irregular.’ He pokes gingerly at the pieced-together letters with a long, slim forefinger. ‘There was a meeting in the minister’s office soon after Dreyfus was convicted. I was present with Colonel Sandherr. General Mercier specifically ordered him to break up the file. The intercepted letters were to be returned to the archive, the commentaries destroyed — he was absolutely clear about it.’

‘Well, I don’t know what to say, General.’ Now I am the one who is bewildered. ‘Colonel Sandherr didn’t disperse it, as you can see. In fact he was the one who told me where to find it if I ever needed it. But if I may say so, perhaps the existence of the file is not the main issue we have to worry about.’

‘Meaning what?’

‘Well, the bordereau — the handwriting — the fact that Dreyfus is innocent. .’ My voice trails away.

Boisdeffre blinks at me for a few moments. Then he starts gathering together all the papers and photographs that are spread across the table. ‘I think what you need to do, Colonel, is to go and see General Gonse. Don’t let us forget he is the head of the intelligence department. Really you should have gone to him rather than me. Ask his advice on what needs to be done.’

‘I shall do that, General, absolutely. But I do think we need to move quickly and decisively, for the army’s own sake. .’

‘I know perfectly well what’s good for the army, Colonel,’ he says curtly. ‘You don’t need to worry on that account.’ He holds out the evidence. ‘Go and talk to General Gonse. He’s on leave at the moment, but he’s only just outside Paris.’

I take the papers and open my briefcase. ‘May I at least leave my report with you?’ I search through the bundle. ‘It’s a summary of where matters stand at the moment.’