This means that the first step in a revision of
the case would be for the Court to ask General Mercier, the War Minister at the time of the trial, how he came to act so illegally. Here, then, is the great official obstacle to revision. It must involve a. heavy censure on General Mercier. Note that if the use of documents not communicated to the prisoner were once officially admitted the whole trial would be ipso facto void, and the condemnation annulled. Meantime Paris is full of rumours as to the possible return of M. Zola, and the Anti- Semitic Press is showing a bloodthirstiness and savagery worthy of the Terror. By no means a quieting fact is that General Metzenger, who has been commanding in the manceuvres at Marseilles, has issued a General Order in which he talks menacingly of "the attacks of those who are endeavouring to disorganise the Army for the satisfaction either of their ambition or of their cupidity." Clearly the conditions in France are electric, and a very little may to-day make things take a bad turn. Suppose General Zurlinden were to refuse either to resign or to grant revision, and were to be supported by the Army.
